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In 12b-1 Fee Crackdown, SEC Urges Advisors to Police Themselves
February 12, 2018--Advisors who self-report share class violations and repay investors, will not be hit with a financial penalty
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that its enforcement division has launched an initiative designed to protect investment advisors from financial penalties if they self-report certain mutual fund share-class violations and return the money to harmed investors.<>view more
Source: thinkadvisor.com
AdvisorShares Weekly Market Review-Volatility Is Back in Town and It's Angry
February 12, 2018--Highlights of the Week Ending 2/9/2018
Macro
It's official, the equity market is in the middle of a panic. You can find a lot of pixels devoted to explaining why the market went down, or at least trying to explain what happened.
It could have been the unraveling of the short volatility trade, the Wall Street Journal blamed risk parity later in the week, rising rates are always relevant, perhaps increased deficits (soon to be 5% of GDP?) were to blame? Or maybe the market went down because it stopped going up, which is to say it might have been no reason at all that sent the market down.
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Source: AdvisorShares
iSTOXX American Century USA Quality Value Index to underlie exchange-traded fund in the US
February 12, 2018--STOXX Ltd., the operator of Deutsche Boerse Group's index business, and a global provider of innovative and tradable index concepts, licensed its iSTOXX(R) American Century USA Quality Value Index to American Century Investments as an underlying for an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
"Our goal with the launch of American Century(R) ETFs is to provide innovative strategies that strive to deliver better outcomes for investors," said Ed Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Head of ETFs for American Century. "We are excited to be launching our first two ETFs, which we see as ‘core’ investments that can serve as a central, foundational component of a long-term portfolio."
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Source: Deutsche Börse Group
AGF Announces Launch of AGFiQ Enhanced Global ESG Factors ETF and AGFiQ Enhanced Global Infrastructure ETF
February 12, 2018--Expands AGFiQ factor-based ETF suite to provide differentiated access to two growth areas
February 12, 2018--AGF Investments Inc. (AGF) today, through AGFiQ Asset Management (AGFiQ), announced the launch of two new ETFs: AGFiQ Enhanced Global ESG Factors ETF (QEF) and AGFiQ Enhanced Global Infrastructure ETF (QIF).
Both QIF and QEF begin trading on the NEO Exchange today and each have a management fee of 0.45%.
"Our new ETFs utilize the expertise of our in-house AGFiQ team and their quantitative, factor-based investment process, while providing investors with differentiated access to two growing segments of the market often reserved for the largest institutions-ESG and Infrastructure-to build their global equity portfolios," said Kevin McCreadie, President and Chief Investment Officer, AGF Investments Inc.
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Source: AGFiQ Asset Management
ETF Securities makes 11 employees redundant ahead of acquisition by WisdomTree
February 12, 2018--ETF Securities has made 11 employees redundant ahead of its acquisition by WisdomTree in order to reflect the new strategic direction of the business, but chief executive Mark Weeks remains with the group.
The move comes after WisdomTree Investments announced the purchase of ETF Securities' European exchange-traded commodity, currency and short-and-leveraged business for $611m in November, with the deal expected to complete by the end of Q1 2018, subject to regulatory approval.
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Source: professionaladviser.com
Deutsche Bank Sanctioned for Misleading Buyers on Bond Sales
February 12, 2018--Lender agrees to pay $4.5 million to settle SEC's allegations
Bank's former CMBS head trader Ben Solomon also sued by agency
Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay about $4.5 million to settle a U.S. regulator's allegations that it misled clients about how much bonds backed by commercial mortgages were worth, earning the lender bigger profits than it should have made.
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Source: Bloomberg
CME to Patent System for Seamless Blockchain Rule Changes
February 12, 2018--CME Group may be looking at ways for developers to modify a blockchain's rules without requiring consensus from all of the network's nodes, new patent filings show.
It's a key need for such systems, such as those that form part of airline reward points programs and other applications in which a blockchain is used to store and maintain information in real time, the application's authors write.
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Source: coindesk.com
VIX Manipulation Costs Investors Billions, Whistle-Blower Says
February 12, 2018--Flaw lets traders whip VIX around without trading, letter says
Wild trading session last week turned spotlight on Cboe index
A whistle-blower told U.S. regulators that a scheme to manipulate the VIX, the volatility gauge thrust into the spotlight last week during a wild trading session, costs investors hundreds of millions of dollars a month.
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Source: Bloomberg
Renaissance Capital Scheduled U.S. IPOs
February 9, 2018--Scheduled U.S. IPOs-Week of 02/12/18
Leo Holdings (LHC.U)-United Kingdom
Motus GI Holdings (MOTS)-Israel
Biofrontera (BFRA)-Germany
IPO Index Performance
The Renaissance IPO Index has returned -2.8% so far this year, compared to -3.5% for the S&P 500.
IPOUSA
IPO Activity
There have been 26 IPOs priced so far this year, a +86% change from last year.
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Source: Renaissance Capital
Fidelity Halts Investor Purchases of Three VIX-Focused ETFs
February 9, 2018-Goal is to protect customers from outsized risks, firm says
Customers are being allowed to sell out of positions
Better late than never.
Three days after the implosion of an exchange-traded note betting on low volatility, Fidelity Investments said it had moved to protect investors from these products.
The fund giant is halting customer purchases of three volatility-focused exchange traded funds, Robert Beauregard, a company spokesman, said in an email. They are: ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures (SVXY), VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV), and the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Medium Term ETN (ZIV).
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Source: Bloomberg