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Wave of new products hits ETF market

In this research report created this month for The Globe And Mail, we look at Canadian ETFs: September’s launches and terminations.

The Canadian ETF industry ended September with assets under management of $188-billion. A wave of new products was launched during the month and three providers announced ETF closures.

New additions include two alternative ETFs from AGF Investments, the AGFiQ US Market Neutral Anti-Beta CAD-Hedged ETF (“QBTL”) and the AGFiQ US Long/Short Dividend Income CAD-Hedged ETF (“QUDV”). Each of the ETFs charges a management fee of 0.55%.

QBTL seeks performance results that correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Dow Jones U.S. Thematic Market Neutral Anti-Beta Index (CAD-Hedged). The index is market neutral and sector neutral – meaning the number of long and short positions in each sector in the index approximate the weighting of that sector in the index universe. It is designed to capture the spread return between the long positions on low-beta companies and short positions on high-beta companies.

QUDV seeks performance results that correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Indxx Hedged Dividend Income Currency-Hedged CAD Index, a sector neutral index which is designed to measure the performance of a strategy utilizing three portfolios: long positions on high dividend paying companies, short positions on no or low dividend paying companies, and a long position in the Indxx Cash Index.

The industry is saturated with over 700 ETFs in the Canadian universe, ETFs that are not lucrative are being terminated or merged with other funds. For instance, as a result of a purchase and sale agreement, whereby Hamilton ETFs will acquire the management contract of Purpose Global Financials Income Fund (“PFG”), PFG will merge into the Hamilton Australian Financials Yield ETF (“HFA”), effective on or about October 25, 2019.

Source: Inovestor Inc.

As investors are increasingly aware of effects of fees on their returns, asset managers are lowering fees to stay competitive. Mackenzie Investments slashed fees on its traditional index ETF suite by up to 10bps, making these ETFs among the most affordable ones in their respective categories.

Source: Inovestor Inc.

Find the full report here

This article is written by Kimberly Yip Woon Sun,  ETF Analyst at Inovestor Inc. 

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