ETF Producers Get Aggressive As Competition Heats Up

As competition for capturing the exchange traded fund marketplace heats up, producers are getting aggressive when pitching their product.

A move to increase ETF sales by State Street Global Advisors split its sales team into two units- one will deal with broker-dealer firms, the other will focus with wealth managers, banks, hedge and mutual fund managers, registered investment advisers and family offices.

David Hoffman of InvestmentNews reports financial advisers fear SSgA will push their products more aggressively, which is an unwelcome trend. However, an insider at SSgA states the segment was meant to focus more on the needs of the customers. Other insiders feel this is a response to the number of ETFs available and is great for deciphering and explaining. Regional conferences and "webinars" are also useful when it comes to educating advisers about ETFs.

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Also, ProShares, announced their family of ETFs passed the $4 billion mark, only shy of 9 months since their launch. ProShares offers the first and only ETFs to provide short or magnified exposure to specific market indexes.

The press release states that since the one day decline of February 27, average volume has doubled to more than 20 million shares per day. Assets were already growing fast but the market's recent volatility has sparked even more interest.

ProShares offers 52 ETFs, 29 of which provide short exposure by moving in the opposite direction of the indexes underlying their benchmark. There are 23 Ultra-ProShares that provide double the daily performance of the indexes underlying their benchmarks.