Daily ETF Watch: A New ETF Firm Appears

A short-dated government bond fund is already in the works.

Wheaton, Ill.-based Elkhorn Investments has filed for permission to offer both index and actively managed ETFs that will be focused on equities and fixed income, with its first planned strategy an active one focused on short-dated U.S. government debt.

The firm has also asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to create its own indexes and to bring to market fund-of-fund ETF strategies once its Elkhorn Enhanced Short Term Government Fund goes live.

The proposed fund will invest in a portfolio of U.S. government, corporate and agency debt securities. Elkhorn didn’t disclose tickers or an expense ratio for the fund, which sounds like it could be a competitor to the Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy Fund (MINT), a $4 billion ETF that is the biggest active ETF on the U.S. market.

Elkhorn is the latest newcomer in what is the most vibrant pocket of the U.S. financial services industry. ETF assets are exploding 21 years after the first fund came to market. More than 1,500 funds are now listed in the U.S., and total assets are about $1.690 trillion, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.

Elkhorn partnered up with Dorsey, Wright & Associates last November to launch funds using DWA's proprietary research, according to a press release.

Filings

Market Vectors is changing the index for its Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR | D-63) and making the fund a self-indexed one, a popular trend among ETF issuers that aims to cut out third-party index providers to bring funds to market more quickly and cheaply.

Effective on or about March 21, the fund will switch out of the DAXglobalNuclear Energy Index in favor of the Market VectorsGlobal Uranium & Nuclear Energy Index.