Northern Trust Launches Global ETF
November 19, 2008

SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) – The NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 Index Fund ETF (NYSE Arca: MYG) was introduced for trading on the NYSE Arca stock exchange yesterday.

The new fund follows a broad basket of 300 global stocks and is calculated by the FTSE Group.

Exxon Mobil, Proctor & Gamble, and Microsoft are the fund’s three largest stock holdings.  Financials, energy, and consumer goods represent the fund’s three largest industry sectors.

Up until now, most of Northern Trust’s ETFs have been focused on the equity markets of single countries or niche sectors like real estate.

The fund’s underlying index selects stocks with a passive strategy and weights each company by its market capitalization or size. (See ETFguide's Index Strategy Map below) All of the holdings are reconstituted annually.

MYG is the 17th Northern Trust ETF and it will charge annual expenses of 0.43 percent.

"We are pleased to welcome the FTSE CNBC Global 300 ETF to NYSE Arca," said Lisa Dallmer, SVP, Global Exchange Traded Products and Indexes at the NYSE Euronext.

The NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 ETF will compete with other funds in its same category like the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (NYSEArca: VT) and the iShares MSCI AWCI Index Fund (NasdaqGM: ACWI). Each of the latter ETFs charge annual expenses of 0.25 and 0.35 percent.

ETFguide's Index Strategy Maps are a visual tool that helps investors to understand how ETF indexes are selecting and weighting securities.

The Map's vertical axis explains the three security selection methods of indexes: Passive, screened, or quantitative. The horizontal axis explains how securities are weighted: By market capitalization, fundamentals, or an equal or fixed weighting.