Ray Hendon

Barclays Will Not Pick Up Lehman ETNs

It isn't going to help. But, they were always toxic to me. I have never understood, from an investor's point of view, what the attraction of an ETN was over the much more protected and transparent ETF.

An odd sidenote to this whole episode is that the three ETNs at question have less than $5million in assets each. In total they are just over $13Million. So there are no big enchaladas at stake.

But, the entire story hasn't been told, yet. The bankruptcy judge may arrange a sale of these assets to another buyer sometime before they are otherwise liquidated. Investors in these unfortunate insturments still have a glimmer of hope. But, had they been mutual funds or ETFs, their assets would have been protected from Lehman's failures as money managers.

Best wishes,

Ray