SPA Launches MarketGrader ETFs

October 18, 2007

SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) - A new series of six exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with underlying indices designed to beat the market were launched on the American Stock Exchange (Amex) yesterday by SPA ETFs.

The SPA ETFs utilize the performance of fundamentally driven indices created by U.S. research company MarketGrader.

The first three funds are based on MarketGrader "Core" Indices, which are baskets of 40, 100 and 200 top-rated North American securities. The three "Cap" indices are based on the top 100 North American stocks within each market capitalization category.

According to the prospectus, all the funds will charge annual expense ratios of 0.85 percent.

"This is a very exciting time for ETFs in the U.S. Market, with more than 900 ETFs launched worldwide, and we are thrilled to launch the SPA ETFs on the American Stock Exchange since the SPA ETFs' possess unique qualities in this crowded space to investors" said, Daniel Freedman, Director, SPA ETFs.

He added, "We have found in MarketGrader a fundamentally based methodology system that has a solid performance history, and we are confident that this will provide investors with an investment tool that will stand out among this growing market."

All the stocks in each basket have an equal weighting and use 24 quantitative filters within four main areas (growth, value, profitability and cash flow) to carry out a thorough fundamental evaluation of more than 5,700 North American stocks.

The MarketGrader 40 ETF (Ticker: SFV) is rebalanced quarterly, all the other funds are rebalanced semi-annually.

This launch also follows SPA ETFs listing of the first set of fundamental ETFs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on September 12th, 2007.

Underlying call/put options on each of the new ETFs are expected to follow.

SPA ETFs is affiliated with London & Capital, an independent investment firm that oversees $3.5 billion of assets.

--MarketGrader 40 (Ticker: SFV)

--MarketGrader 100 (Ticker: SIH)

--MarketGrader 200 (Ticker: SNB)

--MarketGrader Small Cap (Ticker: SSK)

--MarketGrader Mid Cap (Ticker: SVD)

--MarketGrader Large Cap (Ticker: SZG)