In 2013, the S&P GSCI Gold and DJ-UBS Gold indices fell 28.3%. Given the severity of this loss and the magnitude of outflows from gold ETPs ($36.4 billion in the 11 months to 30 November 2013, according to BlackRock), many questions have been asked about the future of gold. In this Q&A, Jodie Gunzberg, Vice President of Commodity Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, answers some of the most popular questions on ETP investors’ minds.

MTS, one of Europe’s largest electronic fixed income trading venues, is to launch request-for-quote (RFQ) trading for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via its multi-dealer-to-client MTS BondVision platform. The new service will offer liquidity providers access to a diverse community of global institutional investors and will support ETF products listed on the Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange. ETF issuers available via platform will include Amundi, db X-trackers, ETF Securities, iShares, Lyxor, Ossiam, PowerShares, RBS, Source, SPDR and UBS.

UBS Global Asset Management has listed eight new sterling-hedged ETFs on the London Stock Exchange. Aimed at sterling-based investors, the ETFs contain in-built currency hedges enabling investors to mitigate the risk of exchange rate fluctuations. Andrew Walsh, Head of UBS ETF Sales UK, explained: “These currency-hedged UBS ETFs are ideal building blocks for investors looking to minimize their currency risks. In this way, we are responding to a growing need of investors who would like to better hedge their portfolios against exchange rate fluctuations.”

UBS Global Asset Management has partnered with five leading fund platforms – Ascentric, Hargreaves Lansdown, Nucleus Financial, Raymond James and Transact – to make 14 core exchange-traded funds more accessible to UK financial advisers and private investors. Andrew Walsh, Head of ETF Sales UK at UBS Global Asset Management, said: “For IFAs, the RDR has sharpened the focus on costs and margins. Against this backdrop, we expect ETFs to become increasingly attractive in light of their low cost, efficiency and transparency.”

ETF Securities, a leading provider of exchange-traded products, has launched a new product providing exposure to energy commodities while mitigating the effect of currency volatility for euro-referenced investors. Listed on the Deutsche Börse, the ETFS EUR Daily Hedged Energy DJ-UBS ED (00XU) reflects the performance of futures contracts based on Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Brent Crude, RBOB Gasoline and Heating Oil, as well as incorporating a daily rebalanced currency hedge against movements in the EUR/USD exchange rate.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) has rolled out two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) providing exposure to Nordic and Turkish equity markets. Kai Bald, Head of Public Distribution for Passive Investments at DeAWM, commented: “The Nordic ETF will be welcomed by those investors keen to focus on, or diversify in favour of, this particular part of the continent, which has performed strongly over the past year. The Turkey ETF meanwhile brings even greater choice to our already expansive emerging markets range.”

NYSE Euronext has announced the launch of the NYSE Diversified High Income Index, a new strategy index measuring the performance of a highly diversified, multi-asset portfolio of high yielding securities. The index has been licensed to UBS to underlie the newly launched NYSE Arca-listed ETRACS Diversified High Income ETN (DVHI). The strategy provides exposure to a basket of 138 publicly traded securities that provide exposure to several different asset classes, sectors and segments across multiple geographies that have historically paid high dividends or distributions.

UBS Global Asset Management has slashed the fees charged on its adviser class of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a bid to attract a greater slice of European ETF inflows. The new lower fees, which pertain to the asset manager’s ‘A’ share class ETFs, have been applied with immediate effect, resulting in instant cost savings and tighter index tracking for investors in these ETFs. Andrew Walsh, Head of ETF Sales UK at UBS, said the move demonstrated the firm’s “ambitions in the ETF business”.

iShares, the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and best known for its equity and fixed income products, has expanded its offering in the commodities space with the launch of the iShares Dow Jones-UBS Roll Select Commodity Index Trust (CMDT) on the NYSE Arca. The product is designed to provide exposure to a broad basket of commodity futures while reducing the negative effects of ‘contango’ and accentuating the benefits of ‘backwardation’.

Positive economic news, particularly from China, helped to fuel a mini-revival in industrial commodity prices last week despite rising expectations that the US Federal Reserve will begin tapering its stimulus programme. Exchange-traded products (ETPs) linked to industrial metals were a significant beneficiary of this revival, with aluminium-based products seeing additional demand due to a combination of actual and anticipated production cuts.