FYI: Are nontransparent, actively managed ETFs the Next Big Thing in ETFs?
Potential product issuers certainly hope so. But though proposals for nontransparent, actively managed ETFs have been in front of the SEC for years, to date, only two versions have launched.
The first, by Vanguard, is also a bit of an exception: Not only are Vanguard ETFs simply share classes of pre-existing mutual funds, they're not actively managed. It's true that holdings in Vanguard ETFs are only disclosed monthly, on a 15-day lag; but most of their funds are based on passive indexes, whose constituents are publicly accessible.
The second model, NextShares by Eaton Vance, is truly a nontransparent, actively managed vehicle. But it has yet to take off with investors; the 18 NextShares exchange-traded managed funds have only gathered $153 million in assets under management (AUM), after more than two years of trading (read: "Eaton Vance's ETMF Finally Debuts").
These two structures and the five proposals still before the SEC are the subject of a new white paper by ALPS' Nichole Kramer and Casey Kayl, titled "Non-Transparent Exchange Traded Products: A Revolution 25 Years In The Making."
Regards,
Ted
https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/nontransparent-active-next-etf-revolution?nopaging=1
