Today's listings
Switzerland
Australia comes to Switzerland
Australia was spared the 2008 financial crisis and hasn't had a recession in 26 years. So maybe it makes sense to have an ETF that tracks Australia? UBS has listed two new ETFs - one in London and one in Switzerland - that track the MSCI Australia Index (AUAD, AUSAUY). The index is made up of the biggest Australian companies which are mostly banks and miners. YTD performance sits at around 13 percent, roughly double the performance of the MSCI World.
iShares has listed a new smart beta ETF in Switzerland with a name that suggests it does everything. The iShares Edge MSCI World Multifactor UCITS ETF (DMFC) will track the famous MSCI World Index and use four 'style' factors to select equities. The factors it uses are value, momentum, quality and low size. The product is already listed in other European countries.
UKiShares cross-listing marathon continues iShares has continued its European cross-listing marathon, and cross-listed two of its popular fixed income ETFs in euros on the London Stock Exchange. They are:
iShares Global Inflation Linked Govt Bond UCITS ETF (GILE)
iShares USD Treasury Bond 20+yr UCITS ETF USD Dist (DTLE)
Both products are already listed in pounds.
Korea Leveraged and inverse silver Regular reminder: in Korea and Taiwan, leveraged and inverse ETFs are the most popular kind, popular with retail investors and traders alike. Shinhan Investment has listed two new leveraged ETNs in Seoul, which offer exposure to silver. 500030 offers 2x inverse exposure to silver futures via the Dow Jones commodity index. 500029 offers regular 2x leveraged exposure.
Today's ETF news from around the web
Going down: portfolio risk
Risk - defined as price volatility - is decreasing across the board, for two reasons. First, overall market volatility is dropping. So much so that by some measures, it is the lowest it has been since the 1960s. Second, because correlations between asset classes are declining. ETF investors should rejoice that risk is declining, but be wary because it probably will not last.
Pennies into pounds
An informative interview with Alex Matturri, the chief executive of S&P Dow Jones Indices. ETF providers are threatening to "self-index" in a desperate attempt to cut costs. But major index providers know their brand power and remain unfazed. "Index licensing fees are really only a small part of the overall cost of an ETF. There are 90 different index providers, so there are plenty of choices if anyone thinks our fees are too high."
Gender and race at BlackRock
The world's largest asset manager has broken industry ranks and disclosed how many racial minorities it employs. The statistics aren't as damning as many thought they might have been: 35% of its American staff are black, Asian or from some other racial minority. The company has remained quiet on the women it employs.
