Odds & Ends: Harbor Adds Small Cap Corporate Culture ETF

Five ETFs launched during the week and six closures were announced.

It was a fairly quiet week for exchange-traded fund launches, with only five new funds making their debuts. Additionally, a number of closures were announced or completed as of April 14.  

Harbor Capital rolled out the Harbor Corporate Culture Small Cap ETF (HAPS) on Thursday. The new fund joins the $10.4 million Harbor Corporate Culture Leaders ETF (HAPY), which launched in February last year.  

HAPS, unlike its sister fund, targets the small cap market, but like HAPY, it targets companies with strong corporate cultures, as determined by the scoring system used by Irrational Capital. The methodology scores companies based on criteria like employee engagement and motivation; trust and transparency; diversity of points of view and fairness in compensation, the prospectus says.  

HAPS screens out the 1,000 largest U.S.-listed stocks and selects its roughly 200 holdings from the next 2,000 companies. Constituents are weighted by modified market capitalization.  

HAPS has an expense ratio of 0.64% and lists on the NYSE Arca. 

Wednesday saw the debut of the MKAM ETF (MKAM). The actively managed fund looks to invest in companies that perform similarly to the S&P 500 index and shifts its allocations between U.S. equities and cash or cash equivalents based on market indicators with the intension of lowering volatility and limiting downside performance.  

The fund increases its equity exposure when market indicators signal a rising trend and reasonable valuations. Meanwhile, falling markets and high valuations signal the fund to put more of its assets into cash and cash equivalents, the prospectus says. 

MKAM has an expense ratio of 0.96% and lists on the Nasdaq stock market.  

Parabla launched the Parabla Innovation ETF (LZRD), an actively managed fund that invests in companies engaged in various forms of innovation. The fund’s managers expect to invest primarily in companies based in North America, with the technology, financial, consumer discretionary and energy sectors likely to have significant representation in the portfolio. The prospectus says that the fund’s high conviction portfolio will likely hold 24-69 securities. 

LZRD has an expense ratio of 0.69% and lists on the Nasdaq stock market. 

Closures 

Several funds saw their last day of trading during the week, and several more pending closures were announced.  

Four funds had their last day of trading on Tuesday: 

• Morgan Creek - Exos Active SPAC Arbitrage ETF (CSH) 
• SPDR Bloomberg SASB Corporate Bond ESG Select ETF (RBND) 
• SPDR Bloomberg SASB Developed Markets Ex US ESG Select ETF (RDMX) 
• SPDR Bloomberg SASB Emerging Markets ESG Select ETF (REMG) 

Friday is the last day of trading for the ETFMG 2x Daily Travel Tech ETF (AWYX). 

The VanEck Digital Assets Mining ETF (DAM) launched a little over a year ago and will cease to trade after the market close on April 24.  

Meanwhile, Simplify will shut down four of its ETFs after the close of trading on April 28: 

• Simplify Nasdaq 100 PLUS Convexity ETF (QQC) 
• Simplify Nasdaq 100 PLUS Downside Convexity ETF (QQD) 
• Simplify US Small Cap PLUS Downside Convexity ETF (RTYD) 
• Simplify Volt Cloud and Cybersecurity Disruption ETF (VCLO) 

Changes to Existing ETFs 

A number of existing ETFs are undergoing material changes.  

As of March 17, the VanEck Vietnam ETF (VNM) changed its index from the MVIS Vietnam Index to the MarketVector Vietnam Local Index. 

On April 10, the expense ratio for the Gadsden Dynamic Multi-Asset ETF (GDMA) increased from 0.91% to 1.26%. At the same time, the iShares MSCI Peru ETF (EPU) changed its name to the iShares MSCI Peru and Global Exposure ETF.  

And on April 12, the AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Micro-Cap ETF (DWMC) changed its name to the AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Small Company ETF. 

Finally, at the start of trading on May 4, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) will undergo a forward 2-for-1 share split.  

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]