All posts by MarketsMuse Staff Reporter

ETF News

What’s Next: ETFs For Crowdfunding Industry?

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This post was written by Pete Hoegler, Washington DC-based Social Media Savant for The JLC Group. 

Three years after the JOBS Act was passed, it seems that Washington is back for more–a curtain call if you will–making it easier for small ventures to raise capital.

The House Financial Services Committee in early June floated a draft bill that would allow the creation of “venture exchanges” tailored to the needs of small companies looking to raise money. In many ways, the success of the JOBS Act hinges upon the creation of such markets. A healthy secondary market created liquidity that is critical to building investor confidence and creating a robust alternative to the global markets that today are dominated by enormous corporations.

The new proposed “venture exchange” laws are aimed at increasing access to early stage investors in private startups and small businesses (some of which could be JOBS Act enabled investors), as a lack of liquidity was a concern voiced by some surrounding the new laws for equity crowdfunding with non-accredited investors.

Investors in technology startups, for example, are likely to have to hold their position in any one investment for an average of 7 years. Creating opportunities for selling private stock in a start-up investment sooner through venture exchanges has the potential to reduce some of the early stage investment risks.

Where or How is there a link between Crowdfunding and Exchange-Traded Funds? Well, those following the creative finance wizards from the world of exchange-traded products can speculate the next  innovation will be ETFs comprised of non-public companies that were funded via crowdfunding platforms..and those companies will be labeled “pre-emerging start-ups” and there will be ETFs for each category of ‘project.’

While the underlying components might not necessarily be easily-traded by the universe of market-makers who profit by arbitraging the cash index vs. the underlying constituents, the advent of ETMFs, a structure that Eaton Vance hopes to bring to market and is based on a “non-transparent” construct (meaning the investor has no idea what the underlying constituents are), Crowdfunding ETFs could create markets that allow early investors who invested via equity crowdfunding to hedge their bets far before any kind of liquidity event like a public offering (IPO) might take place, spelling an opportunity for liquidity for those early investors.  Just like the current ETF landscape, these crowd-funding indexes would be themed according to industry sector and/or product categories.

OK, some of the wonks who are reading that last tongue-in-cheek idea might be rolling their eyes. That said, given the creative juices that flow from the capital markets, we’re willing to bet that at least one of the current innovators in the ETF world grabs on to this idea and such products will be introduced within the next 18-24 months. Oh, it was our idea…

The number of IPOs has gone from an average of 311 from 1980-2000 down to an average of 99 IPOs each year from 2001-2011 so opening up other alternatives for liquidity will de-risk the growing number of startup investments happening online.

This is yet another step towards reforming our capital markets. The first step was to enable access, and was addressed by Titles II, III & IV of the JOBS Act. So regardless of your opinion on this matter, the summer is shaping up to be an interesting time for equity crowdfunding investors, accredited and non-accredited alike.

ETF News, Fixed Income, Global Macro Strategy

Its All Greek..A RareView View…

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As the events in Greece escalate to a frenzy, global macro strategists are lining up to opine on what might happen as the EU and the world calculate the impact of a Grexit. MarketsMuse tapped into one of the industry’s most thoughtful strategists and one who is notorious for having both ‘sight beyond sight’ and inevitably, a view that is rare when compared to those who position themselves as “opinionators.”  Without further ado, below is the extracted version of the 29 June edition of “Sight Beyond Sight“

Neil Azous, Rareview Macro
Neil Azous, Rareview Macro
  • Key Talking Points…What People Are Watching…Major Asset Prices
  • US Fixed Income – Choke Yourself If  You Believe in 2 Rate Hikes in 2015
  • China – Correction Accelerates Government Learning Curve & Possibly IPO Reform

 

We started working early yesterday morning, spending time on the phone with as many risk takers as possible around the world and listening in on numerous bank conference calls on the unfolding events. Additionally, we felt compelled to watch our screens all night. At the time of writing, we have not actioned one item in our model portfolio and are nowhere near able to aggregate the thoughts of the risk takers we respect or the market commentary we received from anyone who writes research for a living. The fact is there is no coherent sentence to write. The dust has yet to settle, and until it does, no one can claim to know what will happen.

Despite all of this market plumbing being very visible, and even after the Greece referendum news on Friday, the probability of a disorderly financial reaction due to its consequences has only risen to ~40% from 20% or less based on what we can gather. Leaving last week many held the view there was a 50-50 probability for a resolution with a bias for a positive outcome.

Now let’s go through the asset classes and products, and ask how they will perform. For ETF players, our lens is on GREK, FXI, HEDJ and necessarily, SPY. For those looking for an immediate take-away trade with regard to the overwhelming Greek-infused chitter chatter and jibber jabber, think $GLD. In this case, our view, which we have espoused for more than 15 minutes, might or might not be  ‘rare’, but its one we can hang our hat on…

Prudent risk management says that the overriding exercise now is to take risk down regardless of your bias on the outcome. Resolution strategies are a distant second place and with US employment Thursday followed by a three day weekend that includes this Greek referendum, that makes this scenario that much more likely.

In terms of Greece, many are watching/waiting for the ECB reaction function to the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), which is scheduled to be revisited on Wednesday. As a reminder, the events in 2012, in which there was a large spike in the ELA program assistance as a result of Greece, was the catalyst for the now famous “do whatever it takes” speech by ECB President Mario Draghi. Ironically, the three-year anniversary of that speech is coming up shortly and there is no question professionals want to see Draghi re-ignite the European recovery trade. Our point is that faith in him being a steward of the market remains unwavering and he is still the only person perceived as the class act in this goat rodeo.

If we had to pick one asset that we all were led to believe mattered in the context of a “Grexit” over the last five years, and that was supposed to react to that event, it would be Gold. It should be up $50 at a minimum and yet it can barely hold a bid. If you feel bad for the citizens of Greece, then please save a little sympathy for the Gold terrorists at the failure of the yellow metal to respond today. Next week, if things get worse, and gold still fails to respond, that could be the final nail in their coffin. At least there will be one good outcome to the whole sorry saga. Continue reading →

Tech Talk

FINtech is On Fire: 3-Fold Jump In Deals Funded

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As reported by FINalternatives.com and extract below, MarketsMuse tech talk editors note that investments in financial technology (FINtech) deals nearly tripled in the United States in 2014, according to a new report by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City.

The value of fintech investments in the United States soared to $9.89 billion in 2014, up from $3.39 billion in 2013.

This 191% increase dwarfs the increase in 2013, when fintech deal values in the United States climbed 68%. In New York, fintech deal values grew by 32% in 2014, to a new high of $768 million.

The report, Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation was released Thursday at the FinTech Innovation Lab’s fifth annual Demo Day event in New York.

According to the report, global fintech investment tripled in 2014, to $12.2 billion, from $4.05 billion in 2013. By comparison, the overall market for venture-capital investing increased only 63% during that period.

“This past year marked a paradigm shift in how financial services companies approach and embrace fintech innovation, as they recognize the vast potential that this strong network provides,” said Robert Gach, managing director of Accenture Strategy Capital Markets. “An increasing number of banks and insurers are investing in connecting into the fintech ecosystem, whether through accelerator or incubator labs, venture investments or in other ways. We believe this explosive growth in fintech will help drive innovation within some of the world’s largest financial institutions.”

Where the Money is Going  Continue reading →

ETF News

Hull Tactical Asset Allocation Jumps Into ETF Market

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Hull Tactical Asset Allocation, LLC announces the launch of the Hull Tactical US ETF, an actively managed exchange traded fund designed by industry veteran Blair Hull. The ETF is designed to deliver hedge fund-type management and trading tactics to a broad investor audience.

Working in partnership with Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC, the white-label ETF issuer platform, the team at HTAA believes that the Hull Tactical US ETF will be attractive as the market for institutional-quality equity products continues to grow.

HTUS is constructed to perform under all market conditions, with an investment objective of long-term capital appreciation, guided by the firm’s proprietary, patent-pending, quantitative trading model. The model selects indicators that HTAA believes can best forecast the next six months of return of the S&P 500. It takes long or short positions in ETFs, leveraged ETFs or other securities that seek to track the performance of the S&P 500 based on the model with the remaining assets in the portfolio being held in cash.

The new liquid alternative ETF is powered by a proprietary, patent-pending, quantitative trading model, according to Hull, which drives investment selection and timing. Hull Tactical Allocation LLC is working in partnership with white-label ETF issuer platform Exchange Traded Concepts on the new fund.

To read the more, click here.

ETF News, People Profiles

Tony Kelly To Spearhead Goldman Sachs’ ETF Development

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which is looking to issue exchange-traded funds this year, hired BlackRock Inc. veteran Tony Kelly as head of product development for that unit.

Kelly, who spent 15 years working in the iShares ETF business at Barclays Plc and BlackRock, will join Goldman Sachs as a managing director, according to an internal memo sent Friday, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. He’ll report to Michael Crinieri, who moved from the New York-based bank’s trading division last year to lead the ETF effort.

Goldman Sachs is seeking to capitalize on the explosive growth in ETFs as it pursues a goal of increasing revenue at its investment-management division by more than 10 percent a year. The ETF industry took 23 years to reach $2 trillion in assets and just two more years to reach $3 trillion, which it did in May, according to research and consultancy firm ETFGI.

In a May filing, Goldman revealed the names and the ticker codes of six impending actively managed ETFs including – Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Emerging Markets Equity ETF (GEM), Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Europe Equity ETF (GSEU) and Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta International Equity ETF (GSIE). The underlying indices of the funds will be focused on securities with high scores on criteria like value, momentum, quality and volatility.

Goldman also declared the names and ticker codes of five passively-managed ETFs. These include – Goldman Sachs Equity Long Short Hedge Tracker ETF (GSLS), Goldman Sachs Event Driven Hedge Tracker ETF (GSED) and Goldman Sachs Relative Value Hedge Tracker ETF (GSRV). These funds will focus on hedge-fund strategies to curb interrelation with the broader equity market trends.

To read more, click here. 

ETF News, Global Macro Strategy

Greece and The True Pain Trade-A Rare Global Macro View

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The True Pain Trade in Yields and Euro…Not the Wall Street Pain Trade of Equities

Greece, Grexit and the notorious ‘pain trade’ commentary below is courtesy of MarketsMuse’s extracted rendition of today’s above-titled edition of “Sight Beyond Sight”, the global macro commentary and investment insight newsletter published by Rareview Macro LLC. Added bonus: a thesis for trading EEM.

Neil Azous, Rareview Macro
Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

Those like us who have been in this business for some time will be familiar with Futures Magazine, a cornerstone property of The Alpha Pages and its sister publication FINalternatives. Their new flagship publication, Modern Trader, has just been launched and hit the newsstands last week. The full publication can be viewed HERE (Password: prophets). Our article “Riding The Dollar Bull” begins on page 28. We were pleased to be a centerpiece of this inaugural issue and would like to use this moment to wish CEO Jeff Joseph and Editor-in-Chief Daniel Collins the best of success in this new endeavor.

The True Pain Trade in Yields and Euro…Not the Wall Street Pain Trade of Equities

 

The professional community is fixated on a “pain trade” – that is, a durable European equity relief rally that lifts all other risk assets in sympathy.

The “Shenzhen-style” bid in European equities this morning argues in favor of that theory and clearly validates the view that risk reduction has been thematic the past two weeks and professionals are left without enough of a position should risk assets continue to appreciate.

This is where this theory stops working, however.

We think this is the wrong way to think about what a Greece resolution means for asset prices going into the third quarter of 2015 and it also tells you why this conversation is about much more than just a 5-10% rally in the German DAX.

Now those who have followed us for years appreciate that we actually have two definitions for the widely-touted phrase “pain trade” – one for the true meaning – that is, lower prices because that leads to investors actually losing money – and one for sales people on Wall Street – that is, some terminology that makes them  sound like a “cool kid” who is “in-the-know” for their hedge fund clients who do nothing more than try to capture 60% of any market move up or down so they can justify their existence for a bit longer.

While we appreciate that the “cool kids” believe equity markets can go higher, we think real investors, ones that are not forced to be “close to the Street”, are much more concerned about a breakdown in the correlation of the European carry trade relative to the US dollar.

Let us explain what we mean…

The three drivers of global macro investing during 2012-2015 have been and still are:  the US Carry Trade (SPX + UST 10-yr), the Japanese Yen, and the US dollar.

The additional driver of global macro investing during 2015 is:  EU Carry Trade (DAX + German 10-yr BUND).

Now, let’s combine a key long-term driver with the additional driver…In today’s edition of Sight Beyond Sight, we provide our readers with an illustrative of the EU Carry Trade (DAX + German 10-yr BUND) versus the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), and a detailed thesis as to our proposed trade idea.

Model Portfolio – New Position – Emerging Markets Book Hedge

On Friday, in the model portfolio, we spent 10 bps of the NAV and added a long emerging market volatility position in the portfolio overlay return stream to protect the existing long risk positions in the Real-Yen (BRL/JPY) and crude oil (CLX5).

Specifically, we purchased 10,000 iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) 06/26/15 C41– 39.5 option strangles for $0.31. For the purposes of this model portfolio being liquidity verified, not just time-stamped, we paid $0.02 through the asking price.

Given the binary risk around possible Greek capital controls, we were genuinely shocked to see that such a trade existed in the marketplace. Additionally, the hedge was cheaper than using S&P 500-related options, and has a higher correlation to the Greek stock market. This makes EEM one of the best kept secrets in the market.

The break-even for the trade at the time of execution was 2.23% by next Friday, or exactly the historical 1-sigma move by the end of this week. On a 2-sigma move, the expected profit return is 2.5:1.

On further analysis, we discovered that about 33% of the weekly occurrences during the last 12 months (i.e. last 52 weeks) exceeded the expected 1-sigma move, and that doesn’t even include the potential Greek risk next week!

Ultimately, this means that upon entering the trade there is statistically a 1 in 2 probability that we turn a profit on the position. We like those kind of odds.

Neil Azous is the founder and managing member of Rareview Macro LLC, a global macro advisory firm to some of the world’s most influential investors and the publisher of the daily newsletter Sight Beyond Sight.

 

Fixed Income, Tech Talk

Electronifying The Corporate Bond Market Chapter 15: Liquidnet Tosses Hat Into the Ring

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MarketsMuse editors are almost starting to lose count when it comes to the number of electronic trading initiatives from FinTech aficionados who purportedly intend to make the institutional corporate bond market more transparent, and hence more liquid..

Thanks to Liquidnet, the latest player to plug into the corporate bond market movement and throw their hat into the ring, there are now 15 (give or take) initiatives. We can only opine that those who believe that fragmenting marketplaces [particularly products that were never even centralized to start with] as a means to creating a competitive, transparent and hence liquid trading marketplace for institutional investors is at very best, counterintuitive. Some market structure experts might even go so far as to say this electronic bond free-for-all for market share is “completely assbackwards.”

Per coverage by Pensions & Investments Magazine, institutional trading network Liquidnet is set to launch an institutional dark pool for corporate bonds, in the third quarter this year. Best known as a dark pool provider for institutional equities trading, Liquidnet is integrating seven order management systems, which execute securities orders, to provide the connectivity and access to trading opportunities that are not currently available in the corporate bonds market. Liquidnet said in a news release Thursday the development will centralize “a critical mass” of corporate bond liquidity to market participants.

liquidnet“By connecting to (clients’) existing order management systems, asset managers will have direct access to a protected venue that allows them to exchange natural liquidity with minimum effort and minimum information leakage,” said Constantinos Antoniades, head of Liquidnet fixed income, in the news release. “The functionality, protocols and connectivity of our dark pool will create significant new liquidity in the broader corporate bond universe — not just in the most liquid segment of the market.”

Upon reading the press release via Pensions & Investments Magazine, one electronic market veteran had this to say, “The long-held thesis that a centralized marketplace, where all orders are routed and displayed in centralized limit order books (CLOBS) is the best foundation to attracting liquidity and by definition, also provides true best execution for legacy OTC products is a notion that seems to have gone with the wind.” Added that Opinionator (who chooses to remain anonymous given his current Industry role), “It’s only mildly surprising that the regulators (i.e. SEC) have no clue as to the impact of their enabling an industry-wide gambit that will turn the corporate bond market into an electronic rats nest. Despite a 5-fold increase in outstanding issuance during the past several years,  Dodd-Frank regulation has caused banks to step away from traditional market-making and risk taking, and consequently, the corporate bond market is only becoming increasingly more illiquid. More electronic platforms approved by regulators will simply make the corporate bond market even more fragmented and even less competitive.”

People Profiles, Tech Talk

Frmr NYSE Capo Niederauer Backs Bitcoin-based ‘smart securities’ startup Symbiont

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Tech Talk: Bitcoin’s Distributed Ledgers: A FinTech Innovation..

MarketsMuse Trading Technology/FinTech department profiles Wall Street’s rapid embracement of the tools that power Bitcoin with a look at Symbiont, a company that aspires to disrupt the capital markets process.

Distributed ledgers, the technology behind the Bitcoin blockchain, can be used to issue, trade and process an array of financial instruments on a single, global, decentralized peer-to-peer financial network. And guess what, Symbiont, a startup that’s backed by several high-powered Wall Street figures, has established a platform for so-called smart securities, or financial assets that are programmable versions of traditional securities, using the distributed ledger.

Early investors include Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of NYSE Euronext, and Matt Andresen, founder of the Island ECN. “Symbiont is bridging the gap between Wall Street and the emerging blockchain ecosystem,” said Niederauer, managing member of 555 Capital and a member of the Symbiont Board of Directors.”It’s an exciting, timely and much-needed development for the long-term health of the markets.”

Neil DeSena, Senahill Partners
Neil DeSena, Senahill Partners

SenaHill Partners, the recently-established fintech merchant bank led by former Goldman Sachs trading tech honcho Neil DeSena and former Citigroup tech titan Justin Brownhill will serve as Symbiont’s business development agent. “SenaHill Partners is focused on fintech companies, and specifically on assisting a transition from analog-based financial services into technology-based financial services,” Smith said. “All of our access into the Street comes through SenaHill, so SenaHill is an important part of the Symbiont story.” SenaHill Partners also served as merchant bank and deal advisor to Livevol, the provider of equity and index options technology and market data services. During the first week of June, Livevol entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by options exchange CBOE Holdings, Inc.

“The real value of this new technology is in the underlying protocol, the distributed nature of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the immutable nature of its ledger,” says Symbiont CEO Mark Smith. The distributed ledger is “a way to create new securities that could solve some of the problems that existed in the more opaque, less transparent, less liquid markets,” Smith said.

“We have launched Symbiont to create a generic platform that can operate on multiple types of cryptographically protected distributed ledgers to create what we are trade marking Smart Securities,” said Smith. “It’s a digital security that can be programmed with all the terms and conditions of a financial instrument. Once issued on a block chain, it can act autonomously to execute and extract terms and corporate actions without any human intervention.”

MarketsMuse sends a shout-out and thumbs up to June 18 reporting of this story by MarketsMedia.com

ETF News

State Street Loses Lead in ETFs; Moves On to Hedge Funds

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MarketsMuse updates that State Street Corp., which lost its lead in exchange-traded funds after being a pioneer in the business more than two decades ago, is now betting on hedge funds.

The firm is expanding hedge funds and alternative investment strategies that can be offered to individual investors, Ronald O’Hanley, who in April replaced Scott Powers as head of the $2.45 trillion State Street Global Advisors, said in an interview from Boston. The money-management unit this month named Michael Ho to a newly-created role of chief investment officer for alternatives.

Ho, who heads active emerging market stock investing for State Street Corp.’s asset-management arm, will lead the unit’s expansion into these alternatives.

Last month, State Street Global Advisors named Ho to the newly created position of chief investment officer for alternatives, confirmed Brendan Paul, a spokesman for the Boston-based bank.

State Street is seeking to expand its asset management business as its active strategies — which command higher fees — have shrunk, and passive strategies such as ETFs have lost ground to BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group.

ETF News

SEC Has Eye On ETFs

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MarketsMuse ETF update profiles the inevitable: The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) now has their cross-hairs on the exchange-traded fund industry.

 As reported by Traders Magazine (among others), the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is seeking public comment to help inform its review of the listing and trading of new, novel, or complex exchange-traded products (ETPs).

 “Exchange-traded products have become an increasingly important investment vehicle to market participants ranging from individuals to large institutional investors,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White. “As new products are developed and their complexity grows, it is critical that we have broad public input to inform our evaluation of how they should be listed, traded, and marketed to investors, especially retail investors.”

 The request, made via its website, looks to address key issues that arise when exemptions are sought by a market participant to trade a new ETP or when a securities exchange seeks to establish standards for listing new ETPs. Due to the expansion of ETP investment strategies in recent years that has led to a significant increase in the number and complexity of these requests, the Commission determined it would be beneficial to receive public input on these issues.

To read more, click here. 

ETF News, Tech Talk

Goldman FinTech Fixation Sneaks Into Start-Up Space with Online Lending To Consumers

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One of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, is making a change to its business model–adopting what seems to be tactics advanced by startups.

Soon, Goldman will offer loans online to both consumers and to small businesses as it looks to tap into a marketplace worth nearly $850 billion. The new unit will offer the loans through a website or an app — functioning like a virtual bank in one of the oldest companies on Wall Street. Without the costs of bank branches and tellers, Goldman can lend the money at lower interest rates while still making a profit. The company hopes to be ready to make its first loans next year.

It’s a big change for Goldman’s business model — before, the only people who could obtain a loan from the bank were its high-net-worth clients.

Goldman can establish a consumer lending business now because it converted from being an investment bank into a bank holding company during the financial crisis.  It also allowed Goldman the opportunity to interact more directly with consumers.

Goldman Sachs did not comment when asked about their business plan explored by this New York Times’ story. 

 

ETF News

NYSE Proposal Would Lower ETF Listing Standards, Save You Months

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MarketsMuse ETF update profiles an amended proposal by NYSE Arca to adopt generic listing standards for actively managed ETFs.

NYSE Arca asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend existing rules and cut out a key, time-intensive step fund companies must undertake to launch active ETFs. Such generic listings standards, which generally don’t apply to index-tracking ETFs, could reduce the time it takes to launch an active ETFs to mere months, from one year or longer.

The Proposed Rule would require an actively managed ETF that relies on the generic listing standards to disclose on its website certain information relating to the ETF’s holdings that form the basis for determining the ETF’s net asset value at the end of the business day.

ETF would have to disclose identifying and other information, specifically

  • The ticker symbol;
  • CUSIP or other identifier;
  • A description of the holding;
  • For derivatives, the identity of the security, commodity, index, or other asset on which the derivative is based;
  • For options, the strike price;
  • The quantity of each security or other asset held as measured by (i) par value, (ii) notional value, (iii) number of shares, (iv) number of contracts, and (v) number of units;
  • The maturity date;
  • The coupon rate;
  • The effective date;
  • The market value; and
  • The percentage weighting of the holding in the ETF’s portfolio

To read the full article, click here. 

ETF News, Fixed Income

French Firm Aims At China; Lyxor Launches Chinese Govt Bond ETF

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MarketsMuse ETF update courtesy of FundsEurope.com  profiles French asset management firm Lyxor, and their plan to launch a China government bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe.

The firm has been awarded a licence on the S&P China Sovereign Bond 1-10 Year Spread Adjusted Index by S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPDJI).

The index is made up of government bonds issued by the People’s Republic of China, with maturities ranging between one and ten years. The bonds are traded on the Shanghai or Shenzen stock exchanges as well as the China Interbank market. The index represents a yield to maturity of 3.2% in renminbi for an average duration of 4.2 years.

Despite the size of both China’s economy and bond market, the second and third largest in the world respectively, access to its bond market is still highly restricted for foreign investors. Heather McArdle, director of fixed income indices at SPDJI says that there has been progressive liberalisation of China’s financial market, offering greater accessibility to international investors.

The ETF will be sub-managed by the Hong-Kong subsidiary of Lyxor’s Chinese joint-venture Fortune SG.

Lyxor had €113.7 billion in assets under management as of April 30, 2015.

Fixed Income, People Profiles

Broker-Dealer Gives Back: Fundraising Yields $20k Payout for Semper Fi Fund

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BrokerDealer Gives Back and Pays It Forward; Mischler Financial’s “Memorial Day Month” Pledge Yields $20k for Semper Fi Fund.

MarketsMuse is honored to be the first financial industry news outlet to report an inspiring story that profiles thought-leadership on the part of boutique brokerdealer, Mischler Financial Group and their financial support of Semper Fi Fund.

Mischler Financial Group, Inc., the institutional brokerage and investment banking boutique and the securities industry’s oldest firm owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans, presented a check last week to Semper Fi Fund in the amount of $20,000 as a follow-on to the firm’s previously announced “Memorial Day Month” pledge.

Mischler Prez Doyle Holmes (l), Semper Fi Fund VP Wendy Lethin (c), Mischler CEO Dean Chamberlain (SDV)
Mischler Prez Doyle Holmes (l), Semper Fi Fund VP Wendy Lethin (c), Mischler CEO Dean Chamberlain (SDV)

According to Mischler CEO Dean Chamberlain, a U.S. Military Academy alumni and a certified Service-Disabled Vet (SDV), “Our ongoing mission throughout our now, twenty-year history has always been to provide Fortune Treasury and investment management clients with stand-apart capital markets services and by extension, to share the benefits of our success with organizations that are dedicated to supporting service-disabled military veterans and their families in the most productive ways.” Added Chamberlain, “Semper Fi Fund is exactly the type of organization that we are honored to align with and we’re thrilled that so many of our clients rallied behind our trading desks to express their support of this month-long fund raising initiative.”

The Semper Fi Fund, and its program America’s Fund, provide immediate financial assistance and lifetime support to post 9/11 wounded, critically ill and injured members of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and their families, ensuring that they have the resources they need during their recovery and transition back to their communities.

Since its 2004 formation led by a group of Marine Corps spouses, Semper Fi Fund has provided more than 93,500 grants, totaling more than $109 million in assistance to over 14,000 of our heroes and their families. Recipients include qualifying post 9/11 Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and reservists with amputations, spinal cord injuries, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), burns, blindness, other physical injuries, or those suffering from life-threatening illnesses. Semper Fi Fund also help spouses and children of active duty service members who face a life threatening illness or injury.

ETF News, Global Macro Strategy, People Profiles

ETF.com June 17 Global Macro Conference Preview

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In advance of the June 17 ETF.com Global Macro Conference in NYC, MarketsMuse.com is pleased to provide our readers with a teaser of what is expected to be one of this summer’s best programs for investment managers, RIAs and Family Office practitioners who embrace the underlying approach and value proposition to global macro-style investing.

The speaker panel for the June 17 event includes a selection of the sharpest knives in the drawer and last minute registration can be made by simply clicking on the ad banner on the right side of your screen. We recommend getting there bright and early for the 8:30 am session,  The Map: Geopolitics, Your Portfolio & the Quest for Alpha

For a taste of the talking points that panelists will be touching on, click this link: June 2015 ETF Report Special Edition

To secure your edition of ETF.com June edition of the ETF Report, a special monthly publication that profiles real experts and actionable thoughts, please click here

 

ETF News

Rumor Mill: Diageo Shares Surge After Brazilian Report

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Diageo Plc, the maker of Guinness stout and Johnnie Walker whisky, surged in London trading on a report that a billionaire backer of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is considering a takeover bid.

Jorge Paulo Lemann and other executives are in early stages of mulling an acquisition, according to a column on Friday by Lauro Jardim, an influential writer for Veja, Brazil’s biggest-selling news magazine. A spokeswoman in Brazil for Lemann declined to comment, as did a representative for London-based Diageo.

World media outlets have yet to confirm the rumor, but it has definitely affected the market: sending the shares up 9 percent.

If the deal goes through, it would be the largest private equity buyout in history. To put it simply, this would be a huge takeover.

Obviously, Warren Buffet has backed 3G companies in the past, so the rumor could possibly be true. For more in depth information, click here. 

ETF News, Fixed Income, Global Macro Strategy

Global Macro: Decomposing the Move in Yields-The Pendulum Swing

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Decomposing the Move in Yields…Global Fixed Income Coming Closer to Decoupling from German Bunds

MarketsMuse Global Macro and Fixed Income departments merge to provide insight courtesy of “Sight Beyond Sight”, the must read published by global macro think tank Rareview Macro LLC. Below is the opening extract from 10 June edition.

Neil Azous, Rareview Macro
Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

Firstly, please note this morning’s Model Portfolio Update: Crude Oil, XLU/SPY, IYR/SPY, FXI: As per yesterday’s edition of Sight Beyond Sight, we added to existing long positions in Crude Oil, XLU/SPY and IYR/SPY. The update was broadcast in real time via @RareviewMacro.

Now, on to the day’s primary talking points..

The confidence level in the professional community remains low. The attack on the Dollar-Yen (USD/JPY), which had its largest one-day drop since August 2013, was just another casualty of the search and destroy mission underway in overall asset markets. The fact is that there is no model–valuation, technical, or otherwise–that can handicap the speed and the degree of the backup in global yields. The overriding question remains: “When will global yields stop going up, and when can the rest of fixed income decouple from German Bund leadership?”

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ETF News

Saudi Arabia ETF Readies For A Gusher

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MarketsMuse ETF update profiles a soon-to-launch Saudi Arabia-flavored ETF courtesy of iShares, and concurrent with the Kingdom opening up its equity trading pipeline for global access.. Below extract courtesy of ETF.com snapshot by Olly Ludwig

The iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia Capped ETF appears to be nearing launch, perhaps as early as mid-June, the date the Saudi stock market is set to open to foreign investors. That long-awaited market opening was a prerequisite to the launch of the fund, the first of its kind.

It is, again, the first stand-alone fund focused exclusively on Saudi Arabia, although both Van Eck’s Market Vectors and Global X have Saudi Arabia funds in registration. A possibly underappreciated aspect of the oil-rich country is that many of its energy-related firms won’t be accessible to investors, as most of the energy holdings are firmly controlled by the Saudi royal family.

Still, the Saudi market is estimated to have total market capitalization of $530 billion, or twice as big as the market value of Israel’s Tel Aviv exchange. The Saudi market will officially be open to foreigners on June 15. That move was widely expected to be accompanied by the launch of ETFs like this one from iShares.

The underlying index is a free-float-adjusted market-capitalization-weighted index with a capping methodology applied to issuer weights. It is designed such that no single issuer of a component exceeds 2 percent of the underlying index weight, and all issuers with a weight above 5 percent don’t exceed 50 percent of the underlying index weight.

For the entire story from ETF.com, please click here