Americas ETP News
If your looking for specific news, using the search function will narrow down the results
US banks issue bonds worth more than $2bn
October 20, 2011--Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase issued more than $2bn in new long-term debt on Wednesday as the banks looked to take advantage of calmer markets and lock in funding from new sources.
Investors shied away from bank debt during the late summer as markets were roiled by the eurozone crisis and credit default swaps on some US banks reached their widest spreads since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.
read more
Source: FT.com
Exchange Traded Concepts Files for Approval to Issue Fixed Income and Actively Managed ETFs
ETF-in-a-Box Platform Seeks to Expand Offerings for Current and Prospective Partners
October 20, 2011--Expanding its ETF-in-a-Box platform for investment managers and advisors, Exchange Traded Concepts (ETC) has filed requests for exemptive relief with the Securities & Exchange Commission to issue fixed income and actively managed exchange-traded funds.
In addition to active and fixed income funds, ETC has requested relief to issue domestic and international funds that employ fund-of-funds, 130/30, and balanced strategies.
The filings reflect ETC’s effort to meet marketplace demand for sophisticated investments in an ETF structure by enabling current and prospective partners to launch ETFs across the full spectrum of investment strategies. Under the ETC platform, partners will be able to launch such ETFs in an accelerated, cost-efficient manner under their own label.
read more
Source: Exchange Traded Concepts
Dow Jones Indexes To License Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index To Charles Schwab For U.S. Dividend Equity ETF
Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index to Measure Stock Performance
of High-Dividend-Yielding U.S. Companies
Index Differs from Other Dividend Gauges
By Accounting for Additional Fundamentals-Based Factors
October 20, 2011--Dow Jones Indexes today announced that Charles Schwab has licensed the new Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 IndexSM to underlie the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF™, the latest addition to Schwab’s growing proprietary exchange-traded funds (ETFs) platform. This ETF was launched today by Schwab and will trade on the NYSE Arca.
The Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index was also launched today and is designed to measure the stock performance of high-dividend-yielding U.S. companies with a record of consistently paying dividends, selected for fundamental strength relative to their peers based on financial ratios.
“Schwab’s selection of the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index as the underlying gauge for its new ETF is the latest in a series of licensing arrangements between our firms,” said Michael A. Petronella, President of Dow Jones Indexes. “By regularly working with market leaders such as Schwab, Dow Jones Indexes continues to burnish its brand as a company with a long track record of creating reliable, rules-based market-measurement tools.”
read more
Source: Dow Jones Indexes
SEC to Weigh Hedge Fund Rule on Systemic Risk Data Analysis
October 20, 2011-- Hedge funds and private-equity funds will be asked to deliver “extraordinary amounts” of new data to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under a rule set for a vote next week, said SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.
Under the version of the rule proposed by the SEC on Jan. 26, firms managing more than $1 billion would have to file quarterly information on fund assets, leverage, investment positions, valuation and trading practices on a new Form PF. That added oversight would also come with routine inspections.
read more
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Claymore files with the SEC
October 19, 2011--Claymore has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Claymore files with the SEC
October 19, 2011--Claymore has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the Guggenheim Canadian Energy Income ETF
Guggenheim China Real Estate ETF
Guggenheim China Small Cap ETF
Guggenheim Frontier Markets ETF
Guggenheim International Multi-Asset Income ETF
Guggenheim Shipping ETF
Guggenheim Timber ETF
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
BlackRock Seeks Ban on ETF Label for Funds Using Derivatives
October 19, 2011--BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest provider of exchange-traded funds, urged U.S. lawmakers to bar products that rely on derivatives from being marketed as ETFs to avoid confusion with their traditional counterparts.
BlackRock Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink compared ETFs to the market for mortgage-backed bonds, which began with a simple product and evolved into complex variations with risks that investors didn’t understand.
read more
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek
SEC conducting sweeping regulatory review of ETFs
October 19, 2011--The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a broad, agency-wide review of exchange-traded funds to ensure they are adequately transparent and not fueling market volatility, a top agency official told lawmakers on Wednesday.
"Commission staff is currently engaged in a general review of exchange-traded products in connection with, among others, the adequacy of investor disclosure, liquidity levels and transparency of underlying instruments in which ETPs invest, fair valuations, efficiency in the arbitrage process and the relationship between market volatility and ETPs," said SEC Investment Management director Eileen Rominger in prepared testimony.
The review also entails "gathering and analyzing detailed information about specific products," she added.
read more
Source: SEC.gov
Knight earnings miss estimates
October 19, 2011--Knight Capital, among the biggest marketmakers in the world, got a huge boost in third quarter as spreads widened and volatility spiked to historic levels – though a September drop-off disappointed investors.
Knight reported sales of $397m in the third quarter, up nearly 80 per cent against the second quarter of 2010. Its net income was $26.9m, versus just $0.2m last year.
read more
Source: FT.com
ConvergEx Group Launches Spectrum-Innovative Algorithm Offers Portfolio Traders the Power of Dark Liquidity
October 19, 2011--ConvergEx Group, a leading technology company, today announced the launch of Spectrum, a new algorithm that gives portfolio traders the benefits of executing in a diverse array of domestic dark venues, while allowing them to maintain their required cash and sector balances. Designed by ConvergEx's dedicated team of financial engineers, Spectrum enables users to trade cash neutral in the dark.
"For moving large orders with minimal market impact, dark liquidity is simply invaluable. However, portfolio traders, with their need to precisely manage risk and cash balances, have been virtually excluded from leveraging these dark pools. The timing and velocity of the dark pool fills is simply too random for their heterogeneous baskets," said Scott Daspin, managing director in the Electronic Execution group at ConvergEx. "But with Spectrum we are now giving them the power to operate in the dark."
"Spectrum is driven by ConvergEx's state-of-the-art risk management engine and works by making thousands of order placement decisions every second. It optimizes execution performance by providing midpoint or better pricing, while simultaneously monitoring risk management and cash balance parameters," said Gary Ardell, head of the Financial Engineering & Advanced Trading Solutions group at ConvergEx. "Spectrum represents truly innovative technology put to use in the pursuit of superior performance."
The strategy offers three separate cash objective options based upon customers' preferred level of cash constraints. It supports three distinct settings for risk management and is fully-configurable to meet customers' selected level of risk aversion.
Spectrum's proprietary technology and methodology also offer a sophisticated, web-based performance interface that tracks user performance throughout the life cycle of each execution. It empowers both low-touch and high-touch users with the ability to dynamically modify portfolio executions throughout the trading day.
This is the first in a series of portfolio algorithms ConvergEx plans to roll out.
Source: ConvergEx Group
