All the flavours of ETFs

This week we brought you quite the spread of ETF subjects. Our latest Off the Record podcast, featured Paul Syms, head of EMEA ETF Fixed Income and Commodity Product Management at Invesco talking about the recent growth in fixed income ETFs.

"A broader adoption of ETFs as a vehicle combined with yields being more attractive than they have been for some time now lies behind the fixed income boost," Syms says.

Listen now using this link or on Spotify or Apple Music.

We also celebrated our winners in the recent European ETF Express ETF awards with the interview with Euronext’s Tim Rohkemper, Head of Indices, at the exchange group, on the firm’s approach to cryptocurrency indices. "Euronext has established itself as a trusted partner in the cryptocurrency space. Our early adoption of crypto trends, combined with our ability to design and launch indices within days, enables us to stay ahead of the curve and meet the growing demand for innovative investment products," Rohkemper says.

I managed to fight the urge to use a picture of a T-Rex for this newsletter but the aggressive dinosaur has featured in both our interview and with its appearance as the top performing ETF from our data partners Trackinsight. The T-REX ETFs from REX Financial provide target 2x or -2x leveraged exposure to the daily price movements of stocks such as Tesla, Nvidia, Strategy, Netflix, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Robinhood, Trump Media, Roblox, spot Bitcoin, spot Ether, and most recently 2x on Gamestop and Snowflake.

REX Financial’s COO, Scott Acheychek, says: "Leveraged and inverse products have been out for a couple of decades. The early days were a bit chaotic with FAs having access, placing them in client accounts based on performance but the category has definitely matured in terms of who has access," he says. The firm has recently launched a defined outcome product but, in keeping with their disruptive approach, their BMAX product is designed to achieve total return through investments in convertible bonds issued by companies holding bitcoin in their corporate treasuries.

More disruptive behaviour appeared this week with the news that US hedge fund group Saba Capital Management is offering a conversion for shareholders in a deeply discounted UK investment trust, Middlefield Canadian Income Trust, into an ETF. Saba Capital says: "MCT’s transition into an open-ended UCITS ETF will not only provide all shareholders the long-overdue liquidity opportunity they deserve, but it will also ensure the Trust never again trades at a discount to NAV."

I will be chairing some of the ETF panels at IMPower Fund Forum in June. For a 10 per cent discount to attend, use this link and code: FKN3972ETFX. I hope to see you there.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

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