ETF.com Data Screener
The dog days of summer are settling in, and with them comes a lag in filings for new ETFs.
We wanted to take this moment to reflect back on a busy first half of the year and take note of some of the more interesting offerings to hit the shelves this year, including a gold ETF that promises investors an exchange of their shares for the precious metal.
Year-to-date, there have been 107 new ETFs/ETNs launched, compared with 79 for the same period in 2013 and 127 in 2012, according to ETF.com’s data screener.
Although the amount of is year’s new crop of funds is a drop-off from 2012, issuers were seemingly more discerning about their product launches, including the highly anticipated smart-beta fund, the JPMorgan Diversified Return Global Equity ETF (JPGE | F-19), J.P. Morgan’s maiden ETF.
JPGE is an index strategy, yet has a quasi-active tilt designed to outperform market-cap-weighted index funds. The bank made clear in an interview with ETF Report that its presence in the world of ETFs will build on its reputation as an active asset manager.
Also noteworthy among the launch traffic is the Merk Gold Trust (OUNZ), currency expert Axel Merk’s physical gold ETF, which launched on May 16 on the NYSE Arca. The fund, in registration for almost two years, competes with well-established funds, including the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD | A-100) and the iShares Gold Trust (IAU | A-100).
Merk’s latest offering’s marketing niche lies in the fact that it will allow smaller retail investors in the trust to take delivery of physical gold in exchange for their shares. In comparison, physical redemptions in gold bullion ETFs such as GLD have been limited to authorized participants in lots of 100,000 shares, which is $12.5 million worth of gold bars at GLD’s current price of $126 a share.
Another smart-beta fund, the Cambria Global Value ETF (GVAL), brainchild of Mebane Faber, has been a hit with investors, garnering $53 million since launching in March. The fund invests in companies from countries that Cambria has identified as having undervalued equity markets, including Brazil, Spain and Russia.
“Many of these markets have declined 40, 60, 80 percent at some point, so you’re investing in what many would consider to be terrible markets,” said Faber, in a recent interview with ETF.com.