July 07, 2008 at 6:00 am by Tom Lydon
Another round of exchange traded funds (ETFs) are closing, and it’s got some asking if we’re on a death watch.
The short answer is: no. It’s just the nature of things that when you have an industry of 700+ products and growing that some are just not going to grab hold of the consumer, for any number of reasons. It could have been a poor concept, or poor timing or just poor marketing, or anything.
Every industry has its products that landed with a thud:
- New Coke, anyone?
- The Edsel.
- The instant classic comedy "Office Space." It was a flop in theaters, barely even recouping what it cost to make it, but became a huge hit on video. Now, did you get the memo?
- "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" by the Beatles. Some people really hate this song, but you’ll never hear anyone say the Beatles were done in because of it.
The ETF industry is no exception, and it’s hardly a reason to get scared. ETFs still remain increasingly popular, and financial advisors are recommending them for their clients’ portfolios, say Leslie Scism and Allison Bisbey Colter for the Wall Street Journal.
For an ETF to turn a profit, the Journal says, it generally needs assets greater than $50 million to $100 million. However, some providers may subsidize their smaller funds for years.
Once an ETF does close, there is a procedure that is followed. Investors aren’t left just holding the bag after waking up one morning to see that one of their funds has shuttered.
The latest ETF closings were announced this week, with seven XShares funds closing. Once these funds are liquidated, XShares will have 24 offerings.
The last day of trading for the following funds, which covered various sectors of the real estate market, will be July 24. The liquidation process will be finished on July 31:
- Adelante Shares RE Composite (ACB)
- Adelante Shares RE Classics (ACK)
- Adelante Shares RE Growth (AGV)
- Adelante Shares RE Kings (AKB)
- Adelante Shares RE Shelter (AQS)
- Adelante Shares RE Value (AVU)
- Adelante Shares RE Yield Plus (ATY)
Tags | Silver
July 7th, 2008 at 7:29 am
How well do ETFs historically track its NAV once a closing is announced? Also, is the procedure the same for ETNs? Finally, is there a list of ETFs (it would be nice if you could compile such a list) that have unusual closing procedures and terms such as UCR and DCR?
July 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Once an ETF closing is announced, they trade as they normally would, and each closing follows a standard procedure. Once the fund is officially closed, all trading stops and the provider sells all the holdings in the fund. If you’re holding an ETF when it closes, you run the risk of those securities going up or down in value at the time of the sale.
UCR and DCR didn’t have closing procedures that were different from the norm - the closings were announced, then trading ceased awhile later and assets were liquidated among shareholders.