New Wave of Enhanced ETFs in the Works

A number of investment managers have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer exchange-traded funds based on enhanced indexes to beat these benchmarks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

First Trust Portfolios, Claymore Securities and Rydex Investments have applied to bring the new funds to market. First Trust is planning nine niche ETFs, each tied to one of the AlphaDex indexes from Frank Russell; Rydex is planning nine funds based on S&P 500 indexes that will give equal weight to all companies in the index; and Claymore is planning six new ETFs, including one that will track 300 stocks based on the value of the companies’ patents. Another will invest in small- and mid-cap spin-offs within the last two years.

Still, some experts warn that because these are not proven methods and don’t have a performance history, investors should be careful about investing in enhanced ETFs. “Many of these sound really cool. But they are backtested, lab-made models. They need to build real data, a performance history,” cautions Dave Fry, publisher of ETF Digest.