On January 16th, First Trust filed paperwork with the SEC seeking permission to bring to market two actively managed ETFs. The First Trust Enhanced High Income ETF and the First Trust Enhanced Low Beta Income ETF will both focus primarily on U.S. equity securities while,” selling exchange listed call options on the S&P 500 Index to seek additional cash flow.” The funds differ as the latter fund will also buy long puts as part of a hedging strategy while the former does not. No ticker symbol or expense ratio was provided.
Also on January 16th, iShares submitted paperwork with the SEC seeking to market three passively managed ETFs which will hold investment-grade corporate debt scheduled to mature in specific time periods. The proposed funds, their filings and the scheduled mature dates are as follows:
The iShares 2016 Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF [ YTMA ] will terminate on March 31, 2016 and is composed of investment grade corporate bonds that are scheduled to mature between March 31, 2015 and April 1, 2016. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.10%.
The iShares 2020 Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF [ YTMC ] will terminate on March 31, 2020 and is composed of investment grade corporate bonds that mature between March 31, 2019 and April 1, 2020. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.10%.
The iShares 2023 Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF [ YTMD ] will terminate on March 31,2023 and is composed of investment grade corporate bonds that mature between March 31, 2022 and April 1, 2023.
Last week, five currency ETFs that belong to the WisdsomTree family of funds were renamed. Although these name changes took effect on January 14th, no other changes were made to the products or their investment objective.