Active ETF Launch Party Any Day Now

By Heather Bell

Looks like we should see our first actively managed ETF any day now.

The Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund's prospectus has been declared effective—which means it could launch at any moment. Meanwhile, PowerShares just announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved exemptive relief for the four actively managed funds it has in registration. While they are not as far along in the process as the Bear Stearns ETF, they're not that far behind either.

The Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund will invest in money market instruments and short-term debt, and it will occasionally hedge risk using derivatives. The fund's prospectus, however, notes, "The Fund is not a ‘money market fund' as that term is defined in the Investment Company Act, and it is not an objective of the Fund to maintain a target share price as would be the case for a money market fund." It is expected to trade on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "YYY" and charge an annual expense ratio of 0.28%. Canada, incidentally, has just seen the launch of the first money market ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange; the Claymore Premium Money Market ETF trades under the symbol "CMR." (Read the story here.)

The PowerShares funds include three stock funds and one fixed-income fund. Invesco Institutional and AER Advisors will each subadvise two of the four funds.

The PowerShares Active AlphaQ Fund will invest in 50 NASDAQ-listed securities that are selected using AER's proprietary stock-ranking system; the fund will seek to outperform the NASDAQ-100 Index. Similarly, the PowerShares Active Alpha Multi-Cap Fund will seek to outperform the S&P 500 with a portfolio of 50 stocks, also selected using AER's stock-ranking system. The "active" nature of the funds is somewhat limited by the fact that the fund's manager is limited to three trades at the end of each week.

The Invesco-managed PowerShares Active Mega-Cap Fund will invest in "mega-capitalization" companies using a quantitative approach, with the Russell Top 200 as its performance benchmark. Unlike the AER-managed funds, this one can trade at any time and the manager is not limited to a certain number of trades. Invesco will also manage the PowerShares Active Low Duration Fund, which will invest in U.S. government and corporate debt with short-term durations; its performance benchmark is the Lehman Brothers 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index.

There's no word on when exactly the Bear Stearns fund will launch, but it can probably be assumed that it will beat the PowerShares funds to market. Likely Bear Stearns will debut the ETF scene with the distinction of being the first provider to offer an actively managed fund. No doubt the PowerShares funds will be close on its heels, but does it really matter? The PowerShares funds are not in direct competition with the Bear Stearns fund—the PowerShares fixed-income fund is supposed to have a duration of zero to three years, while the Bear Stearns fund aims for a 180-day duration. The main thing that the winner in the race to market will gain is the cachet of being first to market—and perhaps a temporary burst of assets before it is joined by other actively managed ETFs.

You can view the prospectus for the Bear Stearns fund here.

You can view the prospectus for the PowerShares funds here.

Comments

[kurt walter]

Doesn't active ETF management sort of defeat the original purpose of ETFs?