Daily ETF Watch: Gender Diversity Targeted

It’s the perfect day to launch a gender diversity ETF—International Women’s Day. The SPDR SSgA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE) rolled out today on the NYSE Arca.

SHE tracks an in-house index that targets companies that fall into the top 1,000 U.S.-listed stocks in terms of market capitalization and that have significant gender diversity in the ranks of their senior leadership.

Among other measures, the index relies on the ratios of female board members and female executives relative to all board members and all executives, respectively. Sector distribution is also a factor in the selection of components. As of the end of February, the index included 141 securities.

SHE comes with an expense ratio of 0.20%. The Barclays Women in Leadership ETN (WIL), which launched in 2014, has $28 million in AUM and charges an expense ratio of 0.45%.

Wearables Fund Planned

Exchange Listed Funds Trust could be ahead of the curve with its latest filing. The Wearable Technologies ETF will target firms that either market wearable technology or manufacture components for wearable techonology, according to the prospectus.

The fund will track an index from EQM that divides companies into core and noncore wearable technology firms depending on how much of their revenues are derived from wearable technology. The components are equal-weighted within those two categories, but at rebalancings, the core portion of the index receives a weighting of 75% of the index versus the 25% weighting given to the noncore companies.

Although the ETF seems like it may be ahead of its time, just look at the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK | C-32), which was the first of its kind and that currently has more than $725 million in assets under management.

The filing did not indicate where the fund would list initially, nor did it include an expense ratio. However, the prospectus indicated that the fund’s ticker was expected to be “WEAR.”

Additional Updates

The following funds are scheduled to close on March 25:

• ALPS Sector Leaders ETF (SLDR)
• ALPS Sector Low Volatility ETF (SLOW)
• ALPS STOXX Europe 600 ETF (STXX | F-87)
• Global Commodity Equity ETF (CRBQ | F-96)

The following funds will split their shares on March 14:

• VelocityShares 3x Long Crude Oil ETN (UWTI) - 1 for 10
• VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN (UGAZ) - 1 for 25

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].