Americas ETP News
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S&P: 60% of Canadian Active Fund Managers Underperform the S&P/TSX Composite During 1st Quarter
June 9, 2010--Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that the latest results of its Standard & Poor's Index Versus Active Fund Scorecard for Canada ("SPIVA") show that only 40% of active mutual funds in the Canadian Equity category were able to outperform the S&P/TSX Composite Index during the first quarter of 2010. Similar results were seen in the Canadian Small/Mid Cap Equity category of mutual funds when compared against the performance of the S&P/TSX Completion Index.
SPIVA Canada reports on the performance of actively managed Canadian mutual funds versus their relative Standard & Poor's benchmark. A key advantage of the SPIVA report is its correction for survivorship bias, which can skew results as funds merge or liquidate.
In the first quarter of 2010, actively managed funds in the Canadian Equity category underperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index when examining both equal- and asset-weighted returns. However, active funds fared better across some of the other fund categories. On both an equal- and asset-weighted basis, active funds outperformed their benchmarks in the categories of U.S. Equity and Canadian Focused Equity. For the Canadian Focused Equity category 58% of active funds outpaced the blended index (comprised of 50% S&P/TSX Composite + 25% S&P 500 + 25% S&P EPAC BMI LargeMidCap).
Over longer periods of time, Standard & Poor's continues to observe indices outperforming the majority of domestic funds. In the three- and five-year periods ending Q1 2010, only 10.9% and 3.3% of actively managed Canadian Equity funds have outperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
Looking at the performance of actively managed foreign equity funds, over the last five years, only 9.8% of active funds in the International Equity category, 11.3% in the Global Equity category and 9.7% in the U.S. Equity category have outpaced the S&P EPAC BMI LargeMidCap, S&P Developed BMI LargeMidCap and S&P 500 indices respectively.
All SPIVA reports can be accessed in their entirety by going to: www.spiva.standardandpoors.com.
Source: Standard & Poors
Corn begins trading June 9, 2010 on NYSE
June 9, 2010--The Teucrium Corn Fund ETF has begun trading today. The ticker symbol is CORN.
The investment objective of the Fund is to have the daily changes in percentage terms of the Shares’ NAV reflect the daily changes in percentage terms of a weighted average of the closing settlement prices for three futures contracts for corn (“Corn Futures Contracts”) that are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (“CBOT”), specifically (1) the second-to-expire CBOT Corn Futures Contract, weighted 35%, (2) the third-to-expire CBOT Corn Futures Contract, weighted 30%, and (3) the CBOT Corn Futures Contract expiring in the December following the expiration month of the third-to-expire contract, weighted 35%, less the Fund’s expenses. (This weighted average of the three referenced Corn Futures Contracts is referred to herein as the “Benchmark,” and the three Corn Futures Contracts that at any given time make up the Benchmark are referred to herein as the “Benchmark Component Futures Contracts.”)
Source: Online News
Volcker presses on risky trading
June 9, 2010--Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chief, pushed Democrats in Congress on Tuesday to adopt a firm ban on proprietary trading as they prepared for a public “conference” to finalise financial regulatory reform.
Amid congressional negotiations on the final legislation, Mr Volcker is reported to have called for a tough “Volcker rule” to bar banks from risky activity.
Key lawmakers in the House have embraced a tough version of the Volcker rule proposed by Carl Levin and Jeff Merkley, Democratic senators, which removes leeway for regulators and the Treasury to modify a strict ban. It also introduces a separate “conflict of interest” provision to prevent banks from taking a different market position to their customers
read more
Source: FT.com
Proshares files with the SEC
June 9, 2010-ProShares has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
ProShares Ultra TIPs; ProShares Short TIPs; ProShares UltraShort TIPs; ProShares Ultra Gold Miners; ProShares Short Gold Miners; ProShares UltraShort Gold Miners;
ProShares Ultra MSCI Canada; ProShares Short MSCI Canada; ProShares UltraShort MSCI Canada; ProShares Ultra S&P Retail; ProShares Short S&P Retail; ProShares UltraShort S&P Retail; ProShares UltraPro 3-7 Year Treasury; ProShares UltraPro Short 3-7 Year Treasury; ProShares Ultra 3-7 Year Treasury; ProShares Short 3-7 Year Treasury; and ProShares UltraShort 3-7 Year Treasury.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Russell files with the SEC
June 9, 2010--Russell has filed an application for exemptive relief with the SEC,
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
“How Big is Big?”
Speech of Commissioner Bart Chilton Presenting at “Oil and the Macroeconomy in a Changing World”, Symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
June 9, 2010--Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today to talk about energy markets and changes in technology, energy market pricing, and markets in general. We will also spend some time on financial regulatory reform, which as you know has gained a great deal of momentum in recent weeks and from my perspective that's a really good, and long overdue, occurrence.
Big
Remember the movie "Big”? Tom Hanks, after being humiliated when he wasn’t tall enough to get on a ride at an amusement park puts money in the mysterious “Zoltar Speaks” machine and wishes to be big. The next morning, the 13-year-old boy becomes a 31-year-old man, and he really is big. He's wearing the same kid pajamas, but he's nearly twice the size. The theme of the film is that even though he is big, he really isn’t prepared for the environment around him. So, how big is big?
Flash Crash
First, I’d like to focus on the events of May 6—the flash crash—a very big deal. It was a serious and significant event. These are markets that consumers rely upon to ensure fair and equitable pricing. They are of national importance. On that day, the Dow dropped nearly 1,000 points only to regain most of that loss. All of this took place one afternoon. To put it in perspective, how big it was, the biggest Dow point drop was 778 points on September 29, 2008. That was a 7% drop. The biggest percentage drop ever was Black Monday, October 19, 1987—508 points but a 23% drop.
While we do not yet know the impetus for the events of May 6th, we do know that the volatility was exacerbated by financial technology—fintech.
CFTC Publishes Advisory on the Extent to which U.S. Investors May Trade in Foreign Security Futures Products Dreyfus files for exemptive relief with the SEC Institutional investors consider tar sands litigation in potential addition to oil company woes read more Global Equity Index & ETF Research -- US Weekly ETP Market Review Net Cashflows
Within Equity ETPs, Emerging Markets Regional ETPs received the largest inflows ($301 mm) followed by Emerging Country ETPs, while US Sector ETPs saw the largest outflows ($789 mm) followed by Small Cap ETPs.
Among Fixed Income ETPs, Sovereign ($536 mm) and Broad Market ETPs ($397 mm) contributed the most to the positive flows within the asset class.
Within Commodity ETPs, Gold ETPs, albeit less than in previous weeks, led the inflows with $799 mm, followed by products tracking Crude Oil.
Turnover
Assets Under Management (AUM)
To request a copy of the report
Source: CFTC.gov
June 9, 2010--The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight (DCIO) today published an Advisory clarifying the extent to which certain sophisticated customers located in the U.S. may transact in foreign security futures products (FSFPs).
The Advisory is intended to address questions raised by members of the public following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s publication of an order on June 30, 2009, which exempts certain sophisticated persons from provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that prohibit the offer and sale of FSFPs to U.S. persons.
June 9, 2010--Dreyfus has filed an application with the SEC for exemptive relief to permit an actively managed fund to issue exchange-traded shares.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
June 8, 2010--An investor climate lobby group consisting of many of the world’s biggest pension fund and asset managers says some of its members are weighing up legal action against oil companies involved in controversial tar sands extraction projects in Alberta, Canada.
Any litigation could be a further blow to the embattled oil industry, notably to BP, which faced significant investor uprising at its April AGM over its plans to extract oil from controversial tar sands projects in Canada, and which is embroiled in controversy over the Deepwater oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that has wiped as much as 30% from its share value. In a separate case, BP already faces legal action from the Lothian Pension Fund in the UK over share price losses, which it estimates at $500m, after a pipeline leak in its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska four years ago. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), which comprises more than 50 European pension funds and asset managers with a combined worth of around €5trn, said in a new report that its members were focusing increasingly on the risk of environmental litigation. It said more than half of asset owner (pension fund) signatories said the issue was a concern in 2009, against just 15% previously.
Source: Responsible Investor
June 8, 2010--Highlights
New Listings and Delistings
Last week added two new alternatives to the ETP product list, which have already started trading at NYSE Arca.
United States Commodity Funds LLC launched a new Crude Oil ETP which will intend to track the performance of North European Brent crude oil prices, mainly, by holding positions in Futures contracts traded on the ICE Exchange.
The remaining ETP was launched by PowerShares and will offer exposure to the International Corporate bond market. This new product offers a TER 5 bps cheaper and a more diversified currency exposure than its direct competitor, the SPDR Barclays Capital International Corporate Bond ETF, which was recently launched a couple of weeks ago.
Overall the US ETP market experienced outflows for $251 mm. Fixed Income, Commodity and Currency ETPs had inflows of $1.1 bn, $698 mm and $71 mm, respectively. Equity ETPs, on the other hand, experienced outflows of $2.1 bn.
After a successive series of increases, Avg. Daily Turnover retreated and decreased by 4.6% totaling $111 bn. However turnover still remains on the high levels.
Driven by negative weekly performance in most of the major equity markets, US ETPs AUM decreased by 1.7% totaling $786 bn at the end of the week. Equity ETPs account for 72% of the assets with $565 bn, followed by Fixed Income fundswith $129 bn and 16% of market share.
Source: -DB Index Research
