The CBOE has teamed up with the CME Group to launch the CBOE/CBOT 10-year US Treasury Note Volatility Index. The new index provides a measure of expected volatility specific to the fixed income market by applying the methodology of the widely followed CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) – Wall Street’s so-called ‘fear gauge’ – to futures options data from CME Group’s 10-year US Treasury note contract.

Markit, a London-headquartered provider of financial data, analytics and indices, has announced the launch of Markit ETP Analytics, an independent analytics service for the global exchange-traded products (ETP) market. The service is built on the foundation of Markit’s encyclopaedia and composition data, which spans over 5,100 unique ETPs.

VTL Associates, the parent company of RevenueShares, a US-based sponsor of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has received an injection of capital from Suzhou Industrial Park Kaida Venture Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm. The investment will be used to support the expansion of RevenueShares, which is known for its line-up of revenue-weighted ETFs. In addition to new products, RevenueShares will expand its staff and marketing efforts for the firm’s six existing ETF products.

By David Stevenson – The sector’s enthusiasm for acronyms has actually tipped over into hubris as it tries to explain why the term ETP is the best catch-all descriptor as opposed to index trackers, ETFs, ETCs, ETNs or any other combination involving the letters E.T. The problem is that very few people in the wider world of normal sentient human beings actually care! Worse still, they find the whole debate completely confusing and counterproductive. I’ve had countless conversations with IFAs who have given up on these products because they can’t quite understand the difference.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has slashed fees for market makers in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a bid to grow trade volumes and enhance liquidity. Gillian Walmsley, Head of fixed income products at the London Stock Exchange, said: “By lowering the volume thresholds for discounts and reducing the fees for registered market makers, our aim is to further grow trading volumes and support liquidity on our market, and to continue to attract issuers and investors from around the world to London.”

S&P Dow Jones has again added to its rapidly expanding suite of indices with the launch of the S&P Nordic Low Volatility Index, an index tracking the performance of the 30 least volatile stocks in the S&P Nordic Broad Market Index (BMI). The new index further enhances the index provider’s existing low-volatility line-up and reflects continued investor interest in low-volatile equity strategies.

Boost, an independent provider of short and leveraged exchange-traded products (ETPs), has launched an ‘advisor toolkit’ deigned to provide easy-to-understand educational materials for anyone considering an investment in a short or leveraged ETP. The toolkit comes in response to a number of concerns by global regulators regarding the use of leverage by investors, and follows the introduction of more mainstream educational resources by iShares and Vanguard.

Morningstar has released the results of its fifth online survey of UK investors into the appetite, understanding and use of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with results showing the ever-increasing importance of one of the hallmark attributes of ETFs – their low cost. Of current ETF investors, 91% cited low costs as being either a “very important” or “important” attribute, compared to 89% last year. Prospective ETF users are also putting greater focus on low costs, with 71% now citing this attribute as being “very important”, compared to 57% last year.

Clients of Barclays Stockbrokers, a leading UK-based execution broker, are increasingly using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) to capitalise on movements in key UK FTSE equity indices and precious metals markets, according to new analysis. Data for April 2013 revealed that FTSE-related ETFs accounted for four of the top ten most traded exchange-traded products for the month, with ETCs based on gold and silver accounting for three and two of the top ten spots, respectively.

Exchange-traded funds (ETF) perform strongly in terms of transparency and cost effectiveness, and are expected to become increasingly important to both institutional and private investors, according to a specialist committee on ETFs at the Swiss Funds Association (SFA). The comments were made at a recent media conference held by the SFA in Zurich and come after the publication of data showing that ETFs account for a steadily growing share of the fund volume booked in Switzerland.