Odds & Ends: ETF Launches & Closures Pick Up

The second trading week of the year remained somewhat muted but still featured six exchange-traded fund launches and five completed closures after the first week featured just one of each.  

Among the launches was the Thursday debut of the BlackRock AAA CLO ETF (CLOA), an actively managed fund that invests in high quality collateralized loan obligations, mainly those with the highest possible rating. CLOs are a type of debt backed by a pool of business loans and issued in tranches determined by the quality of the underlying assets. CLOA lists on the Nasdaq and comes with an expense ratio of 0.20%.  

That same day, KraneShares rolled out an actively managed covered call fund targeting China’s internet industry. The KraneShares China Internet and Covered Call Strategy ETF (KLIP) invests in the holdings of the CSI Overseas China Internet Index while writing covered calls on the index. The benchmark also underlies the $7.6 billion KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB), which is a popular but highly volatile fund. Covered call strategies generally provide income and some downside protection. KLIP has an expense ratio of 0.95% and lists on the NYSE Arca.  

And on Wednesday, the Mohr Sector Navigator ETF (ENAV) hit the market. It makes tactical allocations to the sectors of the S&P 500 Index by investing in other ETFs covering those sectors, but it can rebalance them to equal weightings whenever an individual sector’s weight ranges from 12% to just under 20%. The prospectus says ENAV will mainly use ETFs provided by Vanguard or State Street Global Advisors. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.98% and lists on Cboe Global Markets.  

Closures 

Five ETFs also completed their closures during the week. On Monday, the PGIM Quant Solutions Strategic Alpha International Equity ETF (PQIN) saw its last day of trading, while the Capital Link Global Green Energy Transport and Technology Leaders ETF (EKAR) ceased to trade after markets closed on Wednesday. Three more ETFs are set to close after trading ends today, including the AXS De-SPAC ETF (DSPC), the AXS FOMO ETF (FOMO) and the First Trust Chindia ETF (FNI). DSPC and FOMO both launched in 2021, while FNI launched in 2007. 

Another closure was announced during the week. The Volt Crypto Industry and Equity ETF (BTCR), which debuted in October 2021, is set to close after the end of trading on Jan 17.  

A Change to a Strive ETF 

There was also one change to an existing fund announced this week. The $3.8 million Strive 2000 ETF (STXK) will change its name to the Strive Small-Cap ETF and switch its index from the Bloomberg US 2000 Index to the Bloomberg US 600 Index as of Jan. 25. 

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]