Smart beta is a term that seems to have suddenly emerged out of nowhere to describe the rise of a new form of ‘passive’ investing. The very words themselves conjure up a certain egg-headed technical prowess, implying that all the other beta trackers out there are just “back of the class” dullards, market capitalisation based, one-trick ponies that don’t do all the clever stuff that smart beta trackers can accomplish with their quantitative prowess. Scratch beneath the surface though and we discover a slightly more honest admission by the ETF industry.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to frontier markets, such as the db X-trackers S&P Select Frontier UCITS ETF, present an enticing proposition for investors. Inherently a long-term investment opportunity, they not only offer potential for strong returns, but also provide an ideal means of portfolio diversification. With 22% of the world’s population, of which almost 60% is under 30 years of age, abundant natural resources and low labour costs, frontier markets are “too significant to ignore”, says Tim Drinkall of Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

David Stevenson has joined ETF Strategy as a weekly columnist. David is the author of the popular Financial Times Guide to Exchange Traded Funds and Index Funds and writes for the FT, Investors Chronicle and Investment Week. “I’m really excited to be writing a regular weekly column for ETF Strategy – in a very short period of time this online publication has established itself as the best source of analysis and research for investors who use ETFs here in Europe. Over the next year I can guarantee you that there’ll be many more developments at ETF Strategy, so watch this space!”, said Stevenson. In his debut column he considers European equity ETFs.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and related exchange-traded products (ETPs) linked to the inverse performance of the gold price have surged over the past few weeks as the precious metal has tumbled following downgrades from a number of prominent research houses. One of the best performing ETPs in this space is the London-listed Boost Gold 3x Short Daily ETP (3GOS), which provides triple short exposure to the gold price. It is up 48.5% month-to-date on the back of the dramatic sell-off.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has collaborated with GSO Capital Partners, the global credit business of private equity giant Blackstone, to roll out the SPDR Blackstone / GSO Senior Loan ETF (SRLN), the world’s first actively managed senior loan exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The global exchange-traded products (ETP) industry has recorded its best first quarter on record, amassing inflows of $70.1 billion, according to the latest ETP Landscape report from BlackRock. Russ Koesterich, Global Chief Investment Strategist at BlackRock, said: “Rather than the much-discussed ‘great rotation’ from bonds into equities, the first quarter showed investors moving cash from the sidelines into equities, and preparing for a rise in interest rates by rotating within fixed income into short-term and floating-rate ETFs.”

MSCI, a leading global index provider, has broadened its suite of smart beta ‘risk premia’ indices with the introduction of the MSCI Momentum Indices, initially comprising the MSCI ACWI Momentum Index and MSCI USA Momentum Index. The new indices, which reflect the performance of an equity momentum strategy and can enhance portfolio returns and diversification, have already caught the eye of iShares, the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

NYSE Euronext Indices and Bloomberg New Energy Finance have re-branded their family of clean energy indices to better represent the involvement of both NYSE and Bloomberg. The family is now known as NYSE Bloomberg Clean Energy Indexes. The indices were launched in April last year and are based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s database of organisations involved in clean energy and related sectors. The database includes more than 1,000 listed companies with at least 10% or more of their activity in clean energy.

Invesco PowerShares, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has revealed that assets under management in the highly popular PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio ETF (SPLV) have surpassed $4 billion. The fund tracks the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index, an index consisting of 100 stocks selected from the S&P 500 Index with the lowest realised volatility over the past 12 months.

The newly launched Global X SuperDividend US ETF (DIV) is the latest fund to be introduced by Global X Funds, a New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The NYSE Arca-listed fund combines two highly popular investment styles – high dividend and low volatility – by providing exposure to an equally-weighted portfolio of 50 high-income, low-beta equity securities traded in the United States.