ETP News: Morgan Stanley launches robo platform for those with 'less complex needs'

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has launched Access Investing, an online investing platform designed to 'help build, monitor, and automatically rebalance a diversified portfolio'. Building on the bank's proprietary Goals-Based Wealth Management technology, the platform is designed to help investors 'who have less complex needs meet their unique financial goals - whether they are saving for retirement, buying a new car or purchasing a home - all while accounting for their time horizon and risk tolerance', according to Chris Randazzo (pictured), chief information officer for Wealth and Investment Management at the bank.

Built entirely in house, the portfolios are based on asset allocation insights from the bank, ranging across a core portfolio of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) - combining elements of active and passive management - an ETF-only market tracking portfolio, and seven thematic portfolios. Sample themes include sustainability, gender diversity, next wave technology and emerging market trends.

Nasdaq Nordic adds markets for securitised derivatives

Products classified as securitised derivatives will be transferred to a new partof Nasdaq First North from 18 December 2017. A subset of structured products traded on the fixed-income markets of Nasdaq Helsinki and Nasdaq Stockholm in Genium INET are classified as securitised derivatives in accordance with Mifir and Mifid 2. The products are leverage certificates, such as market warrants. Mifir stipulates that transactions in securitised derivatives must be cleared by a central counterparty clearing house when traded on a regulated market. The transfer will be replicated in External Test System 3 and be available for testing from 5 December 2017.

Products listed on the exchange in Stockholm will be transferred to a new part of Nasdaq First North Stockholm and products listed on the Helsinki exchange will be transferred to a new part of Nasdaq First North Helsinki. The instrument identifiers will remain the same.

Arrow Capital debuts first actively-managed bond ETF series
Toronto-based Arrow Capital Management has launched its first actively-managed bond ETF series, providing an additional access point to Exemplar Investment Grade Fund. Units of the ETF began trading on December 1 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The fund is a credit strategy seeking to generate risk-adjusted returns with low volatility and capital preservation. The ETF has been designed to remove interest rate exposure in corporate bonds, protecting investors when interest rates increase. Arrow is the trustee, manager and promoter of the fund. Toronto-based East Coast Fund Management is the portfolio adviser and actively manages the fund.

JP Morgan AM rolls out event-driven alternative beta play
JP Morgan Asset Management (JPAM) has launched the Event Driven ETF, its first single-strategy alternative beta ETF, which has been designed to 'complement core hedge fund allocations, provide targeted exposure within a portfolio, achieve lower beta exposure to the global equity market, or build a liquid alternatives allocation'. Event-driven investing seeks to capture pricing inefficiencies that may happen before or after a corporate 'event', such as earnings announcements, mergers, spinoffs or bankruptcies. The ETF uses a rules-based, bottom-up security selection process to capture a wide range of these event-driven hedges. The fund is managed by a team led by Yazann Romahi, chief investment officer of quantitative beta strategies and portfolio manager at JP Morgan AM.

JP Morgan manages more than US$120bn in alternative investments, and its asset management arm ETF suite features 19 product offerings with over $2bn in assets under management.

Ark IM launches US-listed, Israel-focused ETFs
Ark Investment Management (Ark IM) has launched the Israel Innovative Technology ETF, primarily listed on the CBOE ETF market.  The ETF is designed to provide exposure to, and capture the price movements of exchange-listed, Israeli companies whose main operations are causing disruptive innovation in what the New York-based registered investment adviser believes to be the highest growth potential parts of the economy: the Internet, technology, genomics, healthcare, biotechnology, industrials and manufacturing. With an annual expense ratio of 0.49%, the ETF charges less than the current US-listed Israel-focused ETFs (which range between 0.59%-0.75% annually). The ETF will rebalance on a quarterly basis tracking the Ark Israeli Innovation Index.