• Page 1: New ETF listings
• Page 2: ETF industry statistics including weekly performance update
• Page 3: The complete list of ETFs (and ETNs) in registration

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NEW LISTINGS

Claymore Launches SEA
On August 25, Claymore Securities launched the first-ever ETF to cover the global shipping industry.

Increasing globalization means raw materials and manufactured goods need to be shipped farther than ever before. Shipping rates, as measured by the Baltic Dry Index, have risen for the past five years. More than two-thirds of all goods are transported by ship, according to Claymore.

The Claymore/Delta Global Shipping Index (NYSEArca: SEA) covers companies engaged in maritime transportation of goods or in the leasing or operation of ships that transport goods. It tracks the Delta Global Shipping Index, which covers 30 stocks from around the world.

The index itself provides pure-play coverage, requiring that components derive at least 80% of their revenues from maritime shipping. Components also must be listed on a developed market stock exchange and have a minimum market capitalization of $250 million and a minimum 30-day average daily trading volume of $2 million.

Components are reconstituted annually, but the index is rebalanced quarterly—with the fund paying out distributions at that time—with a 4% cap placed on individual stocks, along with other weighting limits.

Currently, the index includes companies from a mix of countries that span the emerging and developed markets spectrum: Greece (35.3%), the United States (19.08%), Bermuda (15.37%) the Bahamas (10.09%), Japan (7.34%), Jersey (3.91%), Hong Kong (3.8%), China (2.62%) and Singapore (2.48%).

EA charges an expense ratio of 65 basis points (0.65%).

Read the prospectus here.

NEW FILINGS

WisdomTree Files For 25 Funds

WisdomTree just made a bid to expand its lineup of currency ETFs co-branded with The Dreyfus Corporation in a pretty massive way: It filed for 25 new funds that cover individual local currencies or offer exposure to several currencies within a single region or group of countries.

he funds are as follows:

• WisdomTree Dreyfus Chilean Peso Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Czech Koruna Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Hong Kong Dollar Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Hungarian Forint Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Israeli Shekel Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Icelandic Krona Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Indonesian Rupiah Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Malaysian Ringgit Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Mexican Peso Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Norwegian Krone
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Polish Zloty Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Russian Ruble Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Singapore Dollar Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Swedish Krona
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Swiss Franc Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Taiwan Dollar Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Thai Baht Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Turkish Lira Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus BRIC Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Developed Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Asia Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Europe Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Latin America Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Gulf Currency Fund
• WisdomTree Dreyfus Oil Exporters Currency Fund

The filing covers a host of currencies that investors have not yet been able to access via exchange-traded products, particularly those from emerging markets, such as the Turkish lira, the Hungarian forint, the Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian ringgit. The more open-ended regional or country group designations—including the developed currency fund or the oil exporters currency fund—will cover baskets of up to 10 different currencies.

Interestingly, in addition to potentially expanding the range of currency ETFs available on the U.S. market, the filing could also expand the market’s lineup of actively managed ETFs, since WisdomTree’s currency funds do not actually track indexes.

Read the prospectus for the funds here.

Direxion Adds More Triple-Leveraged/Triple-Inverse Filings

Direxion caused a bit of a ripple earlier this year when it filed with the SEC for 36 ETFs. The funds, should they launch, would mark the entry of yet another ETF provider to the marketplace, but more importantly, they would be the first triple-leveraged and triple-inverse ETFs in the world.

The first batch of would-be ETFs covered 18 different indexes representing a wide spectrum of asset classes, and Direxion’s latest filing adds two more indexes to that list that will underlie four funds.

The Direxion Clean Energy Bull 3X Shares and Direxion Clean Energy Bear 3X Shares will be tied to the S&P Global Clean Energy Index, from Standard & Poor’s family of thematic indexes, while the Direxion Technology Bull 3X Shares and Direxion Technology Bear 3X Shares will be tied to the Russell 1000 Technology Index, a subsector of the large-cap Russell 1000 Index.

The underlying indexes for many of the funds have also changed, and it appears some of the proposed funds may have been eliminated. Whereas previously the total market funds were to track an index from MSCI, it has been replaced in the filing by the Russell 3000. Similarly, the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P BRIC 40 Index, FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index, Energy Select Sector Index and Financial Select Sector Index appear to have been replaced by the Russell 1000, the Russell Midcap Index, the BNY BRIC Select ADR Index, the BNY China Select ADR Index, the Russell 1000 Energy Index and the Russell 1000 Financial Services Index.

The funds in the original filing that were originally slated to track the Nasdaq-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nikkei 225 and the Morgan Stanley Commodity Related Index were not included in the latest filing.

Also interesting to note, the funds listed in the latest filing show higher expense ratios. Whereas the original filing showed all the funds charging expense ratios of 0.75%, the new filing lists the net expense ratio for each fund as either 0.94% or 0.95%.

Read Direxion’s recent filing here.

ETF Data Watch

Note: These numbers refer only to U.S. ETFs and ETNs. Data as of August 22, 2008, from the American Stock Exchange, unless otherwise noted.

Pure Numbers
Total number of ETFs listed in the U.S.: 722
Total number of ETNs listed in the U.S.: 92*
Total ETF assets: $583 billion
Total number of ETFs and ETNs in registration: 559*

*Data not provided by the American Stock Exchange

ETFs Filed – By Fund Company

There are currently 526 ETFs and ETNs in our list of prospectuses filed at the SEC.
You can click on any fund and link directly to the prospectus.