• Page 1: New ETF listings
• Page 2: The complete list of ETFs (and ETNs) in registration

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NEW LISTINGS

First Convertible Bond ETF Debuts

On April 16, State Street Global Advisors launched the SPDR Barclays Capital Convertible Bond ETF (NYSE Arca: CWB). According to SSgA, it's the first ETF to focus solely on convertible bonds available to U.S. investors. Convertible bonds have been gaining attention lately, in part due to their impressive year-to-date performance.

As explained in a statement accompanying the launch, convertible bonds can be exchanged—at the option of the holder—for a specific number of shares of the issuer's preferred or common stock. For investors, that means convertibles provide the safety of a bond with the upside potential of equities; the trade-off is that they typically pay lower yields than standard corporate bonds.

CWB, for instance, debuted with an average coupon of 2.47%; that compares with a 5.11% coupon on the Lehman Aggregate and coupons of 6-8% on straight corporate debt. It has an average credit quality of Baa1.

At the end of last year, some 156 issues were included in the new ETF's underlying index. The fund holds only 36 names, however.

CWB comes with an expense ratio of 0.40%.

You can read the prospectus for CWB here.

Direxion Rolls Out Treasuries Triple Plays

Last Thursday saw the launch of four new leveraged and inverse ETFs tied to Treasuries. The four new DirexionShares 3x ETFs are leveraged bull and bear index-based portfolios that try to either provide 300% of the daily performance or 300% of the inverse of the daily performance of the NYSE Current 10- and 30-Year U.S. Treasury indexes.

The four new Direxion ETFs are:

• The Direxion Daily 10-Year Treasury Bull 3x Shares (NYSE Arca: TYD)
• The Direxion Daily 30-Year Treasury Bull 3x Shares (NYSE Arca: TMF)
• The Direxion Daily 10-Year Treasury Bear 3x Shares (NYSE Arca: TYO)
• The Direxion Daily 30-Year Treasury Bear 3x Shares (NYSE Arca: TMV)

Each charges 0.95% in annual expenses.

You can read the prospectus for the four funds here.

There were no new filings during the covered period.

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