State Street Global Advisors has filed a 40-APP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for the necessary permissions to launch a hedge fund replication ETF.

The fund is described in the filing as the SPDR AlphaSimplex Absolute Beta ETF. It would track a rules-based index that invests in exchange-traded funds tied to equities, government bonds, short-term interest rates, currencies and commodities. The fund would aim to “approximate the common exposures of a broad universe of hedge funds in a relatively liquid, transparent and cost efficient manner.”

The fund would be somewhat similar, in that case, to the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (NYSEArca: QAI) from IndexIQ. QAI also aims to deliver returns similar to a broad index of hedge fund strategies, although it uses an underlying portfolio of ETFs to achieve those returns. Currently, it has $68 million in assets.

The State Street filing also lays the groundwork for the firm to launch a commodity futures fund tied to the DJ-UBS Commodity Index. If and when it launches, it would be the first SSgA ETF tied to the commodity futures markets.

The filing is available here.