The folks at Grail Advisors should be smiling. They're set to debut what they're pitching as the industry's first actively managed ETF on Monday and no less than the Wall Street Journal has picked up on the launch in the Monday edition of the Fund Track column. The American Beacon-sub-advised fund comes with an expense ratio of 79 basis points and its assets will be allocated among Brandywine Global Investment Management, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management and Metropolitan West Capital Management.

There are already other products in the market that describe themselves as active ETFS, such as those offered by Invesco PowerShares. However, in those ETFs managers purchase stocks based on computer models.

Other firms planning to throw their hat into the active ETF arena include Pimco.

Grail's product represents "the next step in the ETF evolution," Grail Advisors CEO William Thomas, was quoted as saying in the column, penned by Shefali Anand.

Some industry watchers, though, continue to be skeptical about the demand for such a product.

IndexUniverse.com editor Matt Hougan says Grail's product may face difficulty in drawing assets because it doesn't have a proven track record. Since their debut last year, three Invesco PowerShares actively managed stock ETFs have thus far attracted only $15 million.  

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