ETF Week: A Notable Closure & 5 Launches

Tortoise Advisors doubled this week the number of ETFs it currently offers to four, with the launch of the Tortoise Cloud Infrastructure Fund (TCLD) and the Tortoise Electronic Transactions Fund (TPAY).

The firm, which has $324 million in U.S.-listed ETF assets, is known for its focus on what it calls “essential assets”—those considered vital for the economy for investing that is meant to be long term and impactful.

The other ETFs sponsored by Tortoise focus on global water (Tortoise Global Water ESG Fund (TBLU) and master limited partnerships, the Tortoise North American Pipeline Fund (TPYP), which has $320 million in assets under management.

Modified Market-Cap Weighted

TCLD tracks a proprietary index and invests in cloud computing companies, focusing on those that are either helping develop and maintain digital infrastructure, or those benefiting from the quick growth of this segment. TCLD costs 0.40% in expense ratio, or $40 per $10,000 invested.

The portfolio, launched with 46 securities, employs a modified market-cap-weighted scheme where no single stock can represent more than 4.5% of the overall mix. Leading holdings are companies such as Red Hat, Alphabet, Oracle and VMWare.

Tortoise’s second launch today, TPAY, also tracks a proprietary index focused on digital payments. The 57-holding portfolio includes companies spread across the “value chain” of credit cards as well as mobile payment stocks. Top holdings include FleetCor Tech, Wirecard, Global Payments and PayPal. TPAY costs 0.40% in expense ratio.

Both TCLD and TPAY are listed on Cboe Global Markets, ETF.com’s parent company.

Other Launches This Week

• J.P. Morgan launched the JPMorgan Core Plus Bond ETF (JCPB), an actively managed bond ETF that owns a wide range of debt securities, focusing primarily on investment-grade bonds. JCPB is listed on Cboe Global Markets, and costs 0.40%. J.P. Morgan has nearly $20 billion in ETF assets today.
• Amplify launched the Amplify International Online Retail ETF (XBUY), which invests in global ex-U.S. companies that generate at least 90% of their revenue from online retail sales. XBUY costs 0.69% in expense ratio, or $69 per $10,000 invested, and is listed on the NYSE Arca.
• Aware Asset Management, in partnership with Tidal ETF Services, launched its first ETF, the Aware Ultra-Short Duration Enhanced Income ETF (AWTM). AWTM is an actively managed ETF that owns dollar-denominated investment-grade fixed- and floating-rate bonds as well as other debt securities. The portfolio is global in scope. AWTM costs 0.23%.

Notable Expiration

After 10 years on the market, the iPath S&P 500 Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) expired this week, trading for the last time on Tuesday, and maturing on Wednesday, Jan. 30. Picking up where VXX left off is the exchange-traded note’s replacement, the iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (VXXB).

VXXB is issued by Barclays, has an 0.89% expense ratio, and tracks the same S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index that used to underlie VXX.

Contact Cinthia Murphy at [email protected]