With US equity markets trading sideways in a horizontal band in the last few months, international markets continue to become increasingly appealing to investors. From a macro perspective, many economies outside of North America and Europe do indeed look quite a lot more promising than the US, both in terms of their fiscal position, their growth prospects and other fundamentals.
AdvisorShares
On July 21st, two more actively-managed ETFs began trading, one in the US and one in Canada. AdvisorShares’ long-awaited WCM/BNY Mellon Focused Growth ADR ETF (AADR) debuted on the NYSE and became the first Active ETF to focus on a portfolio of American Depository Receipts (ADRs). In Canada, Horizons AlphaPro launched its 8th actively-managed ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange, called the Horizons AlphaPro Global Dividend ETF (HAZ).
AdvisorShares is gaining some momentum in the Active ETF space with the launch of its second product, the Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV) on July 9th, and now a filing for a new actively-managed ETF called the Active Bear ETF (HDGE). This brings the number of ETFs that AdvisorShares has under filing with the SEC to six. The depth of AdvisorShares’ pipeline should definitely help it increase its presence within the US Active ETF landscape.
AdvisorShares’ long awaited actively-managed ETF, the Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV), finally launched today and began trading on the NYSE, after some delays. The Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF is quite unique in that it will be the first actively-managed ETF to pursue a long/short equity strategy, making it an absolute return vehicle that will aim to create alpha regardless of the market environment.
AdvisorShares had made a press release announcing its partnership, with Cambria Investment Management, a LA-based investment manager, on June 23rd. On June 30th, AdvisorShares filed the preliminary prospectus for the proposed Cambria Global Tactical ETF (GTAA) with the SEC, which included many details about the fund.
AdvisorShares announced on June 23rd that it will be partnering with Cambria Investment Management, a Los Angeles based investment manager, to develop a new actively-managed ETF that will follow a global tactical asset allocation strategy. AdvisorShares now has publically announced plans to work with or is already working with 6 different asset managers. AdvisorShares has yet to file for this particular strategy with the SEC.
On June 4th, 2010, AdvisorShares filed a preliminary prospectus for two new actively-managed ETFs sub-advised by Seattle-based, Emerald Rock Advisors LLC. The first of these is the Emerald Rock Low-Priced Focused Growth ETF (LOWP) and the second is the Emerald Rock Dividend Growth ETF (DIVI). With these two new filings, AdvisorShares now has five active applications for new actively-managed ETFs.
AdvisorShares filed an amendment to its prospectus for the Peritus High Yield ETF (HYLD), on May 11, 2010, in which it provided greater details on the expense structure for the proposed actively-managed ETF and also modified the prospectus to remove the use of derivatives in the portfolio, which was previously allowed according to the last version of the prospectus.
