Financial advisers and discretionary wealth managers in the UK are as likely to buy exchange traded funds and exchange traded products as traditional UCITS products over the next 12 months, according to a new study from ETF provider Source. Approximately one fifth (22%) of respondents said they are planning to purchase more traditional UCITS funds in future while 17% said more ETFs/ ETPs. Of financial advisers and discretionary wealth managers that invest in ETPs for clients, the vast majority (83%) said they had done so for more than three years. While – on average – 13% of firms surveyed had AUM in ETFs/ ETPs.

In Part 1 of this series we looked at Japanese equities with a positive growth story, specifically Abenomics, how the BoJ has influenced ETF buying in Japan and ways to invest in the increased corporate governance of companies in Japan. In this article we will look at Yen weakening and whether there is still a need to hedge when getting exposure to the region. Not everyone has a positive view on Japan. Those who believe global growth will continue and the Yen will weaken can get exposure through companies in Japan where a large part of their exposure comes from foreign revenue.

US-based exchange traded fund provider VanEck is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX). Hitting its decade anniversary yesterday, the ETF was not only the firms’ first fund but also the first ETF to focus on gold mining equities. GDX was originally designed to provide investors with a single point of access to a portfolio of companies in the global gold mining space. The ETF, which has a total expense ratio of 0.52%, now has nearly $8 billion in assets (as of the end of April) and is one of the most widely traded ETFs (and equities) in the market. It is part of 70 funds offered globally by VanEck.

Canadian investment fund manager BMO Asset management has launched a new smart beta emerging markets exchange traded fund on the Toronto stock exchange adding to its existing range of ETFs. The BMO Low Volatility Emerging Markets Equity ETF (ZLE) provides investors with exposure to Emerging Markets while navigating market volatility. The ETF is designed for investors looking for long-term growth through emerging market equities with greater downside protection than market-capitalization-weighted products. It provides exposure to a low beta weighted portfolio of emerging markets stocks. Beta measures the security’s sensitivity to market movements. The ETF also uses a rules based methodology to build a portfolio of less market sensitive stocks from a universe of emerging market large cap stocks. The ETF has 80 holdings with 96.87% in stock and the remainder in cash or cash equivalents.

WisdomTree has announced that it has bought the outstanding 25% share in the European exchange traded platform as it looks to continue growing in Europe. The buyout follows the US provider’s initial 75% purchase in January 2014, and entry to the European market, with the obligation to buy out the remaining minority investment within four years. The move will see Boost ETP’s founders, Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski leave. The WisdomTree Europe platform now has around $940 million in assets under management, a 1,780% increase from its initial base of $50 million in 2014. McNeil and Bienkowski, Co-CEOs of Boost, said: “WisdomTree is a truly innovative and dynamic ETF manager with a bright future.”

Winterflood Business Services (WBS) has announced it will offer trading and custody of fractional shares on exchange-traded funds from July this year. According to a press release from WBS, the new service will allow ETFs to trade at four decimal places and is expected to open up access for more discretionary fund managers and financial advisers to trade ETFs. “The provision of fractional share dealing is removing a major barrier. We believe this a watershed moment,” said Alex Kerry, head of WBS. “With increased understanding of the benefits ETFs can provide to underlying clients and the wider trend for passives, there are now real signs the ETF market is poised to take off.”

Four exchange-traded fund providers have joined forces in a bid to better educate the adviser community on ETFs. The ETF Forum has been launched today and is made up of BMO, ETF Securities, Source (in association with LGIM) and WisdomTree Europe. The partnership, designed to help improve the adviser community’s collective understanding of ETFs, will run a series of educational roadshows from 20th June around the UK. The free-to-attend CPD-accredited workshops will feature leading speakers from the ETF industry talking on a variety of topics, including the key characteristics of ETPs, why and how ETFs are traded, and how best to access them.

Tokyo head-quartered Nikko Asset Management has announced it is set to launch an exchange-traded fund that tracks a Japanese equity index made up of firms taking proactive and efficient measure with their investments in capital expenditure and human capital. The ETF will start trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 25th May. It will track the JPX/S&P CAPEX & Human Capital Index, which has been developed by the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and S&P Dow Jones Indices. The JPX/S&P CAPEX & Human Capital Index consists of firms actively and efficiently engaged in capital expenditure and human capital investment. Specifically, the top 200 stocks are selected to be used in the index by first screening constituents of the TOPIX.

WisdomTree Europe has launched a new smart beta commodity exchange traded fund with a built-in mechanism that helps reduce the cost of holding commodity future contracts, meaning investors can hold the ETF in their portfolios for longer. The WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity UCITS ETF (WCOA), listed on the London Stock Exchange on Monday 9th, tracks the Optimised Roll Commodity Total Return index, a broadly diversified index with weightings based on the Bloomberg Commodity index. The Optimised Roll Commodity Total Return index consists of 22 commodities with sector exposures of 35.5% in agriculture, 30.9% in energy, 17% in industrial metals and 15.6% in precious metals.

European listed funds made up nearly a third of all global exchange-traded product flows in April, according to BlackRock’s April 2016 ETP landscape report. April flows saw European-listed exchange-traded funds amount to $3.6bn, with global flows for the same period at $11.1bn. The flows represented a marked slowdown on March when global ETP inflows hit $45.5bn as investors remained cautious over volatility in the euro and tightening financial conditions weighing on sentiment. It meant that flows into fixed income ETPs last month felt the benefit of $8.4bn globally. Ursula Marchioni, Chief Strategist, iShares EMEA at BlackRock, said in a statement: “Away from the U.S. developed market equities witnessed outflows of ($11.4bn), as investors redeemed record $6.3bn out of European and $7.8bn out of Japanese equity ETPs.”