ETF Odds & Ends: JPMorgan Completes ETF Conversions

It was a fairly quiet week for ETFs, but there were some notable developments.  

Among them was J.P. Morgan’s conversion on Monday of the $5 billion JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity Fund into the JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity ETF (JIRE).  

The fund was the fourth and final product in a series of conversions of mutual funds into ETFs that began in April. The converted ETFs have roughly $8 billion in combined assets under management.  

JIRE comes with an expense ratio of 0.24% and lists on the NYSE Arca. 

The actively managed fund invests in non-U.S. companies and looks to outperform the MSCI EAFE Index while reflecting the benchmark’s general risk characteristics. The fund’s managers will leverage J.P. Morgan’s in-house research to select securities for the portfolio. 

On Thursday, the Optimize AI Smart Sentiment Event-Driven ETF (OAIE) from Optimize Advisors rolled out on the NYSE Arca with an expense ratio of 1.00%. 

OAIE is actively managed and holds a fairly concentrated portfolio of equities from 10 to 40 issuers. It relies on an in-house methodology that incorporates artificial intelligence around options transactions to invest in companies using a sentiment- and event-driven approach.  

ETN Closure 

Closures are outpacing their rate in 2021 with a slow but steady trickle of product shutdowns. The Elements Spectrum Large Cap US Sector Momentum Index ETN (EEH) is scheduled to be called on Aug. 8. The ETN launched in August 2007 but currently has less than $2 million in assets under management.  

EEH brings the number of year-to-date completed and announced closures to 43. That compares to 27 completed and announced closures during the same time period last year, which saw the fewest closures in almost a decade.  

Other Changes 

Principal switched two of its passively managed ETFs to actively managed as of today. The Principal Quality ETF (PSET) dropped the NASDAQ US Price Setters Index to become actively managed, while the Principal Value ETF (PY) dropped the NASDAQ U.S. Shareholder Yield Index to do the same. 

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]