Major Moves July: More Interest In Active ETFs, But Asset Growth Tepid

The S&P500 rose by 6.87% in July, as markets digested a slew of earnings reports from corporate in the US and also internationally. Uncertainty though continued to remain in the market, with concerns continuing to hover around in Europe. The results of the European bank stress tests did little to alleviate those concerns because of how "un-stressful" market participants saw those tests being.

In Active ETF land though, the action continued as more players from the mutual fund space, such as Alliance Bernstein made moves to join the Active ETF space. We also finally saw more actual products hitting the market and begin trading on their exchanges, after a lengthy assessment period on the part of the SEC. Grail Advisors also announced its partnership with DoubleLine, lead by renowned fixed-income manager, Jeffery Gundlach. The CEO of Grail Advisors, Bill Thomas, spoke to us and indicated how big of a win that was for the company. AdvisorShares also made lots of progress during the month, with two new fund launches that had been in the works for a while and also filing for additional actively-managed ETFs.

Fund Flows:

 

 

(Click each table to enlarge)

US Active ETFs saw their assets reduced by nearly $300million to $1.8billion, despite the addition of two new products from AdvisorShares which together garnered about $40million in assets, bringing the total number of US Active ETFs to 28. The Mars Hill Global Relative Value (GRV: 24.95 0.00%) in particular picked up steam very quickly, bringing in $38million in assets in about 3 weeks since its launch. At the same time, PIMCO's Enhanced Short Maturity ETF (MINT: 100.552 0.00%) continued to see more outflows, as investors moved their money in search of greater risk and return. MINT's assets dropped from roughly $650million to around $330million. And as in previous months, the fate of PIMCO's MINT also largely determined the fate of the entire Active ETF space as a whole.

Warranting individual mention, the iShares Diversified Alternatives Trust (ALT: 49.96 0.00%) continued to gather assets slowly but surely, picking up another $10million in assets in July. WisdomTree's Chinese Yuan Fund (CYB: 24.95 0.00%) saw more than a $100million coming out of the fund.

In Canada though, the month of July saw some long-awaited action within the actively-managed ETF space as AlphaPro broadened its selection of ETFs by bring 3 new products to market, including the first fixed-income active ETF for the Canadian market. Where most of AlphaPro's active equity ETFs have continued to languish around the seed capital mark, its newly launched Corporate Bond ETF (HAB) really caught the attention of investors as they piled into the fund, sending the fund soaring to a market cap of $222million in a mere 15 days since its launch. This effectively meant more than tripling AlphaPro's total asset base within Active ETFs to $330million.

Head to our Active ETFs Database for a more dynamic listing of all Active ETFs.

New Entrants and Filings:

1. RiverPark expanded its initial ETF line-up – direct link

2. ALPS Advisor filed for an Active Global Fixed-Income ETF – direct link

3. Alliance Bernstein joins Active ETF race – direct link

4. AdvisorShares files for Short-Only ETF – direct link

5. WisdomTree files plans for Commodity Currency and Emerging Market Debt Active ETF – direct link

6. AdvisorShares files for Cambria Global Tactical ETF – direct link