The growing smart beta industry has received its latest entrant in the form of Connecticut-headquartered ETF issuer Rex Shares. The company plans to sponsor a range of smart beta-focused exchange-traded funds.

Rex Shares’ first funds could include an S&P 500 and an emerging markets equity ETF, hedged with gold futures.

According to Rex Shares, the company will specialise in creating investment vehicles that solve specific access or efficiency challenges in investor portfolios. Two gold-hedged funds have been filed for registration in the US with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company was founded by industry veteran Greg King whose resume includes over ten years of experience building exchange-traded product solutions. Most recently Mr. King was head of product development and strategic ventures for Global X Funds. He has also had leading roles at Credit Suisse, as head of exchange-traded products, iPath and VelocityShares. Global X Funds will be a minority stakeholder in the new firm.

“The ETF industry has seen tremendous growth, and we believe REX can provide significant value to investors who are looking for efficient portfolio and trading solutions,” said Greg King, Founder and CEO. “We like to think of ourselves as ‘ETF architects’, and are laser-focused on solving specific problems by building better tools for investors.”  

The first two Rex Shares funds which have been filed for registration are the Rex Gold Hedged S&P 500 ETF and the Rex Gold Hedged FTSE Emerging Markets ETF. These funds will follow a strategy designed to hedge the value of the fund’s equity investments with a long exposure to gold futures equal to the notional value of the the portfolio’s equities. The funds will track the S&P Goldshares Index and the FTSE Emerging Gold Overlay Index, respectively.