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KraneShares Launches China Internet ETF
KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF offers investors exposure to China's rapidly growing internet sector
August 1, 2013--Krane Funds Advisors LLC, a provider of China-focused Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), today announced the launch on the NASDAQ of KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NASDAQ ticker: KWEB), a new ETF that provides exposure to Chinese Internet and Internet-related companies.
“KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF provides US investors with an opportunity to gain exposure to China’s growing internet sector with the cost efficiencies of ETF investing,” said Brendan Ahern, Managing Director of KraneShares. “We see two powerful demographic trends driving China’s internet sector: since 2000, internet spending by urban Chinese has increased 14% annually, and China’s rural population continues to migrate to urban areas, further fueling internet usage.” Ahern cited a McKinsey & Company report that stated China E-Tailing accounted for $190 billion in sales in 2012 and could reach as much as $650 billion by 2020. Mr. Ahern went on to say "we are very fortunate to partner again with China Securities Index Co. of Shanghai, as the index provider for this ETF."
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Source: KraneShares
The Options Industry Council Announces July Options Volume Up 6 Percent
August 1, 2013--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 324,651,203 total options contracts traded in July, which is up 5.81 percent compared to last July when 306,817,994 contracts were traded.
Average daily volume for the month came in at 14,756,873 contracts, up 1.00 percent compared last July's 14,610,380 contracts. Year-to-date volume stood at 2,436,987,381 contracts, 1.93 percent more than July of last year when 2,390,920,900 contracts were traded.
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Source: Options Industry Council (OIC)
ISE Reports Business Activity for July 2013
August 1, 2013--ISE was the second largest equity options exchange in July with a market share of 16.6%,
excluding dividend trades.
Dividend trades made up 1.0% of industry volume in July 2013.
For the month of July, Implied Order functionality accounted for 7.4% of all non-crossing, multilegged
contract volume executed on ISE.
The International Securities Exchange (ISE) today reported an average daily volume of 2.2 million contracts in July 2013. This represents a decrease of 3.5%compared to July 2012. Total options volume for the month was 48.7 million contracts. ISE was the second largest U.S. equity options exchange in July
with a market share of 16.6%*.
Business highlights for the month of July include:
On July 22, ISE ETF Ventures and SecuredGrowth Quantitative Research announced their partnership agreement to develop and promote indexes that combine the performance of popular Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) with the proprietary SecuredGrowth™ process.
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Source: International Securities Exchange (ISE)
Wall Street group seeks end of exchange self regulation
August 1, 2013--The largest U.S. securities trade group asked regulators on Thursday to end the self-regulatory status of stock exchanges, saying the structure is outdated, creates conflicts of interest, and should be replaced by some form of outside supervision.
U.S. securities exchanges and non-exchange trading venues operated by broker-dealers perform largely identical functions in many respects, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Source: Reuters
Goldman blinks but no relief for Wall Street's commodity traders
August 1, 2013--Goldman Sachs' effort to diffuse intensifying pressure over its commodity business by throwing open its metal warehouse doors likely comes too late to head off further scrutiny of Wall Street's commodity trade.
Two weeks of escalating criticism of banks that own commodity assets and trade raw materials has shaken executives and the industry, with little sign of the pressure relenting. Britain's financial watchdog is considering its own investigation of metals warehouses, sources said, and two lawmakers questioned whether power regulators were tough enough.
view more WisdomTree Launches Emerging Markets Dividend Growth Fund (DGRE)
Jeremy Schwartz, WisdomTree Director of Research, said, "While many dividend-focused indexes in emerging markets focus on yield and valuation, there is a dearth of options that focus on dividend growth. We believe that DGRE offers the investment flexibility to respond to dividend growth potential rather than historical dividend behavior, aligning nicely with dividend behavior of emerging market companies. And similar to our other dividend growth funds, we believe DGRE can provide access to some of the most attractive dividend growth opportunities available in the market." view more ETFs attracting more new investment view more Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects that, with appropriate policy accommodation, economic growth will pick up from its recent pace and the unemployment rate will gradually decline toward levels the Committee judges consistent with its dual mandate. The Committee sees the downside risks to the outlook for the economy and the labor market as having diminished since the fall. The Committee recognizes that inflation persistently below its 2 percent objective could pose risks to economic performance, but it anticipates that inflation will move back toward its objective over the medium term.
To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee decided to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month. The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. Taken together, these actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative. view more VelocityShares(R) Announces Launch of VelocityShares Equal Risk Weighted Large Cap ETF
"Investors are interested in low volatility equity portfolios, and equal risk weighting represents an important step forward as a means of intelligently allocating to low volatility stocks," said Nick Cherney, Chief Investment Officer and Co-founder of VelocityShares. "ERW is a further example of our commitment to delivering sophisticated investment instruments to the exchange traded market."
view more BlackRock starts index series focused on retirement planning view filing
Source: Reuters
New exposure to emerging markets dividend growth leaders; Emerging Market region expected to drive future global growth over long term1
August 1, 2013--WisdomTree (NASDAQ: WETF), an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the launch of the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Dividend Growth Fund (DGRE) on the NASDAQ Stock Market.
DGRE is designed to provide exposure to dividend-paying stocks with growth characteristics in the emerging markets and has an expense ratio of 0.63%.
Source: WisdomTree
July 31, 2013--Almost a quarter of new client money goes to exchange-traded funds
New client cash in the US is now just as likely to be invested in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) as a traditional mutual fund, according to a study by Cogent Research.
Almost a quarter (22 percent) of ‘new client dollars’ go to ETFs, according to Cogent’s survey of more than 1,700 US financial advisers, while 23 percent are invested in active mutual funds.
Source: IR MAgazine
July 31, 2013--Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests that economic activity expanded at a modest pace during the first half of the year. Labor market conditions have shown further improvement in recent months, on balance, but the unemployment rate remains elevated.
Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has been strengthening, but mortgage rates have risen somewhat and fiscal policy is restraining economic growth. Partly reflecting transitory influences, inflation has been running below the Committee's longer-run objective, but longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Source: FBR
July 31, 2013--VelocityShares LLC, developer of exchange traded products (ETPs) for sophisticated investors, announced today the launch of the VelocityShares Equal Risk Weighed Large Cap ETF ("ERW").
Equal risk weighting is an innovative and academically rigorous alternative to both traditional market cap weighted indices and overly simplistic "low volatility" indices.
Source: VelocityShares LLC
July 31, 2013--BlackRock Inc, the world's largest money manager, is making a push into the retirement market with a new series of indexes and funds geared toward individual investors preparing for retirement.
The asset manager on Wednesday unveiled its BlackRock CoRI Retirement Index series, called "CoRI Indexes," which will allow pre-retirees to calculate an estimate of how much their current savings would produce in annual income when they turn 65. The "CoRI" title is in part a nod to the indexes' focus on retirement income.
Source: Reuters