NEW IN REGISTRATION

WisdomTree Cashes In

WisdomTree has filed for 14 new money market ETFs covering 17 different foreign markets, as it moves into a market dominated by the Rydex CurrencyShares ETFs and the iPath Currency ETNs.

The new WisdomTree funds are a departure for the company, which made its name offering dividend-weighted stock funds. But they may prove successful, as they break new ground in two ways: 1) They cover many new markets; 2) They are money market funds and may offer higher interest rates on deposits.
The new WisdomTree currency ETFs would open exposure for the first time to U.S. investors to the Brazilian real, the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, the New Zealand dollar, the South African rand and the South Korean won.

A full list of funds … and full coverage … is available here.
The prospectus is available here.

Actively Managed ETF Of ETFS

AdvisorShares LLC has become the third ETF provider to file a prospectus for an actively managed equity ETF. But rather than packaging a traditional active management (“stockpicking”) strategy into an ETF wrapper, AdvisorShares is taking a different approach, creating actively managed ETFs of ETFs.

The filing included two funds: a Sector Allocation fund and a Country Allocation fund.

In the Sector Allocation fund, the subadvisor will analyze all the sectors and industries on the market and choose the ones with the best potential to outperform. It will then buy into existing ETFs that track the top-ranked industries.

In the Country Allocation fund, the subadvisor will take a similar approach to choosing the best countries.
There is no word yet on expenses or listing sites.

Using an ETF-of-ETFs format gets around many of the problematic issues involved in creating an actively managed ETF. ETF trades cannot be “front-run” by hedge funds in the way that single stock purchases can, because ETFs do not have limited liquidity. As a result, these ETFs will not have to take steps to hide their transactions, and can simply be fully transparent like traditional equity ETFs.

The prospectus is available here.

iShares New “All World” ETF … And Ex-US

Barclays Global Investors (BGI)?perhaps seeing the strong positive response to a similar filing by Northern Trust?has become the second U.S. company to file for a true “all world” ETF. BGI filed a prospectus for a new fund tied to the MSCI All Country World Index, which offers exposure to both U.S. and international stocks, including both developed and emerging markets.

The MSCI All Country World Index includes approximately 2,736 large- and mid-cap stocks from around the world. The Northern Trust filing was linked to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index, a more comprehensive benchmark that extends coverage into the small-cap range.

There is no word yet on expenses for either fund. The BGI prospectus is available here.

(In a related filing, BGI also filed papers for an ETF tied to the MSCI All Country World–EX U.S. Index. The prospectus is available here. State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) already offers an ETF tied to the same index, with the ticker symbol CWI.)

BGI Targets Israel, More

Beyond the all-world funds, BGI also filed papers for a new Israel country ETF tied to the MSCI Capped Israel Investable Market Index. The fund will charge 0.74% in annual expenses.

The prospectus is available here.

Infrastructure And Nuclear Power From PowerShares

PowerShares filed papers for three potentially new ETFS as it looks to carve out a niche in two hot themes in the ETF market.

The PowerShares Developed Markets Infrastructure ETF and PowerShares Emerging Markets Infrastructure ETF take the current interest in infrastructure funds to a more granular level, allowing investors to target their exposure at different segments of the global economy. SSgA has first-mover advantage in this market with its SPDR FTSE/Macquarie Global Infrastructure ETF (GII), and the iShares S&P Global Infrastructure ETF (IGF) offers an alternative.

Of the two new funds, the Emerging Markets portfolio will likely attract more attention as a more unique angle on the market. Both ETFs track modified market-cap-weighted indexes from Red Rock Capital.
The third PowerShares fund is the Global Nuclear Energy Portfolio ETF. It tracks an index from WNA Global Indexes, and will compete head-to-head with Van Eck’s Market Vectors–Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR). The two funds will be significantly different: While NLR takes a traditional market-cap-weighted approach to the global nuclear energy market, the PowerShares fund will make specific and fixed allocations to five segments: Reactors (15%), Primary Construction (15%), Technology, Equipment and Services (25%), Utilities (25%) and Fuels (20%).

The prospectus is available here.

PowerShares Expands Nasdaq Lineup

PowerShares filed for two new funds tied to Nasdaq indexes: the PowerShares FTSE NASDAQ Small Cap Portfolio and the PowerShares NASDAQ Next-Q Portfolio.

The small-cap portfolio is just that … a portfolio of Nasdaq-listed companies that rank in the bottom 14% of the Nasdaq market by market capitalization. (Technically, the smallest 2% of companies are excluded as illiquid as well.)

The NASDAQ Next-Q Portfolio is composed of 50 securities that are “next in line” to join the popular NASDAQ-100 Index. That index captures the largest 100 nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq, and is the underlying index for the popular PowerShares QQQ ETF. The new fund is ranked by market capitalization.

The prospectus is available here.

XShares Goes Fundamental

XShares is out with a new take on fundamental indexing, filing a prospectus with X Exchange-Traded Funds for a new fund called the Haverford Quality 250 ETF. The new fund will select the 250 U.S. stocks with the highest total annualized regular dividend payment. To ensure that the dividends are repeatable, stocks must be ranked “A” or better by Standard & Poor’s Earnings & Dividend Ranking System or Value Line’s Financial Strength Ranking System to be eligible for inclusion. Stocks will be weighted by total dividend payment as a percentage of the total dividend payment of all 250 stocks.

The prospectus is available here.

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