Quantcast
The MFWire
Manage Email Alerts | Sponsorships | About MFWire | Who We Are

Subscribe to MFWire.com's News Alerts [click]

Rating:In Gotham, a Startup Plants the Seeds of a New Kind of Active ETF Not Rated 4.0 Email Routing List Email & Route  Print Print
Thursday, October 6, 2016

In Gotham, a Startup Plants the Seeds of a New Kind of Active ETF

Reported by Neil Anderson, Managing Editor

A duo from opposite sides of the Atlantic is working on their own take on how to fit actively-managed strategies inside an ETF shell without giving away PMs' secret sauce.

Terry Norman
Blue Tractor Group
Founder
Last week New York City-based Blue Tractor Group filed an amended exemptive relief request with the SEC, six months after Blue Tractor's initial request. The request is for a new kind of active ETF structure, which Blue Tractor calls the Shielded Alpha ETF.

Ottawa, Ontario-based Simon Goulet, co-founder of Blue Tractor, describes Shielded Alpha as a "100-percent algorithmic solution" that "seeks to obscure a fund's proprietary strategy" on a daily basis while using quarterly portfolio disclosures like in a traditional open-end mutual fund. Shielded Alpha, Goulet says, is designed to disclose at least 90 percent of the underlying portfolio while specific holdings and weightings are obscured. He contrasts that with some non-transparent active ETF structure ideas that use third-party intermediaries or a proxy portfolio in lieu of daily portfolio holdings disclosures.

Simon Goulet
Blue Tractor Group
Co-Founder
The ball is now in the SEC's court.

"We are simply focused on providing the SEC with timely responses," Goulet tells MFWire.

Blue Tractor's latest SEC request confirms that Goulet and England-based Terry Norman, who founded Blue Tractor last year, aim to "enter into license agreements" with other fundsters interested in using the Shielded Alpha ETF structure, too.

"Traditional active managers continue to see share shift to ETFs," Goulet says. "It's fast becoming a strategic necessity for active fund managers to be able to offer clients something" ETF-like without giving away the secret sauce.

The Shielded Alpha structure could work for both equity and fixed income strategies, Goulet says.

As for the Blue Tractor name, the firm's website offers that "Terry Norman conceived the core concepts underpinning the novel algorithms that facilitate the Shielded Alpha Solution while riding a blue tractor cutting hay on his farm outside of London, England." 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE

4.0
 Do You Recommend This Story?



GO TO: MFWire
Return to Top
 News Archives
2024: Q2Q1
2023: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2022: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2021: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2020: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2019: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2018: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2017: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2016: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2015: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2014: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2013: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2012: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2011: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2010: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2009: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2008: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2007: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2006: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2005: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2004: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2003: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2002: Q4Q3Q2Q1
 Subscribe via RSS:
Raw XML
Add to My Yahoo!
follow us in feedly




©All rights reserved to InvestmentWires, Inc. 1997-2024
14 Wall Street | 20th Floor | New York, NY 10005 | P: 212-331-8968 | F: 212-331-8998
Privacy Policy :: Terms of Use