Assets invested in inverse and leveraged ETFs listed globally increased 14.1% in the first nine months of 2017 to reach a new record high of $77.1 billion, according to London-based ETF industry consultant ETFGI.
Nebraska-based brokerage firm TD Ameritrade has announced a major increase in the scope of its commission-free ETF trading platform, tripling the number of ETFs available from 100 to 296. The expansion means TD Ameritrade now offers the largest commission-free ETF trading program in the industry.
ProShares, a US-based provider specializing in inverse and leveraged ETFs, has announced it is closing 13 funds in its line-up.
ProShares has launched the ProShares Equities for Rising Rates ETF (Nasdaq: EQRR), the first US equity ETF designed to outperform traditional large-cap indices, such as the S&P 500, in a rising interest rate environment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to be sending out contradictory signals regarding the use of leveraged ETFs following the approval and subsequent review of two new quadruple leveraged ETFs.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a request to list quadruple-leveraged exchange-traded funds in the US.
US ETF provider ProShares has found that dividend-grower strategies have historically outperformed high-dividend-yield strategies in both periods of rising and falling rates. Dividend-grower strategies target stocks that consistently grow their dividends over time while high-dividend-yield strategies choose to focus on the stocks with the highest dividend yields.
ProShares has launched two new ETFs providing triple leveraged and triple inverse leveraged access to West Texas Intermediate crude oil. The ProShares UltraPro 3x Crude Oil ETF (NYSE: OILU) and ProShares UltraPro 3x Short Crude Oil ETF (NYSE: OILD) track the daily performance of the Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Subindex, providing 3x and -3x exposure respectively.
Oil traders for the last two weeks have shrugged off reports that U.S. stockpiles are brimming at their largest levels ever recorded, as the market continues to bet that crude prices will climb higher. Oil has maintained its buoyancy because the market is betting that cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will largely rebalance the oil market, despite continued production increases from shale formations in the United States.
The ETF industry has a revenue-generating potential of around $6bn per year in the US alone, according to data from FactSet Research Systems. The figure, approximated by summing the “annual revenue potential” of each US-listed ETF, is mainly derived from low-cost, “plain vanilla” ETFs which generate roughly $3.8bn in revenue. More exotic and specialised products, although making up just 28% of US ETF assets, generate a healthy $2.2bn in revenue due to their ability to command higher fees.