13 ETF Launches Exemplify Year

Wednesday had a busy morning, with a baker’s dozen of ETFs rolling out from four different issuers.

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Reviewed by: Heather Bell
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Edited by: Heather Bell

Four individual ETF providers brought a total of 13 funds to market this morning, with Deutsche Bank expanding its offering of currency-hedged ETFs, Direxion adding two more bull/bear pairs, newcomer O’Shares rolling out two more funds and Van Eck’s Market Vectors debuting its oil refiners ETF.

With currency-hedged, smart-beta and energy-focused products included in the blitz, the launches are almost a microcosm of the range of offerings launched this year so far.

Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank launched six new currency-hedged equity funds, all but one of them tracking an MSCI index.

The five MSCI-based funds each carry expense ratios of 0.45 percent and include the following:

  • Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Australia Hedged Equity ETF (DBAU)
  • Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Small-Cap Hedged Equity ETF (DBES)
  • Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Italy Hedged Equity ETF (DBIT)
  • Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Southern Europe Hedged Equity ETF (DBSE)
  • Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Spain Hedged Equity ETF (DBSP)

While Deutsche Bank does not have unhedged versions of those five funds, the sixth fund, the Deutsche X-trackers Japan JPX-Nikkei 400 Hedged Equity ETF (JPNH), complements the existing Deutsche X-trackers Japan JPX Nikkei 400 Equity ETF (JPN). JPNH charges 0.45 percent, versus 0.40 percent for JPN.

Direxion
Direxion debuted four inverse and leveraged ETFs covering two areas of perpetual interest to investors: homebuilders and banks. The funds are as follows:

All four ETFs come with a net expense ratio of 0.95 percent.

O’Shares

The ETF firm founded by Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary rolled out two more dividend-focused smart-beta ETFs today. The O’Shares FTSE Asia Pacific Quality Dividend ETF (OASI) and O’Shares FTSE Europe Quality Dividend ETF (OEUR) join the O'Shares FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF (OUSA), which hit the market in mid-July.

Components included in FTSE’s “Quality Dividend” indexes must be large- or midcap dividend-paying stocks exhibiting high quality and low volatility, while meeting certain liquidity standards.

OASI and OEUR each come with a net expense ratio of 0.58 percent.

Market Vectors
The new Market Vectors fund targets oil refiners and joins the firm’s suite of energy-focused ETFs, including the Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF (FRAK | B-29) and the Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH | A-45).

The Market Vectors Oil Refiners ETF (CRAK) comes at a time when crude oil prices are floundering; however, given that refiners are dealing with refined petroleum products, their revenues respond to changes in oil prices differently from other companies operating in the energy space, as pointed out by Van Eck in a press release.

The fund has a net expense ratio of 0.59 percent.

A Banner Year
By this time last year, only 125 ETFs had launched. With today’s rollouts, 2015 is blowing last year out of the water, weighing in with 179 funds launched so far this year. That’s a difference of 54 funds.

With more than four months left to go for 2015, it seems likely that 2015 will handily beat the 203 funds launched in 2014.

Heather Bell is a former managing editor of etf.com. She has also held editorial positions at Dow Jones Indexes and Lehman Brothers. Bell is a graduate of Dartmouth college and resides in the Denver area with her two dogs. 

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