Tag Archives: etf-hub

Investors Turn Away From Municipal Bond Mutual Funds

By Patrick Keon Municipal bond mutual funds have suffered nine consecutive weeks of net outflows. During this time period municipal bond fund have had approximately $3.3 billion leave their coffers. This streak of negative flows comes on the heels of sixteen straight months of positive flows during which time the group took in $31.9 billion in net new money. The lion’s share of the outflows (-$2.5 billion) during the last nine weeks have come from funds in Lipper’s national municipal fund classifications. Amongst those, high yield municipal debt funds (-$1.5 billion) and short-term municipal debt funds (-$0.5 billion) have experienced the largest negative flows. Some of the funds with the largest outflows over the last nine weeks include Nuveen High Yield Municipal Bond Fund ( NHMAX) (-$636 million), Invesco High Yield Municipal Fund (MUTF: ACTHX ) (-$178 million) and Oppenheimer Rochester High Yield Municipal Fund (MUTF: ORNAX ) (-$162 million). Over a third of the total net outflows (-$1.2 billion) for municipal bond flows occurred last week and once again high yield municipal debt funds were responsible for the largest chunk (-$0.47 billion) of the activity. It is possible that the Puerto Rico debt crisis may have been a factor in last week’s spike in outflows from high yield municipal debt funds as both the Oppenheimer Rochester High Yield Municipal Fund and Invesco High Yield Municipal Fund have significant holdings in Puerto Rico municipal debt. (click to enlarge) Share this article with a colleague

Hull Launches Its First ETF Product For U.S. Market

Hull Tactical Asset Allocation, in partnership with Exchange Traded Concepts, a white label exchange traded fund (ETF) service provider, has recently launched a new fund that employs a long-short strategy with the potential to profit from both rising and falling market conditions. The fund trades under the name Hull Tactical U.S. ETF (NYSEARCA: HTUS ). Below, we have highlighted some of the details about this newly launched product for investors keen to include this type of fund as part of their portfolio. Hull Tactical U.S. ETF The newly launched actively managed ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in U.S. equities and Treasuries markets. The fund uses proprietary, patent-pending, quantitative trading model, to take long and short positions in ETFs, leveraged ETFs or other securities that seek to track the performance of the S&P 500. The model is designed to forecast the returns of the S&P 500 for the next six months. Also, the fund is constructed to perform under all market conditions. The ETF currently holds 69.7% in the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ). However, the active strategy renders the fund pretty expensive with 99 basis points as annual fees How Does it Fit in the Portfolio? The fund is a good option for investors seeking to stay invested in the market under all conditions. “A wide range of investors – from sophisticated retail investors, to independent advisors to endowments and pension funds in the institutional space – should find our product advantageous,” says Steve McCarten, Chief Operating Officer of Hull Tactical Asset Allocation. Given the current equity market condition, investors can expect to reduce volatility exposure to the equity market through this fund. This is especially true as the long-short positions taken by the fund help to withstand volatility. Moreover, the fund is expected to provide higher diversification benefits as the long strategy is believed to be highly uncorrelated to the traditional asset classes. “Investing in the S&P 500 can be an uncertain game, but a disciplined and systematic approach can help you to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis,” says Blair Hull, Founder of Hull Tactical Asset Allocation. Competition Though the long-short space is not much crowded, it is gaining popularity every passing day and seeing a buildup in assets. The ProShares RAFI Long/Short ETF (NYSEARCA: RALS ) is expected to be the biggest competitor for the newly launched fund in the long-short space. This passively managed fund has an asset base of $46.7 million and charges 95 basis points as expenses. Apart from this, the First Trust Long/Short Equity ETF (NYSEARCA: FTLS ) is also likely to pose some competition for the fund. The actively managed product manages a relatively small asset base of $16.1 million and charges 95 basis points. Thus, it needs to be seen whether the newly launched ETF, which is slightly expensive to both the existing products, is successful in garnering a sizable asset base. Given its high expense ratio in the space, the success is expected to be a huge factor of the net returns the fund manages to deliver. Link to the original post on Zacks.com

Neuberger Berman Adds Long/Short Credit To Its Liquid Alts Lineup

By DailyAlts Staff A quarter-century ago, standard savings accounts paid enough interest to encourage people to keep their money in the bank. Times have obviously changed, and nothing could drive this point home harder than the fact some European countries saw benchmark interest rates fall below zero – into negative territory – earlier this year. In such a low-rate environment, traditional long-only bond investing isn’t much more attractive than holding cash in a low-yield savings account, especially since cash is safer than bonds – or at least it should be. Clearly, income-oriented investors need new strategies for generating current income and preserving capital, and that’s precisely what the Neuberger Berman Long/Short Credit Fund (MUTF: NLNAX ) aims to provide. Investment Approach The Neuberger Berman Long/Short Credit Fund, which was launched on June 29, pursues a fundamentally driven credit strategy involving both long and short positions. Its objective is to generate current income while managing volatility and preserving capital. Investments for the fund are selected using a multi-disciplinary approach with bottom-up company analysis, while taking the macroeconomic environment into consideration, as well. The fund’s overall strategy can be broken down into three sub-strategies: Core credit , which focuses on taking long positions in short-duration credit instruments; Alpha-seeking long/short , which involves taking directional positions in securities based on relative value and capital-structure arbitrage; and Opportunistic , which involves active and frequent trading in securities selected by the fund’s portfolio managers as attractive trading opportunities. Management The fund is managed by Rick Dowdle and Norman Milner, both of whom are Managing Directors of Neuberger Berman Management and Neuberger Berman Fixed Income, the fund’s advisor and sub-advisor. Mr. Dowdle began his career at Solomon Brothers and has 21 years of experience in the industry. Metals and mining companies, industrials, financials, and paper and forest products are his specialties. Mr. Milner is also a 21-year industry veteran. He began his career in South Africa, and his principal expertise is in emerging markets and sovereign credits. Share Information Shares of the Neuberger Berman Long/Short Credit Fund are available in A (NLNAX), C (MUTF: NLNCX ), and institutional (MUTF: NLNIX ) classes, with respective net-expense ratios of 1.57%, 2.32%, and 1.20%. Class A and C shares have an investment management fee of 1.07% a $1,000 minimum initial investment, while institutional-class shares have an investment management fee of 0.95% and a $1 million initial minimum. For more information, download a pdf copy of the fund’s prospectus .