ETN Launch
Barclays Bank today is launching the U.S. Treasury Aggregate ETN (TAPR), the latest exchange-traded product designed to offer investors protection from a sell-off in the bond market.
While yields on the 10-year Treasury note have actually fallen this year to around 2.55 percent from 3 percent at the end of 2013, investors remain anxious about the post-crash doldrums giving way to higher yields, and Barclays is offering up a solution.
TAPR will employ short positions across the two-year, five-year, 10-year, long-bond and ultra-long U.S. Treasury futures contracts, according to a regulatory filing. Prices on existing bonds fall when yields rise.
According to the prospectus, the note has a fee of $43 for every $10,000 invested.
The ETN launch was made public via a Nasdaq communique.
Updated Filing
J.P. Morgan has put into registration another smart-beta fund, called the JPMorgan Diversified Return Emerging Markets Equity ETF (JPEM), that has a similar strategy to its maiden offering.
The bank’s much-anticipated JPMorgan Diversified Return Global Equity ETF (JPGE) launched last month, beginning its long-awaited foray into the world of exchange-traded funds that’s widely expected to jump-start the actively managed ETF space.
The launch comes at a time when many industry observers believe that the popularity of actively managed ETFs is possibly on the brink of growing dramatically, though the segment currently inhabits less than 1 percent of the entire ETF market.
The proposed offering will track the FTSE Emerging Diversified Factor Index, which comprises equity securities from emerging markets selected to represent a diversified set of factor characteristics, including value, momentum and quality, according to the regulatory filing.
Fees were not made available in the filing.
Sales & Marketing
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management announced in a press release yesterday that the db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (ASHR | D-52) has been approved for registration by the Comision Calificadora de Riesgo for distribution among Chilean pension funds.
ASHR is the first direct investment in China A-shares to be registered in Chile, according to the firm. It is also a first-to-market fund offering investors access to the highly sought-after mainland China securities, a direct play on the world’s second-largest economy.
Since the launch of ASHR last November, has added other China funds, including:
- db X-trackers Harvest MSCI All China Equity Fund (CN), a broad-based ETF providing investors with exposure to onshore and offshore Chinese equities
- db X-trackers Harvest CSI 500 China A-Shares Small Cap Fund (ASHS), the first U.S.-listed ETF to provide investors with direct access to small-cap China A-shares equities