New products introduced over the last week include a new value fund from Granite Investment Advisors and two new ETF mutual funds from Knight Capital; the adoption of a FTSE benchmark by Vanguard for one of its funds; and the addition of more tools to its active trading platform by Schwab.
In addition, Eagle Asset Management’s Small Cap Core Value Fund is now rated by Morningstar, and the Russell Global Index gained 31 IPOs.
Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:
1) Granite Investment Advisors to Launch First Retail Mutual Fund
New Hampshire-based Granite Investment Advisors has announced that on Jan. 4 it will publicly launch its first retail mutual fund, the Granite Value Fund (GVFIX). The fund will be a concentrated portfolio of 30 to 40 mid-cap and large companies.
Scott Schermerhorn, CEO and CIO of the firm, will serve as portfolio manager of the new fund, which will have an expense ratio of 135 basis points.
2) Knight Announces Launch of Two ETF Mutual Funds from Astor
Knight Capital Group Inc. announced that subsidiary Astor Asset Management launched the Astor Active Income ETF Fund and the Astor SP Growth ETF Fund on December 21.
The Astor Active Income ETF Fund (A share: AXAIX; C share: CXAIX) takes a tactical approach to fixed-income investing based on macroeconomic principles and yield curve analysis, and seeks to provide investors with yield while protecting capital.
The Astor SP Growth ETF Fund (A share: ASPGX; C share: CSPGX) follows a tactical asset allocation approach based on macroeconomic fundamentals and seeks to provide a lower level of volatility than the broad equity markets over a complete market cycle.
3) Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Adopts Broader FTSE Benchmark
Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund announced recently that it has changed its target benchmark to the FTSE Global All Cap Index from the FTSE All-World Index. The new target benchmark, a float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index designed to measure the equity market performance of large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks worldwide, offers broader diversification by adding exposure to U.S. and international small-capitalization stocks.
The fund invests in a broadly diversified sampling of securities from the benchmark, which comprises nearly 7,400 securities in 47 countries and captures 98% of the world’s investable stock market capitalization. Approximately 56% of the index is made up of stocks from outside the U.S.