WisdomTree (NasdaqGM: WETF) Chief Investment Officer Luciano Siracusano discusses the advantages of currency hedged exchange traded funds with ETF Trends Publisher Tom Lydon at the ETF.com Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Fla.
“A lot of advisors, historically, just defaulted to being 100% unhedged internationally,” said Siracusano. “Now you’re seeing in the last year you’re seeing the impact of what can happen to a portfolio when the yen falls 12% in a year or last year when the euro fell 12% in a year. It’s a tremendous headwind.”
WisdomTree is the largest issuer of currency hedged ETFs, one of the fastest growing segments of the broader ETF market. At the end of 2014, currency hedged ETFs had almost $21 billion in combined assets under management.
That number has swelled in 2015, due in large part to the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HEDJ), this year’s top asset-gathering ETF. HEDJ is close to becoming the largest Europe ETF. HEDJ and the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DXJ), one of the other titans of WisdomTree’s currency hedged lineup, have over $25.2 billion in combined assets under management.
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