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

Note: Want to receive an email notice as soon as ETF Watch is posted? Just click here to subscribe.

  [Correction: This article originally stated that there were three AdvisorShares ETFs in registration. This is incorrect, as a recent filing by the firm withdrew two of those ETFs from registration. Currently, only the AdvisorShares Dent Tactical ETF is in registration.]

NEW LISTINGS

There were no new listings during the covered period.

DELISTINGS

Three Elements ETNs Set To Delist

Credit Suisse Securities, the issuer of four Elements-branded exchange-traded notes, announced last week that it was pulling three of the products off the New York Stock Exchange.

Set to end trading on the NYSE by April 3 are:

• The Elements MLCX Gold Index ETN (NYSE: GOE)
• The Elements MLCX Livestock Index ETN (NYSE: LSO)
• The Elements MLCX Precious Metals Plus Index (NYSE: PMY)

A press release dated March 10 said Credit Suisse credited "insufficient" trading volumes for the decision. At the same time, Credit Suisse didn't rule out letting the trio of ETNs trade over the counter. It added that there's no plan at the moment to delist its fourth ETN, the Elements Credit Suisse Global Warming ETN (NYSE: GWO), but did not rule the step out as a future possibility.

The three delisting ETNs all track indexes in the Merrill Lynch Commodity Index eXtra family of commodity indexes.

SPA Closing Its ETFs Worldwide

SPA ETFs Inc. has decided to close all six of its MarketGrader-branded exchange-traded funds, of which separate versions exist in three different markets worldwide. The funds are not cross-listed but are offered separately in the U.S., the U.K. and Italy. All MarketGrader ETFs offered by SPA in each market will be shut down, according to the company.

"The board determined current market conditions are unsuitable for a long-only equity investment strategy, such as the one employed by the SPA MarketGrader ETFs. Closing the funds was decided to be in the best interest of the funds' shareholders," said a statement issued by SPA before markets opened on Monday.

The funds were designed to provide market-beating exposure to the U.S. equity market. They track indexes from the Fla.-based quant-shop MarketGrader; the MarketGrader system evaluates all available U.S. stocks according to 24 quantitative factors relating to growth, value, profitability and cash flow. The ETFs were created by selecting the top 40–200 companies, subject to certain diversification rules, and then rebalancing and reconstituting the funds on either a quarterly or semiannual basis.

At the end of last week, the six funds had a total of $10.4 million in assets in the U.S., and another $7.5 million abroad. The six U.S. ETFs, all listed on the NYSE Arca exchange, will be closed to new investments by March 25, and will be liquidated by March 30. The funds are:

• SPA MarketGrader 40 Fund (SFV)
• SPA MarketGrader 100 Fund (SIH)
• SPA MarketGrader 200 Fund (SNB)
• SPA MarketGrader Small Cap 100 Fund (SSK)
• SPA MarketGrader Mid Cap 100 Fund (SVD)
• SPA MarketGrader Large Cap 100 Fund (SZG)

Despite the closing of all its current funds, SPA says it is not leaving the ETF market.

NEW FILINGS

WisdomTree Files For Two Hedged Foreign Funds

WisdomTree Investments has filed requests to open two new international ETFs, both of which would use currency hedging strategies.

The WisdomTree DEFA Hedged Fund and the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Hedged Fund would invest in a similar fashion as current index-based ETFs offered by the company.

But each adds a different twist. The proposed ETFs plan to hedge each portfolio's long-only exposure to equities by using different currencies. According to the filings, the process in each fund will be rules-based and tied to specially created benchmarks from WisdomTree.

Much like the current WisdomTree DEFA (NYSE: DWM), the new WisdomTree DEFA Hedged version would invest in developed markets outside the U.S. and Canada. It would include companies that have paid at least $5 million in cash dividends on common stock shares annually. The underlying index, much like DWM's, would weight individual names by regular cash dividend rates.

The WisdomTree Emerging Markets Hedged Fund would resemble the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund (NYSE: DEM). But the current ETF only includes the top 30% in terms of dividend-generating stocks. It would seem to include more of a high-yielding component in its screening processes than the proposed hedged version.

Here's the extra wrinkle of the new ETFs. Included in their indexes are the published one-month currency forward rates to the total equity exposure of each country. The rates will be taken from data compiled by WM/Reuters and applied as a means to adjust the value of each currency against the U.S. dollar. The aim is to produce higher returns than noncurrency hedged funds when the greenback is on the rise. On the flip side, when the dollar is dropping relative to other currencies represented in each portfolio's mix of countries represented by different stocks, the fund probably won't do as well.

According to the filing, each fund comes with an expense ratio of 0.63%.

You can read the prospectus for both funds here.

AdvisorShares Adds Another Filing

Harry Dent Jr. apparently is preparing to run an actively managed ETF for AdvisorShares Investments.

In the new filing, AdvisorShares Investments is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve the Dent Tactical ETF, which would trade on the New York Stock Exchange Arca platform.

Dent runs HS Dent Investment Management, which is based in Tampa, Fla. He is a somewhat controversial figure known for making bold predictions that do not always come to fruition.

Last week, the Washington, D.C.-based AdvisorShares announced it had signed an agreement with Dent's firm to "provide a packaged investment strategy utilizing HS Dent's proprietary demographic research and relative strength," according to a statement at the time.

The filing did not list fees or expenses.

The registration statement and prospectus for the Dent Tactical ETF can be found here.

ALPS Files For ETF Of ETFs

Another equal-weight exchange-traded fund based on the S&P 500 in being proposed, this time using Select Sector SPDRs to carve up the index.

The ALPS Equal Sector Weight ETF would track a Merrill Lynch benchmark that comprises the nine underlying indexes of the Select Sector SPDRs and equal-weights each sector, according to a recent filing still under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund will hold the Select Sector SPDR ETFs.

"At all times, the Merrill Lynch Equal Sector Weight index will be comprised of the constituents in the S&P 500, albeit in different weights," said the registration statement.

The fund-of-funds ETF is expected to come with an annual expense ratio of 0.55%.

Read the prospectus for the ALPS fund here.

1 | 2 |