ETF Securities on Friday will launch a new exchange traded fund that offers a diversified portfolio of precious metals—gold, silver, platinum and palladium—under the ticker symbol GLTR, or "Glitter."
The London-based ETF firm's ETFS Physical Precious Metal Basket Shares fund is designed to appeal to financial advisors looking for a "one size fits all" exchange traded portfolio, according to company officials. The sponsor's fee for GLTR will be 0.60%.
It is expected that the transaction costs for buying and selling the shares will be lower than purchasing, storing, and insuring physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium, the company announced in a news release on Thursday.
The shares will trade on the NYSE Arca. The trust structure allows for shares to be created and redeemed according to supply and demand in the market. The gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion held by the trust is inspected biannually by independent metal assayer Inspectorate International.
The pricing information, net asset value, and precious metals bar numbers held by the trust will be published daily on www.etfsecurities.com.
"This is a precious metals basket—it's one ETF which holds a diversified portfolio of the four main precious metals, which are gold, silver, platinum, and palladium," said William Rhind, New York-based strategic director of U.S. business development for ETF Securities USA, in a phone interview. "The advisor buys one share and gets diversified exposure to the whole precious metals exposure. There's nothing like this available in the U.S. market currently. The only option is single precious metals. At last, financial advisors have a solution to their precious metals exposure."
Although portfolio holdings of precious metals and other commodities are now a hot topic in the markets, the timing is purely coincidental for the launch of ETFS Physical Precious Metal Basket Shares, Rhind asserted.
"A lot of focus has been on precious metals," DeLegge said. "You could make the argument that people should own it not just from a safe money perspective, if you don't trust currency, which a lot of people don't these days, but from the perspective of 'I'm bullish on the industrial applications.' Look at all the hand-held mobile devices—iPhones, iPads, e-this, and e-that. The materials within that little device contain some of these very materials. There are also medical applications."
