UBS and hedge fund index specialists Hedge Fund Research (HFR) have announced the launch of four hedge fund strategy ETFs. The new ETFs, which are referenced to HFRX strategy indices, offer investors the opportunity to participate in the performance of specific hedge fund strategies within a liquid UCITS-compliant vehicle. The strategies include equity hedge, event driven, relative value arbitrage and macro CTA.

UBS Global Asset Management has listed twelve new ETFs on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra in the past couple of weeks, as the Switzerland-headquartered investment giant builds out its ETF offering. The ETFs were introduced in two batches – 30 May 2012 and 12 June 2012 – and are based on major developed-market equity indices from MSCI, FTSE and S&P.

According to data from Credit Suisse, European ETFs recorded inflows of $3,234m in May, though the result was skewed by the German-domiciled iShares DAX ETF (EXSI), which recorded inflows of $4,744m. May was a busy month for European ETF issuers, with 21 new launches. The highlight of the month was perhaps the launch of 5 ETFs by Vanguard – a much anticipated entry into the European market and one that may potentially change the dynamics of the market itself.

UBS has announced the launch of two new ETRACS ETNs designed to deliver high monthly income and leveraged exposure to blue-chip dividend indices. The two ETNs, the ETRACS Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Dow Jones Select Dividend Index ETN (DVYL) and the ETRACS Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged S&P Dividend ETN (SDYL), are linked to indices tracking high-dividend-paying companies in the US which have been screened to ensure that only companies with sustainable dividend policies are included.

Facebook’s stock market debut on Friday was more of a sputter than a splash. The company, which many thought would fly out of the blocks LinkedIn style, just about held its IPO price. Despite this, the social-networking giant’s reach is huge (over 900m users) and many investors are backing it to achieve great things. Facebook will eventually gain inclusion into a number of ETFs. We profile those, such as the Global X Social Media ETF (SOCL) and the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index ETF (FDN), that are likely to hold it as a significant weight.