More exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set to close down, this time some of those focused on the healthcare industry.
Fifteen of XShares‘ line of HealthShares ETFs will close down, and their last trading day will be Sept. 19.
XShares President Jeff Feldman tells us it’s a simple matter of marketplace demand. “We were not generating assets in several of them, and they’re expensive to keep open.”
Closing the funds doesn’t mean that XShares didn’t believe in the products, but an acknowledgement that perhaps timing is everything. “We still believe our structure was right,” Feldman says, “and our timing was bad. So we decided to shutter some of them.”
When an ETF announces a closing, it follows an orderly process and investors are given plenty of notice before it actually takes place. Thirty-seven ETFs have closed this year, and we know that closing announcements tend to bring out the worriers: is the ETF industry in trouble? Are they a passing fad? But every industry has its successes and failures, and not every product to land in the marketplace can be a hit.