ETF Week: Zero-Fee ETNs Debut

This past week in the ETF industry saw launches going strong, with the most notable being the rollout of two ETNs from iPath that have expense ratios of zero. Schwab launched some low-cost bond vehicles, while GraniteShares delved into equities with its latest rollout, among other launches.

Below is a roundup of the key events in the ETF space during the week started Oct. 7, 2019:

iPath Launches Zero-Fee ETNs
On Tuesday, Barclays’ iPath unit rolled out two ETNs, one each covering gold and silver, that have expense ratios of zero. The products track three-month futures on gold and silver. They are the first no-fee ETNs. (Read: First Zero Fee ETNs Launching)

Schwab Debuts 3 Low-Cost Bond ETFs
Thursday saw the debut of three new plain vanilla fixed income funds covering short-term corporate bonds, intermediate-term corporate bonds and long-term Treasuries. Each of the three funds have an expense ratio of just 0.06%, which matches the prices of the top competing funds in each category. (Read: First Zero Fee ETNs Launching)

GraniteShares ETF Takes Exclusionary Approach
On Monday, GraniteShares launched a smart beta equity ETF that looks to exclude the stocks most likely to underperform the U.S. large cap market. The fund screens out companies that are unprepared to adapt to disruptive innovation. (Read: New ETF Seeks To Exclude Losers)

Ultra-Short-Term Bond ETF Unveiled
ETF Managers Group launched an ETF on Wednesday that uses an actively managed strategy to invest in very-short-term debt. It targets an effective duration between two months and one year, and can hold a wide range of investment-grade debt instruments. (Read: Active Ultra Short Bond ETF Launches)

Newcomer Rolls Out Asset Allocation ETFs
Two new ETFs subadvised by Howard Capital Management use a proprietary model to allocate between an equity index and three-month Treasury instruments. The funds, whose equity investments are tied to the Nasdaq-100 Index and S&P 500 Index, respectively, invest fully in their equity indexes when those indexes are in an upward trend, and shift to the Treasury exposure when the equity indexes trend downward. (Read: Asset Allocation ETFs Debut)

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]