Two exchange-traded products are launching today, one an equity ETF focused on gold miners, and the other an ETN that cherry-picks U.S. Treasury debt across the yield curve.
The gold fund, which will carry the Sprott name that is well known in precious metals circles, is sponsored by ALPS, while the Treasurys ETN is backed by Barclays Plc, one of the biggest issuer banks in the ETN traffic.
The two launches bring the total number of year-to-date offerings to 109 ETFs, and the entire universe of U.S.-listed funds now comes to 1,618 funds, according to ETF.com’s data screener.
Gold Miner ETF Launch
ALPS, the ETF sponsor and fund-industry marketing firm, today launched the Sprott Gold Miners ETF on NYSE Arca at a time when the yellow metal is on the rise due to widespread violence in the Middle East and renewed fears about Portugal’s financial sector.
The new fund, which will trade under the symbol “SGDM,” will be based on an index from Zack’s Index Services, but will carry the well-known Sprott brand. Sprott is a firm known for its investment products focused on precious metals, many of them closed-end funds, and it helped Zack's develop the index methodology.
The Sprott Gold Miners ETF’s index will track the performance of gold and silver mining companies whose stocks are traded on major U.S. exchanges, according to a regulatory filing. Its expense ratio is 0.57 percent, or $57 for every $10,000 invested.
Gold, and gold miners ETFs, are thought of as safe-haven plays. It may help the new ALPS fund that investor fears are a bit stoked, with Israeli-Palestinian violence flaring and one of Portugal’s banks running into trouble. To read more about gold miner ETFs, see read ETF.com’s sector report on global gold miner ETFs.
The launch was made public via a NYSE communique.