Tag Archives: lightbox

New Liquid Alts Funds Launched In January

New liquid alternative mutual funds and ETFs launched in January include: HedgeRow Income and Opportunity Fund (MUTF: HROAX ) GuidePath Managed Futures Strategy Fund (MUTF: GIFMX ) Toews Tactical Defensive Alpha Fund (MUTF: TTDAX ) Ivy Targeted Return Bond Fund (MUTF: IRBAX ) Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guardian ETF (BATS: GARD ) Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Defender ETF (BATS: DFND ) HedgeRow Income and Opportunity Fund HROAX launched on January 21. The fund seeks a combination of income and capital appreciation by establishing both long and short positions in domestic stocks, mostly large caps from the S&P 500. Its net expense ratio is 1.25%. GuidePath Managed Futures Strategy Fund GIFMX debuted on January 19. It pursues a managed-futures strategy using the fund’s sub-advisor’s proprietary quantitative models to identify price trends across asset classes: stocks, bonds, interest rates, currencies, and commodities. The fund is sub-advised by AssetMark. The fund’s investment objective is to generate positive absolute returns over time. Its net expense ratio is 1.05%. Toews Tactical Defensive Alpha Fund TTDAX made its debut on January 7. It employs a long/short equity strategy in pursuit of long-term capital growth, with a secondary focus on limiting risk during downturns. Its investments may include U.S. stocks of all capitalization sizes, foreign large-cap stocks, ETFs that invest primarily in common stocks, bonds, cash equivalents, and derivatives including but not limited to equity index futures. The fund’s net expense ratio is 1.00%. Ivy Targeted Return Bond Fund IRBAX launched on January 4. Employing a “nontraditional bond” strategy, the fund seeks total return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation. Sub-advisor Pictet Asset Management invests at least 80% of the fund’s net assets in debt securities with maturities of at least one year, and gauges its performance against the Barclays Capital U.S. 1-3 Month Treasury Bill Index. The fund has a net expense ratio of 0.90%. Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guardian ETF GARD, an exchange-traded fund, debuted on January 14 . The ETF tracks the Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guard Index , which is based on the idea that companies that increase their dividends tend to outperform the broad market, and companies that cut or suspend their dividends tend to underperform the broad market. GARD may or may not have short positions: based on Reality Shares’ proprietary methodology, the ETF may either consist of 100% long exposure or a “50/50” long/short approach. Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Defender ETF Like GARD, DFND was also launched on January 14. Also like GARD, DFND tracks a Reality Shares DIVCON Index – this time, the Dividend Defender Index . Unlike GARD, DFND has a long portfolio and a short portfolio at all times. The ETF’s long portfolio consists of the 30 stocks from the initial universe of 500 that have the highest DIVCON ratings – “DIVCON ratings” are based on how likely a stock is to raise or cut its dividend. Jason Seagraves contributed to this article.

Time For Buy-Write ETFs?

The year 2016 saw an appalling start on the bourses as last year’s headwinds spilled over this year with deepening woes. This is especially true as the world’s second-largest economy is not showing any sign of reviving anytime soon and the global oil market continues to be overloaded. These two issues have been thwarting global economic growth and raising threats of deflation (read: 5 ETF Plays for a Bear Market ). In fact, both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded their projection for world economic growth. The World Bank cut its growth forecast to 2.9% for this year from 3.3%, while IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.4% this year, down 0.2% from its previous estimate. Moreover, IMF warned that the global economy is on the verge of another financial meltdown. The World Bank stated that persistent weakness in China and a worse-than-expected slowdown in Brazil and Russia have worsened an already bleak global economic outlook. Further, on the domestic front, weak Q4 corporate earnings, a strong dollar, uncertain timing on the next interest rates hike and a spate of weak economic data are weighing heavily on investors’ sentiments. In particular, the U.S. economy grew at a slower pace of 0.7% in the fourth quarter after having advanced 2% in the third quarter and 3.9% in the second. With this, the rate of economic expansion in 2015 is the same as that of 2.4% in 2014. In such a sluggish backdrop, investors are looking to provide capital appreciation opportunities in the equity world with simultaneous downside protection. A gainful option for now could be the ‘Buy-Write’ strategy. Buy-Write Strategy in Focus A buy-write is an option strategy that involves buying a stock or a basket of stocks and then selling or writing call options on those same assets. With this process, the portfolio aims to generate additional monthly income from the call option (premiums collected). If the product stays flat or declines slightly, investors keep the premium and their stock. However, if prices rise, investors only receive the premium and the stocks are sold at the price that was agreed upon on the covered call. As such, the products would probably underperform in bull markets, as this strategy eats away the potential gain especially in a short time frame. However, investors seeking to make a play on the broad U.S. equity indices using this strategy could consider the following ETFs (read: 6 Quality Dividend ETFs for Safety and Income ): PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite Portfolio ETF (NYSEARCA: PBP ) This fund tracks the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index, which measures the performance of a hypothetical buy-write strategy on the S&P 500 Index. This strategy includes holding a long position of the stocks in the S&P 500 and selling a succession of covered call options, each with an exercise price at or above the prevailing price level of the S&P 500 Index. The fund has amassed $314.6 million in AUM and trades in average daily volume of nearly 180,000 shares a day. The product is a bit pricier than the other choices, charging 75 bps in annual fees. The ETF has an annual yield of 2.34% and has shed 5.8% so far this year. Horizons S&P 500 Covered Call ETF (NYSEARCA: HSPX ) This ETF seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Stock Covered Call Index, which holds a long position in the stocks of the S&P 500 Index while at the same time, short (write) call options on option-eligible stocks in the S&P 500 Index. The fund has accumulated $57 million in its asset base and charges 65 bps in fees per year from investors. Volume is light as it exchanges less than 5,000 shares in hand on average daily basis. The ETF has 5.43% in annual dividends and has lost 7.7% in the year-to-date timeframe (read: Buy-Ranked Large Cap Value ETFs in Focus ). Recon Capital NASDAQ 100 Covered Call ETF (NASDAQ: QYLD ) This ETF follows the CBOE NASDAQ-100 BuyWrite Index, which is designed to buy a NASDAQ-100 stock index portfolio, and writing (or selling) the near-term NASDAQ-100 Index covered call option, generally on the third Friday of each month. The product has $30.2 million in AUM and trades in light volume of under 18,000 shares a day on average. Expense ratio came in at 0.60% and annual dividend yield is higher at 10.45%. QYLD has lost 9.7% so far this year. AdvisorShares STAR Global Buy-Write ETF (NYSEARCA: VEGA ) This fund is actively managed and looks to provide investors with consistent, repeatable returns across all types of market environments. This may be done by using a proprietary strategy known as Volatility Enhanced Global Appreciation. VEGA is primarily a fund of funds and employs a Buy-Write or Covered Call overlay for its global allocation strategy using ETPs. The ETF has amassed $20.5 million in its asset base, while trades in average daily volumes of 4,000 shares. It charges a higher fee of 2.15% a year from investors and is down 5.7% in the same time period. iPath CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index ETN (NYSEARCA: BWV ) This is an ETN option and tracks the similar index as that of PBP. Unlike PBP, the ETN carries credit risk from the issuing institution – Barclays. The note is less popular and less liquid as depicted by its AUM of $9 million and average volume of under 1,000 shares. The ETN charges 0.75% in fees and expenses and has lost 6.9% in the year-to-date timeframe. Bottom Line Though these products have delivered negative returns from a year-to-date look, yields are impressive, making up for most of the losses incurred so far. As such, these are appropriate for investors seeking high levels of current income and a hedged exposure to the large cap U.S. equities. It is worth noting that the funds will lag significantly during a boom time, but will be an interesting choice in flat or declining markets, especially for investors seeking extra income in a volatile environment. Original Post

3 Best-Ranked Legg Mason Mutual Funds

Founded in 1899, Legg Mason is one of the world’s largest asset managers with assets under management of $708 billion. Legg Mason and its affiliates currently manage 112 mutual funds across a wide range of categories, including both equity and fixed-income funds, with over $96.1 billion (excluding money market assets) invested in them. It uses a multi-affiliate business model that allows each affiliate to operate with a high degree of autonomy utilizing its unique approach and processes. The company provides an array of financial services to individual and institutional investors in 190 countries across six continents. Below, we share with you three top-rated Legg Mason mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Legg Mason mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of Legg Mason mutual funds. ClearBridge Large Cap Value A (MUTF: SINAX ) seeks capital appreciation over the long run. SINAX invests a major chunk of its assets in securities of companies having a large market capitalization. SINAX primarily focuses on acquiring equity securities of companies. The ClearBridge Large Cap Value A fund has a three-year annualized return of 7.6%. SINAX has an expense ratio of 0.89% as compared to the category average of 1.11%. QS Legg Mason Moderate Growth A (MUTF: SCGRX ) primarily invests its assets in underlying funds. SCGRX is expected to allocate 55-85% of its assets in mutual funds, which in turn invest in equity securities. The remaining 15% to 45% is believed to be invested in fixed-income mutual funds. QS Legg Mason Moderate Growth A is a non-diversified fund with a three-year annualized return of 3.9%. As of December 2015, SCGRX held 17 issues with 11.95% of its assets invested in Western Asset Core Plus Bond IS. QS Legg Mason Conservative Growth A (MUTF: SBBAX ) seeks to maintain a balance between capital and income. SBBAX invests 35% to 65% of its assets in underlying funds that focus on acquiring equity securities. SBBAX’s investment in fixed income underlying funds may also vary from 35% to 65% of its assets. QS Legg Mason Conservative Growth A is a non-diversified fund with a three-year annualized return of 3.1%. Y. Wayne Lin is one of the fund managers of SBBAX since 2012. Original Post