State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), launched the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (NYSE: EDIV) and the SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF (NYSE: EBND) today.

“Against a backdrop of historically low Treasury yields, demand for precise exposure to innovative debt and dividend instruments is climbing,” said James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors.

EDIV is linked to the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index. The Index is comprised of 100 of the highest yielding emerging markets stocks, based on market capitalization, in the S&P Dividend Opportunities family of indices. Constituents include publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion (float-adjusted market cap of $300 million). EDIV’s annual expense ratio is 0.59%.

EBND follows the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. The Index includes government bonds issued by countries outside of the United States, in local currencies, that have a remaining maturity of one year or more and are rated B3/B-/B- or higher. Each of the index components is a constituent of the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. EBND’s annual expense ratio is 0.50% according to ETF research.

“The launch of the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF and SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF helps to underscore the evolution of views on diversification – investors no longer see emerging markets as a single, uniform asset class,” added Ross.

Other ETF Product Offerings

Factor Advisors, a New York-based asset management firm, introduced five exchange traded funds that allow sophisticated investors to simultaneously hold both a bull and a bear position in one leveraged ETF.

“As a portfolio manager, I used to become frustrated about being charged twice the transaction fees and double the margin requirements in order to implement spread trades,” said Stuart Rosenthal, CEO and Co-Founder of Factor Advisors.  “I was determined to bring greater efficiency to spread trading. With the creation of FactorShares, spread trading among the major asset classes requiring two separate positions and indiscriminate rebalancing is in the past.”

The initial series of FactorShares ETFs pair up major asset classes from among the S&P 500 Index, US Treasury Bonds, Gold, Oil and the US Dollar.

The new FactorShares ETFs are:

• FactorShares 2X: S&P500 Bull/TBond Bear (NYSE: FSE)
• FactorShares 2X: TBond Bull/S&P500 Bear (NYSE: FSA)
• FactorShares 2X: S&P500 Bull/USD Bear (NYSE: FSU)
• FactorShares 2X: Oil Bull/S&P500 Bear (NYSE: FOL)
• FactorShares 2X: Gold Bull/S&P500 Bear (NYSE: FSG)

The above listed FactorShares spread ETFs are designed to rebalance daily to achieve the desired effect of maintaining dollar neutrality. FactorShares ETFs target a daily leverage ratio of 4:1, where each dollar invested provides approximately two dollars of long futures exposure and two dollars of short futures exposure, immediately after daily rebalancing. FactorShares ETFs aim for daily investment results and are not designed to be held for longer periods.

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