US-Listed ETFs Sorted by Asset Class and Year-to-Date Return

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UPDATES Both CSMA and the double-exposure CSMB are based on an index that uses a quantitative methodology to track a dynamic basket of securities held as long or short positions and cash. The leveraged CSMB has an annual expense ratio of 0.55 percent, the same price as CSMA. Van Eck Launches Competing Colombia ETF Van Eck launched an equities ETF focused on Colombia, South America’s second-largest country, in mid-March. The Market Vectors Colombia ETF (NYSE Arca: COLX) competes directly with Global X Funds’ two-year-old Global X FTSE Colombia 20 ETF (NYSE Arca: GXG), but COLX is the cheaper of the two funds. COLX has an annual expense ratio of 0.75 percent compared with GXG’s recently lowered net expense ratio of 0.78 percent. COLX, which tracks the Market Vectors Colombia Index, is designed as a “pure-play” exposure to companies either headquartered in Colombia or that derive most of their revenue from Colombia. Nearly a quarter of the mix is allocated to companies listed outside of Colombia that have significant business in the country. In addition, the ETF’s benchmark limits any one position to 8 percent of the fund in an effort to keep the portfolio diversified by sector and market capitalization, Van Eck said. Colombia has benefited from strong commodities price trends, solid exports and better access to credit in recent years, thanks to government policies that have opened up the country to foreign investment and allowed it to realize strong economic growth, a Van Eck representative noted. New IndexIQ ETF Tracks Ag Small-Caps IndexIQ rolled out a global agribusiness ETF on March 22 designed to tap into rising food prices and the alternative energy story through a small-cap security. The IQ Global Agribusiness Small Cap ETF (NYSE Arca: CROP) joins Van Eck’s $3.8 billion, large-cap-focused Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE Arca: MOO). CROP costs 0.75 percent, while MOO costs 0.56 percent. IndexIQ said the two funds have little overlap, with CROP’s portfolio focused on smaller companies in crop production, supplies and logistics, while MOO’s owns larger companies that are in the agricultural chemicals and operations sectors. CROP caps each sector allocation at 25 percent of the portfolio. It owns securities from some 14 countries to maximize diversification. Its top holdings at launch included Canada’s Viterra, the U.S.’ Tractor Supply, Netherlandsbased Nutreco, Spain’s Ebro Foods and Brazil’s Cosan. WisdomTree Debuts Asian Bond ETF WisdomTree Investments debuted an actively managed Asia ex-Japan bond fund denominated in local currency in mid-March. The WisdomTree Asia Local Debt Fund (NYSE Arca: ALD) will cast a wide net, covering China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. The fund categorically excludes Japan, while Vietnam’s poor fundamentals mean that it didn’t make the cut for inclusion. ALD doesn’t use a benchmark; rather, its constituents are chosen by a WisdomTree investment committee focused on a number of parameters in a given country, including liquidity, debtto-GDP ratio, foreign reserves, inflation and unemployment. ALD has an expense ratio of 0.55 percent. Schwab Plans To Use ETFs In 401(k)s Charles Schwab plans to lower 401(k) costs by steering assets, for the first time, toward lower-priced passive index funds and ETFs, beginning this year. Should Schwab’s plan gain traction, it could seriously upset the world of defined-contribution retirement plans that’s dominated by actively managed mutual funds. The San Francisco-based company, which has a long-standing reputation as a discount broker and purveyor of low-cost funds, plans to begin rolling out the index mutual fund piece of its plan later this year, while the ETF portion will come to market sometime in 2012, a Schwab representative said. The company already runs about $200 billion in retirement assets. Schwab’s push is based on a study it published in September 2010 called “The New Rules of Engagement for 401(k) Success” that found that high costs and a lack of investor education have together conspired to limit the amount people save for their retirements, according to the Schwab representative. EGPT Creations Resume Van Eck Global resumed creations of its Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (NYSE Arca: EGPT) after the Egyptian exchange reopened on March 23. The New Yorkbased company halted creations in late January amid turmoil in the North African country that led to the closure of the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The firm originally halted creations on EGPT on Jan. 31, during the unrest that hobbled daily life in Egypt and ultimately led to the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule there. Throughout the seven-week episode, redemptions were still possible, Van Eck stressed in its prepared statement. At the close on March 22, EGPT was trading at a 12.8 percent premium to its net asset value, or NAV, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse. The Q’s Lose A ‘Q’ Invesco PowerShares changed the ticker symbol on its popular Nasdaq-100 ETF, the PowerShares QQQ Trust (Nasdaq GM: QQQ) to “QQQ” from “QQQQ” so that the fund’s name matches its ticker. The change became effective on March 23, 2011. PowerShares emphasized in a prepared statement that everything else about the funds would remain exactly the same, including its listing on the Nasdaq exchange. The “Q’s,” as it is called by ETF industry insiders, had turnover of almost $1.052 trillion in all of 2010, making it the thirdmost-liquid fund in the U.S. ETF universe after the large-cap SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE Arca: SPY) and the small-cap iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSE Arca: IWM), according to data compiled by IndexUniverse. It had assets of nearly $23 billion when the change took effect. 4 ETFR • May 2011
T H E P O W E R S H A R E S D B COMMODITY INDEX TRACKING FUND To download a copy of the prospectus, visit PowerShares.com/DBCpro
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US-Listed ETFs Sorted by Asset Class and Year-to-Date Return

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