“You’ll see companies open products and close products if they don’t work, and that’s OK; it’s being thoughtful,” Brian Jacobs, president of Direxion Investments, said in the Ignites article.
There were 1,640 U.S.-listed exchange traded products at the end of 2014, or 134 more year-over-year and almost double the number of products on the markets at the end of 2008, according to BlackRock data.
However, 79 ETPs were closed in 2014, compared to 67 in 2013. Year-to-date, there were 12 new fund launches, but 22 ETPs were already delisted, according to XTF data.
According to Ron Rowland’s so-called ETF Deathwatch, there are now over 220 ETFs and 100 exchange traded notes that are at risk of closure due to low assets under management or paltry amount of daily average volume.
Looking ahead, ETF industry experts believe there is more room to expand in the alternative or smart-beta index ETF space, which experienced a significant increase in new launches last year. BlackRock’s iShares, Direxion and Guggenheim Investments, among others, are pushing into the smart-beta index-based ETF space. [Large Waves in the Smart-Beta ETF Space]
For more information on the ETF industry, visit our current affairs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.