Products February 6, 2007

Northern Trust Releases Long/Short Equity Strategy

Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) has unveiled a Quantitative 130/30 Core Equity Strategy.
Reported by
A news release said the new offering seeks to outperform the Russell 1000 Index by applying a multi-factor investment process and a risk-controlled approach.

The announcement said the new approach sets out to beat the index by 4% annually over a full-market cycle. The strategy enables the portfolio manager to take short positions up to 30% and long positions up to 130%.

The company said the strategy is designed to leverage the strategy’s alpha while maintaining 100% exposure to the market.

“The 130/30 strategy is a natural extension of our existing quantitative investment process that allows us to express both our positive and negative views on stocks based on our research,” said Jeremy Baskin, Global head of Quantitative Active Strategies for NTGI, in the news release.

More information about the company is at http://www.northerntrust.com.
The Markets February 6, 2007

ETFs See Asset Uptick in January

Assets of U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were up slightly to $422 billion in January, according to new data from State Street Global Advisors.
Reported by

State Street said the asset level was up about $5 billion or 1.1% over the month, according to a Reuters news report.

The top three selling U.S. ETFs by dollar volume last month were the S&P 500 SPDR, the NASDAQ 100 Index Tracking Stock and the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund, according to State Street.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

ETFs investing internationally saw a $3 billion, or 2.8%, increase and those investing by value and growth style saw about a $2 billion, or 3.6%, advance, State Street said.

Assets in the specialty category, which includes dividend-based ETFs, grew $1.3 billion, or 8.4%. Meanwhile, according to the data, ETFs investing by size, such as small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap stocks, saw an asset retreat of almost $5 billion, or 3.2% in January.

State Street said that average daily volume for all U.S.-listed ETFs amounted to $31 billion, or about 7% of the total value of the U.S. ETF market.

According to the monthly review, 28 new ETFs were launched during the month, bringing the total to 387.

«