Daily ETF Watch: Magoon Readies New Firm

Christian Magoon, who was the head of Claymore Securities during its acquisition by Guggenheim Investments before striking out on his own in the ETF industry, is now filing to obtain his very own permission to offer ETFs instead of relying on a third party’s exemptive relief to launch ETFs.

Magoon launched the YieldShares High Income ETF (YYY) in June 2013 via Exchange Traded Concepts and his company Magoon Capital. The ETF invests in a portfolio of roughly 30 closed-end funds selected for their liquidity, discount to NAV and yield. It currently has about $87 million in assets under management.

But this latest triple-threat round of so-called 40-APP filings introduces a new brand name, Amplify Investments, and the possibility of a wide range of products. The three exemptive relief applications seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for actively manage ETFs; index ETFs (including self-indexed strategies); and fund-of-funds ETFs.

The 40-APP filing covering transparent actively managed ETFs outlines plans for the Amplify Tactical Equity Fund, which will invest in other ETFs, as its initial fund.

Meanwhile, the filing for the self-indexed ETFs describes the Amplify Equity Income Fund, which will track the ISE Equity Income Index. The underlying benchmark is an equal-weighted index of ETFs and closed-end funds that have been selected via the ISE’s proprietary ranking methodology.

The 40-APP filing relating to the fund-of-funds structure appears to apply to both of the initial funds outlined in the other exemptive relief requests.

Ben Fulton, the former managing director of global ETFs at Invesco PowerShares and another well-known figure in the ETF arena, similarly left to form his own ETF issuer. Elkhorn Investments currently has one fund in registration, the Elkhorn S&P 500 Capital Expenditures Portfolio.