BlackRock, the asset manager behind the iShares suite of exchange-traded funds, has released their Global ETP Landscape Report for November. The paper highlights continued net gathering of assets among the global ETP sector during the month, spurred on by significant demand for US equity ETFs. Meanwhile, a substantial slowdown in net inflows for fixed income ETFs and outflows in emerging market equity ETFs were a drag on global gathering performance.

Van Eck Global, the asset manager behind the Market Vectors range of exchange-traded funds, has cross-listed the Market Vectors Morningstar US Wide Moat UCITS ETF (MOAT) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The fund tracks the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index, an equally-weighted reference for the top 20 most attractively priced US firms that are deemed to have sustainable long-term competitive advantages within their industries, according to Morningstar’s proprietary methodology.

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market indices and a major player in the exchange-traded funds industry, has announced the launch of the S&P 500 Low Volatility Target Beta Index. “The S&P 500 Low Volatility Target Beta Index is a dynamic index,” commented Vinit Srivastava, Senior Director, Strategy Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The index measures the performance of low volatility stocks within the S&P 500, while maintaining the S&P 500’s level of overall market risk.”

iShares, the exchange-traded fund arm of asset manager BlackRock, has launched euro-denominated share classes of existing ETFs, targeting US sector-specific exposure, on Deutsche Borse’s Xetra and Frankfurt exchanges. The five cross-listed ETFs invest in securities of S&P 500 companies that are classified as operating within the healthcare, financials, information technology, consumer discretionary, or energy sectors as determined by the Global Industry Classification Standards.

Direxion Investments, a US-based provider of short and leveraged (S&L) exchange-traded funds, has launched three new ETFs offering short exposures to the biotech, healthcare and natural gas industries. These ETFs complement existing funds offering bullish exposures in their respective sectors, affording investors with greater flexibility to tailor their desired exposure. S&L funds are usually held for a limited period of time and serve the purpose of allowing investors to capture movements in price attributable to short-term event-driven news.

Tierra Funds, an exchange-traded fund sponsor focused on the Americas region, has introduced the Tierra XP Latin America Real Estate ETF (LARE), the first US listed ETF to deliver access to real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate operating companies (REOCs) in Latin America. The ETF is designed to tap into the growth potential and opportunities in the Latin American property market. “LARE offers investors both current income and growth potential as well as access to local real estate equities that are otherwise not available in competing products,” said James Anderson, Managing Partner at Tierra Funds.

Alpha Architect, an investment firm and exchange-traded fund designer, has launched a US equity ETF providing exposure to stocks with high quality momentum characteristics in an attempt to generate market beating returns. “We believe our edge is robust: we design systematic investment programs that seek to exploit mispricing caused by irrational investors,” said Founder and CIO, Wesley R. Gray, Ph.D. “We invest the majority of our resources in research and development, with a focus on understanding how investor psychology affects stock prices. QMOM seeks to exploit the so-called momentum anomaly in a systematic, high-conviction, tax-efficient, and affordable way.”

ERI Scientific Beta, the smart beta indexing initiative spun out off EDHEC-Risk Institute, has announced the release of a new suite of multi-factor smart beta indices based around fundamental measures of quality, namely high profitability and low investment. The combination of these factors has culminated in the firm’s Quality Multi-Beta Indices, a rules-based investable index which could form the basis of an exchange-traded fund. According to Scientific Beta, the high profitability and low investment risk factors have been identified in academic literature as a source of higher returns in the long-term when compared to market cap-weighted benchmarks.

IG Group, an online trading platform, has announced the acquisition of InvestYourWay, an online investment manager that builds bespoke investment solutions. Michael Newell (pictured), Founder and CEO of InvestYourWay, has joined IG to help develop the offering. Ian Peacock, Head of IG UK, commented: “We’re delighted to have acquired such an innovative business as InvestYourWay and look forward to working alongside Michael in his new role at IG. We believe that by combining InvestYourWay’s innovative technology and IG’s world class platform and development expertise we’ll be able to build a truly best in class offering in the investments space in partnership with BlackRock.

Financial advisers are increasingly outsourcing the management of their client’s investments to discretionary fund managers and this, in turn, is driving the demand for exchange-traded funds. Improving access and providing a greater variety of ETFs on UK fund platforms is imperative to foster this demand. Robin Beer, National Intermediary manager at Brewin Dolphin, commented: “ETFs play a key role in delivering value to our clients. Providing advisers with risk appropriate portfolios for their clients relies on broad investment access and choice to make sure our market views are expressed in the most efficient way. We would like to see a broader group of platforms integrate ETFs into their platform offering alongside other tools to provide greater choice.”