ETF Odds & Ends: 4 More Closures Announced

Beyond the week’s 11 launches—including nine in a single day—the most notable development was four more closures, which bring the number of closures expected to complete by late May to 38. That’s well ahead of the 21 that completed by that time last year.

The Defiance Next Gen Big Data ETF (BIGY) saw its last day of trading on April 28, and Nationwide will be shutting three of its ETFs, representing a few hundred million dollars in assets under management, as of May 26.

The Nationwide closures include the Nationwide Risk-Based U.S. Equity ETF (RBUS), the Nationwide Risk-Based International Equity ETF (RBIN) and the Nationwide Maximum Diversification U.S. Core Equity ETF (MXDU). The shutdowns will leave Nationwide with four ETFs still trading. All three funds rolled out in September 2017.

First Manhattan

Among the launches during the week, First Manhattan made its debut on the ETF market with a non-transparent active fund.

The FMC Excelsior Focus Equity ETF (FMCX) debuted on the NYSE Arca Monday with an expense ratio of 0.70%.

The fund aims to hold 25-30 stocks that the $20 billion asset manager favors based on longer-term value factors. FMCX discloses its holdings quarterly, implementing Precidian’s ActiveShares model for semitransparent actively managed ETFs.

First Trust ETF Renovated

As of Friday, the First Trust Total US Market AlphaDEX ETF (TUSA) underwent a complete transformation.

The fund changed its name and ticker to the First Trust Dividend Strength ETF (FTDS) and adopted the Dividend Strength Index, dropping the NASDAQ AlphaDEX Total US Market Index.

Expense Ratio Changes

Finally, Teucrium changed the expense ratios for all five of the ETFs it offers. As of March 9, it raised the expense ratio of the Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT) from 1.91% to 1.94%.

On April 7, Teucrium made changes to the costs of its other four ETFs. It lowered the expense ratio of the Teucrium Agricultural Fund (TAGS) from 0.21% to 0.13% and the expense ratio on the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) from 2.19% to 1.92%.

The firm raised the expense ratio on the Teucrium Sugar Fund (CANE) from 1.88% to 1.93% and the expense ratio on the Teucrium Soybean Fund (SOYB) from 1.88% to 1.91%.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]