|
Swooning Stock Market Gives Birth to More New ETFs
November 21, 2008
SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) – Bear market or not, more exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are on their way.
RevenueShares added to its growing roster of ETFs. Yesterday the company launched the RevenueShares ADR Fund (NYSEArca: RTR), which will focus on international stocks.
The fund’s underlying index contains non-U.S. companies that are part of the S&P Global 1200. Companies within the index are selected passively and rebalanced annually.
Never miss a beat - Sign up for the #1 FREE ETF Newsletter
Instead of weighting stocks in a traditional manner by market capitalization, RTR weights stocks by their annual revenue, which is a fundamental measure. (See
ETFguide's Index Strategy Maps below. They 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.
“The RevenueShares ADR Fund is being launched to meet the demand from investors that seek a diversified international ETF with the upside of a revenue-weighting,” says Sean O’Hara, President of RevenueShares Investor Services. “Relying on an ADR index gives investors the clarity, transparency and standardization that many international funds cannot claim. The Fund combines the advantages of ADR investing with the benefits of the ranking of an S&P Index by revenue.”
RTR goes head-to-head with larger rivals like the $26 billion iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (NYSEArca: EFA).
The fund’s annual expense ratio is 0.49%.
Never miss a beat - Sign up for the #1 FREE ETF Newsletter
O’Hara notes the S&P ADR Index adds more diversification than funds that track the MSCI EAFE Index, which only includes Europe, Australasia, and the
Far East. The RevenueShares ADR Fund will include those regions as well as
Canada,
Mexico, and
South America.
In related news, Invesco PowerShares debuted the PowerShares Active U.S. Real Estate Fund (NYSEArca: PSR).
The fund is an actively managed real estate ETF that selects real estate stocks from the FTSE NAREIT Equity REITs Index.
After beginning 2008 on a positive note, the value of REITs (NYSEArca: RWR) has deteriorated by almost 60% since the beginning of the year.
Joe V. Rodriguez Jr. is the fund’s portfolio manager and its annual expense ratio is 0.80%.
|
