Are You Vegan and Worried About the Climate? There's an ETF for That: Portfolio Products

Beyond Advisors filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed launch of the US Vegan Climate ETF.

It is anticipated to list with ticker VEGN on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2019.

The US Vegan Climate ETF will be managed to track the US Vegan Climate Index, which was launched by Beyond Advisors in June 2018. Since then it has been independently calculated and published real-time by Solactive AG with index prices published real-time by the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, and on Bloomberg and Reuters terminals under the ticker VEGAN as well as reported daily on the Solactive website.

The US Vegan Climate Index is a passive, rules-based index of U.S. large cap stocks, screened according to vegan and climate-conscious principles.

Beyond Advisors is screening the Solactive US Large Cap Index, made up of the largest approximately 500 stocks in the US market, to exclude stocks of companies whose business activities include things like animal testing, burning of fossil fuels for energy production, and contributing to the abuse of human rights.

By being both zero animal exploitation and zero fossil fuel the US Vegan Climate Index has a carbon footprint well below the Solactive US Large Cap Index as well as reporting significantly lower waste generation and fresh water utilization (as calculated by Impact-Cubed). The US Vegan Climate ETF is expected to have estimated expense ratios of 0.60%.

VanEck Launches Morningstar-Powered ETFs

VanEck announced the launch of two new VanEck Vectors ETFs, in which both funds seek to leverage research from Morningstar's experienced equity research team.

The VanEck Vectors Morningstar Durable Dividend ETF (DURA) seeks to provide exposure to high dividend yielding U.S. companies with strong financial health and attractive valuations, according to Morningstar. DURA seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Morningstar US Dividend Valuation Index . The Index leverages Morningstar's forward-looking fair value assessments as well as its proprietary quantitative Distance to Default score, which helps target financially strong companies with a higher probability of sustaining dividend payments.

"Traditional methods of screening dividend paying companies generally rely on backward-looking data, such as a company's history or magnitude of past distributions," said Ed Lopez, head of ETF Product with VanEck. "Key features of DURA's index are Morningstar's fair value and financial health assessments."

The VanEck Vectors Morningstar Global Wide Moat ETF (GOAT) seeks to provide exposure to global companies with sustainable competitive advantages, or "wide moats," that are attractively priced according to Morningstar's estimate of fair value. GOAT seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Morningstar ® Global Wide Moat Focus Index.

"Morningstar's equity research team consists of over 100 analysts globally and applies one consistent, forward-looking methodology to their stock analysis," added Lopez.

DURA has a net expense ratio of 0.29%, and GOAT has a net expense ratio of 0.52%

Proshares to Launch ETF Focused on Pet Care Industry

ProShares will soon be launching an ETF focused on the pet care industry. The ProShares Pet Care ETF (PAWZ) gives investors the opportunity to target an industry that stands to benefit from the proliferation of pet ownership and the emerging trends affecting how we treat our pets.

The global pet care market has been estimated at approximately $132 billion, with strong expectations for growth as both millennials and boomers propel increased spending.

Corporate investment interest in the pet care industry has been strong, too. According to ProShares, more than 80 mergers and acquisitions have occurred over the previous 12 months, indicating that established companies as well as investors are attracted to this dynamic space.

PAWZ tracks the FactSet Pet Care Index. The index consists primarily of companies whose principal business is determined to be pet care related by FactSet, and that meet additional criteria specified in the prospectus. The index currently consists of 22 companies that are equally weighted to provide broad exposure to potential growth within the pet care industry. The index is rebalanced quarterly.

State Street Global Advisors Launches SPDR Bond Compass

State Street Global Advisors launched the SPDR Bond Compass, a quarterly publication intended to provide investment professionals with quality data and investment outlooks, which they can use to engage their clients on fixed income investment strategies.

The Bond Compass uses proprietary research from State Street Global Markets, the research and trading division of State Street, and provides unique insight into how investors are positioning their portfolios.

The analysis shows current indicators of investor holdings in a variety of fixed income instruments and overlays buying and selling behaviours from the past quarter. These data points provide deep insight into investor sentiment and allow observers the opportunity to cut through the noise of the market to see the reality of the investor positions beneath. The contrast between existing holdings and recent buying trends enables additional insight into investor outlook for exposure in the future.

"Clients' use of Fixed Income ETFs continues to expand and investors are increasingly looking for valued-added insights to tailor bond portfolios for the current market," said Matt Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research at State Street Global Advisors. "Throughout the year we have seen investors de-risk credit portfolios, moving from fixed-rate high-yield ETFs to loans, while also shortening duration and adding some principal preservation. As a result short-term government bond ETFs have seen a 59% increase in assets. The Bond Compass provides data driven insights our clients need, along with our timely investment outlook and the necessary tools for action."

BondWave Launches Next Generation Fixed Income Price Confidence Tool

BondWave, a financial technology firm focused on fixed income solutions, launched its Effi Market Calculator, powered by their proprietary prevailing market price (PMP) calculation engine.

The Market Calculator leverages BondWave's proprietary QTrades and QCurves data and was developed to add an increased level of price confidence before buying, selling or bidding any bond.

The Effi Market Calculator utilizes BondWave's proprietary PMP calculation engine to provide on-demand values for up to five securities across levels II, III and IV of the prescribed PMP Waterfall process. By leveraging the PMP process, which includes the algorithmic measurement for side-of-market and bid/offer spread adjustments by individual security or sector, the Effi^TM Market Calculator helps fixed income participants meet additional business needs such as pre-trade price confidence and execution efficiency.

The calculator also offers clients the ability to configure their tool to compute pre-trade expected PMP values as well as expected pre-trade market bids or offers as it provides the flexibility and ease of accessing 20-plus settings to cater to each firm's assumptions and use cases.

— Read last week's portfolio product roundup here: Wealthfront Launches 'Freemium' Financial Planning Offering: Portfolio Products