RBS has announced the launch of the dynamic trend-following RBS China Trendpilot ETN (TCHI). The ETN provides exposure to the RBS China Trendpilot Index, which tracks either the BNY Mellon China Select ADR TR Index or the yield on a hypothetical notional investment in 3-month US Treasury bills, depending on the relative performance of the BNY Mellon China Select ADR TR Index based on a simple historical moving average basis.

AdvisorShares has announced that the AdvisorShares Global Echo ETF (GIVE) will commence trading on 24 May, 2012. GIVE is a broadly diversified multi-manager ETF focused on sustainable investment themes, that seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation with an emphasis on absolute returns and low correlations. The fund, however, has a novel twist in that a share of the management fee goes to the Global Echo Foundation, a charitable foundation co-founded by Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Access to financial services in India is undergoing a revolution, making the subcontinent even more attractive to UK investors, according to Duncan Lawrie Private Bank. The process has begun to catalogue a further 400 million Indians into the world’s biggest biometric identity system, enabling them to open bank accounts and receive food subsidies and other benefits directly. Edward Bland, Head of Research at Duncan Lawrie, says: “We already see India as one of the most promising and important of the emerging markets for investors. Biometrics will reinforce this belief”.

While commodity ETFs lagged in March on dips in Chinese and European economic indicators, recent positive data in the US – including housing starts, building permits, existing home sales and a decline in initial jobless claims – have contributed to further optimism in the market. Moreover, according to Christopher Burton, Senior Portfolio Manager at Credit Suisse, “investors will continue to benefit from the inflation protection and diversification potential of holding diversified commodities exposure within a portfolio of traditional assets.”

The Europe-domiciled iShares S&P 500 ETF has surpassed $10 billion in assets under management in Europe, ten years after its launch. The fund’s success in gathering assets has partly been attributed to the fund’s high secondary-market liquidity, which translates into narrow spreads and low trading costs and thus reduced total cost of ownership. The fund has also benefited from minimal tracking error; on an annualised basis, the fund has achieved less than one basis point tracking difference after costs.

The debate around synthetic vs. physical ETFs keeps being raised and often descends into “physical good, synthetic bad”. According to Bernie Thurston, Head of Delta One Data, this is overly simplistic. Thurston argues that the question should not be “is physical or synthetic safer?” but instead should be “how risky is this particular ETF?”. Thurston says that replication methods should be taken into account as part of a more holistic approach to assessing potential risks.

In a recent research note, Fitch Ratings highlighted the growing popularity of short-term fixed income ETFs that market themselves as alternatives to money market funds (MMFs). One example that epitomises this popularity is the Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy ETF (MINT). MINT has reached $1.5 billion since inception and currently offers a 0.96% 30-day yield versus an average 0.03% yield for taxable MMFs. However, while the additional yield attracts investors, Fitch believes the risks of these vehicles should not be confused with conservatively managed MMFs.

Invesco Canada has announced the launch of the PowerShares Senior Loan (CAD Hedged) Index ETF (BKL), a fund designed to meet growing investor demand for increased yield and protection against the threat of rising interest rates. As Canada’s first senior loan ETF, BKL provides access to an asset class that has historically delivered higher yield than other fixed-income securities of equal or higher credit quality and provided investors with an added measure of security against borrower default.

Barclays has announced the issuance of three new iPath Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The ETNs have been created to provide investors with access to USD-denominated indices in a CAD-hedged and locally issued format. The volatility-linked ETNs, VIX and DVX, track the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index TR and S&P 500 Dynamic VIX Futures TR Index, respectively, while the commodity-linked ETN, PBO, tracks the Barclays WTI Crude Oil Pure Beta Index.

United States Commodity Funds, a sponsor of exchange traded commodity funds, has rolled out the United States Agriculture Index Fund (USAG), an ETF providing directional exposure to agricultural futures. USAG seeks to track the daily performance of the SummerHaven Dynamic Agriculture Index Total Return (SDAI), which in turn reflects the performance of a portfolio of agriculture futures contracts fully collateralised with US Treasury Bills.