Late last week we spoke about a noticeable uptick in options activity in the Emerging Markets equity space via two benchmark ETFs there, EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets, Expense Ratio 0.67%) and VWO (Vanguard Emerging Markets, Expense Ratio 0.18%) specifically.
Late last week we also witnessed outflows of about $150 million in the largest Emerging Markets Bond based ETF in the landscape, EMB (iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond, Expense Ratio 0.60%), which has a total asset base currently just shy of $4 billion.
EMB has struggled this year in terms of flows, losing $2.4 billion year to date including the recent outflows but it still remains the largest fund in the EM Bond category and not by a low margin.
The next largest ETF in the space is an entry from PowerShares, PCY (PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt Portfolio, Expense Ratio 0.50%), which actually trades more daily volume in terms of shares than EMB does(727k vs. 615k shares).
Other alternatives in the space on the larger end include ELD (WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund, Expense Ratio 0.55%) and EMLC (Market Vectors Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond, Expense Ratio 0.47%), each of which has grown to become +$1 billion funds at this point.
Smaller entries that may see a pick-up in activity here include LEMB (iShares Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond, Expense Ratio 0.60%), ALD (WisdomTree Asia Local Debt Fund, Expense Ratio 0.55%), and EBND (SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond, Expense Ratio 0.50%) to name just a few.