Hedge funds have suffered a blow following the announcement from Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky that he would be closing his Greek-focused fund after it plummeted in value by 90%, just two years after it launched. For passive investors, the news was a stark reminder that hedge funds come with a lot of risk, especially when they are making big bets on a single market. ETF assets, now at around $3.13tn, according to ETFGI data, beat that of hedge funds for the first time ever last summer, but have taken a battering in the hedge fund space following negative performance.

UBS has launched three new exchange traded funds offering exposure to commodities and emerging market bonds. The two EM bond ETFs incorporate a currency hedge. The UBS ETFs plc – CMCI ex-Agriculture SF UCITS ETF and the UBS ETF (LU) Barclays USD Emerging Markets Sovereign hedged GBP UCITS ETF are listed on the London Stock Exchange today, while the UBS ETF (LU) Barclays USD Emerging Markets Sovereign hedged EUR UCITS ETF is listed on Xetra and in Italy and The Netherlands. Andrew Walsh, Head of UBS ETFs Sales UK & Ireland, said: “The new commodities ETF tracks a more advanced 2nd generation underlying index and offers investors an opportunity to access broad commodities.”

The latest YouGov poll on the EU Referendum has found the race continues to be hard fought and tightly won with 40% of voters electing to stay “in”, 39% wanting “out” of Europe and 16% remaining undecided on which way they should vote. In the run up to 23rd June’s so-called “Brexit” vote most polls suggest Britons will remain in the EU – propelled by David Cameron’s acquiring of the UK’s “special status”. However, while ongoing uncertainty could also spell further weakness for Sterling – the GBP versus Euro has slipped nearly 6% since the start of the year from €1.35 to €1.27 today [19th April] – there could be opportunities in currency-hedged UK equity ETFs.

Exchange traded fund investors with exposure to the FTSE 100 index could have benefited from the index rising to 6,362 points on 13 April 2016 as mining companies and banks propelled the index up 1.5% over the course of the day. The index’s close was its highest point this year and means it has recovered 825 points (14.9%) since its lowest point this year on 11 February. The index is the principal reference for the largest stocks listed in the United Kingdom by market capitalisation and underlies a significant number of investment products such as ETFs. The largest ETF (by assets under management) tracking the FTSE 100 Index is the iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF), with over £3.8bn in AUM.

Companies that have a low gap between their highest paid executives and the average worker’s salary have higher-than-average profit margins, according to research from global index provider MSCI. The data comes amid increased interest in SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) investing – a growing area of ETF product development.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has announced that a record number of exchange-traded funds were listed on its platform last month. February saw providers list 30 ETFs on the bourse with half of these focused on the fixed income sector. The strong listing activity brings the total number of ETFs/ETPs launched on the LSE this year to 37 ETFs/ETPs, 11 more than for the same period last year. The uptick in listings comes as the industry saw assets hit a record high of $372 billion last year, according to ETFGI.

While market volatility will continue to fuel the growing popularity of multi-factor smart beta strategies in 2016, there will be greater focus on diversification than trying to predict which factor will dominate, according to asset management research firm Cerulli. “Over the past year as market uncertainty has reigned, multi-factor smart beta strategies have garnered greater interest. We expect total assets under management to continue to increase not only in Europe but in the US and Asia as well,” said Justina Deveikyte, a senior analyst at Cerulli.

UBS Asset Management has unveiled an exchange-traded fund providing investors with access to emerging markets sovereign debt. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the UBS ETF (LU) Barclays USD Emerging Markets Sovereign UCITS ETF delivers exposure to sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds from more than 60 emerging markets countries. Commenting on the launch, Andrew Walsh, Head of UBS ETF Sales for UK & Ireland, said: “The addition of the UBS Barclays USD Emerging Markets Sovereign UCITS ETF continues our expansion in the fixed income space and offers our clients a simple way to access USD-denominated government debt issued by emerging economies with competitive pricing.”

UBS Asset Management, Europe’s fourth largest provider of exchange-traded funds, has listed 52 funds on Euronext Amsterdam. The mass listing substantially increases the range of ETFs available to Dutch investors and means that UBS now accounts for a quarter of all ETFs listed on the exchange. Marcel Danen, Head of UBS ETFs Netherlands, commented: “The listing of this large amount of ETFs shows our commitment to the Dutch market. I am very pleased that we can now make our extensive experience and capabilities directly available to the Dutch investment community.”

European-listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products have gathered a record $72.6bn in net new assets as of the end of November 2015. This figure is well above the previous year-to-date (YTD) record of $61.5bn set in 2014. Net inflows of $4.0bn for November marks the 14th consecutive month of positive net inflows in Europe. This came against the backdrop of what was a relatively benign market in terms of performance.