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Q1 market recap from Reality Shares
April 18, 2018--The BLCN ETF sees $100MM launch!
We are excited to announce that the Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (Ticker: BLCN) launched and reached over $100 million in assets under management (as of Jan 31, 2018)! Blockchain technology is quickly becoming an exciting area of interest for investors and companies.
The Reality Shares Blockchain ScoreTM methodology is a rules-based, quantitative process built to evaluate companies investing in blockchain technologies.
The underlying methodology and index was created through a partnership between Reality Shares and Nasdaq, and constitutes the joint research, analysis and investigation of both groups on the emerging development of blockchain technology.
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Source: Reality Shares
Thomson Reuters Lipper U.S. Mutual Funds & ETPs Q1 2018 Snapshot
April 18, 2018--In this issue of Lipper's U.S. Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Products Snapshot, we feature a summary of total net assets, estimated net flows, new fund creations, and fund liquidations for conventional funds and ETPs for Q1 2018, comparing the changes to those of prior quarters and highlighting the largest individual gainers and losers of both groups. The Snapshot provides readers a powerful, easy-to-use guide and quick-reference tool to help them discern fund trends during the quarter.
Highlights:
Total net assets (TNA) for the conventional funds business declined 0.19% for Q1, falling $34.6 billion from Q4 2017 to $18.6 trillion for Q1 2018.
TNA for U.S. exchange-traded products (ETPs) rose 0.31% from $3.437 trillion for Q4 2017 to a little over $3.448 trillion for Q1.
For Q1 actively managed funds, excluding money market funds, handed back a net $8.6 billion, while their passively managed counterparts took in $106.9 billion.
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Source: Thomson Reuters
SEC Proposes to Enhance Protections and Preserve Choice for Retail Investors in Their Relationships With Investment Professionals
April 18, 2018--The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose a package of rulemakings and interpretations designed to enhance the quality and transparency of investors' relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers while preserving access to a variety of types of advice relationships and investment products.
Under proposed Regulation Best Interest, a broker-dealer would be required to act in the best interest of a retail customer when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities to a retail customer. Regulation Best Interest is designed to make it clear that a broker-dealer may not put its financial interests ahead of the interests of a retail customer in making recommendations.
In addition to the proposed enhancements to the standard of conduct for broker-dealers in Regulation Best Interest, the Commission proposed an interpretation to reaffirm and, in some cases, clarify the Commission's views of the fiduciary duty that investment advisers owe to their clients. By highlighting principles relevant to the fiduciary duty, investment advisers and their clients would have greater clarity about advisers' legal obligations.
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Source: SEC.gov
Direxion files with the SEC-2 Robotics ETFs & 2 Daily Preferred Stock Bull ETFs
April 17, 2018--Direxion has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with tbe SEC for the Direxion Daily Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Automation Index Bull 2X Shares
Direxion Daily Preferred Stock Bull 2X Shares
Direxion Daily Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Automation Index Bull 3X Shares
Direxion Daily Preferred Stock Bull 3X Shares.
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Source: SEC.gov
Solactive Introduces Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Index as the underlying for DRIV ETF in the U.S.
April 17, 2018--Solactive is launching the Solactive Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Index, an index tracking the performance of companies involved in the production of electric or hybrid vehicles and the development of self-driving technology.
The index is based on ARTISTM, a proprietary algorithm-based screening tool developed by Solactive. ARTISTM-acronym for Algorithmic Theme Identification System-makes use of systems such as natural language processing to select companies that have best exposure to specific themes. The Solactive Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Index is licensed to Global X and is used as the basis for the Global X Auton-omous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV) listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
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Source: Solactive AG
Fee Rate Advisory #3 for Fiscal Year 2018
April 17, 2018--The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that starting on May 22, 2018, the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $13.00 per million dollars.
Consequently, each SRO will continue to pay the Commission a rate of $23.10 per million for covered sales occurring on charge dates through May 21, 2018, and a rate of $13.00 per million for covered sales occurring on charge dates on or after May 22, 2018.
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Source: SEC.gov
BlackRock-February 2018 Case Study: ETF Trading in a High-Velocity Market March 2018
April 17, 2018--The sharp equity market sell-off and volatility spike during the week ended February 9, 2018 served as a market-wide stress test, especially for exchange-traded products (ETPs). During this week, exchange traded funds (ETFs) experienced more than $1 trillion in US-listed exchange trading volume, roughly double normal trading volumes (Source: Bloomberg).
While much of the media attention focused on losses in certain complex exchange-traded products (that are not ETFs), this episode underscored stability and liquidity of ETF trading amidst historic trading volumes. In fact, BlackRock observed some of the highest on-exchange volumes ever in its US-listed ETFs during this period.
We view this case study as a powerful counterpoint to questions that have been raised about the resilience of the ETF product structure and ecosystem in stressed markets. Not only was ETF trading orderly, an upswing in trading volume showed that investors again turned to ETFs in times of turbulence. Importantly, even with heavy trading of ETF shares on exchange, the funds experienced minimal outflows. In other words, buys and sells on exchange largely cancelled each other out, with the outflows representing minimal demand imbalance. In effect, ETFs acted as "shock-absorbers" in choppy markets.
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Source: BlackRock
ETFGI reports that US-listed ETFs and ETPs suffered US$2.96 Bn US dollars net outflows during March 2018, the second consecutive monthly outflows in 2018
April 17, 2018--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that US-listed ETFs and ETPs suffered US$2.96 Bn net outflows during March 2018, the second consecutive monthly outflows in 2018 and the largest monthly amount since February 2018, when net outflows were US$10.60 Bn.
Year-to-date net inflows reached US$65.22 Bn at the end of March which is significantly less than the US$133.62 compare to this point last year. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
US-listed ETFs/ETPs suffered $2.96 Bn net outflows during March 2018, the largest since February 2018, which saw $10.60 Bn in net outflows
March 2018 marked the 2nd consecutive month of net outflows into ETFs/ETPs listed in the US
Due to market moves assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed in the US decreased by 1.58%, or $55.28 Bn, during March, to $3.441 Tn
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Source: ETFGI
SEC-Fee Rate Advisory #3 for Fiscal Year 2018
April 17, 2018--The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that starting on May 22, 2018, the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $13.00 per million dollars.
Consequentl,, each SRO will continue to pay the Commission a rate of $23.10 per million for covered sales occurring on charge dates through May 21, 2018, and a rate of $13.00 per million for covered sales occurring on charge dates on or after May 22, 2018.
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Source: SEC.gov
Global X Funds Announces Listing of the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV)
April 17, 2018--DRIV Offers Access to Transformative Technological Innovations in Transportation
Global X Funds, the New York-based provider of exchange traded funds (ETFs), announced today the listing of the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (Nasdaq: DRIV).
Designed to track the Solactive Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Index, the fund holds a basket of companies involved in the production or development of electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). This includes companies involved in the development of autonomous vehicle software and hardware, as well as companies that produce EVs, EV components such as lithium batteries, and critical EV materials such as lithium and cobalt.
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Source: Global X