Today's listings
UK
iShares cross-lists across currencies.
iShares is adding flavour to some of its most successful ETFs on the London Stock Exchange, adding a US dollar option to the following funds:
iShares Global High Yield Corp Bond UCITS ETF USD Dist (HYLA)
iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF USD Acc (RBOD)
iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF GBP Dist (ISFD)
iShares Global Govt Bond UCITS ETF USD Dist (IGLA)
Particularly notable among is the ISFD listing.
ISF is iShares' pound sterling denominated FTSE tracker. It was one of the original products that BlackRock purchased when it acquired iShares from Barclays during the 2008 financial crisis.
With around $6.8bn in assets under management, ISF is the largest ETF to track the FTSE 100. By listing ISFD, iShares will be giving investors a US dollar option on its highly liquid fund.
Today's news from around the web
Markets suffering from passive aggression
Passive investing is taking most of the new money coming to market. As it does, ETF issuers will have to answer questions about what distorting effects - if any - their products may have. Will passive investing mean weak corporate stewardship? What about price discover? Are ETFs an inbuilt momentum product? Indexing means ditching losers and picking the winners. There are many questions.
Japan Post goes for active
Most of the asset management world is moving away from active management and towards passive. But Japan's biggest asset manager, the postal monopoly Japan Post, is going the other way. The Bank of Japan's prolonged monetary easing and low-interest rates have left Japan Post fed up with passive management and its low yields.
Remembering Black Monday
Black Monday in 1987 wiped out 25 percent of the stock market's value. Financial crises are often seen as a huge threat to ETFs as they passively track indexes which can get wiped out. ETFs have also been known to trade below even the index during a crash, as they get sold off in a panic. What's most worrying however is that another financial crisis is, by general consensus, a near certainty.
