ETF Securities List 33 Leveraged ETCs And 4 New Commodities On The London Stock Exchange Today

• Leverage ETCs providing 2x exposure to 33 commodity indices
• 4 new DJ-AIG commodity indices added to ETC platform: cocoa, lead, tin, platinum

ETF Securities, the global pioneer of exchange traded commodities (ETCs) has added to its ETC platform with the introduction of 33 Leveraged ETCs. And DJ-AIG have added four new commodity indices: Cocoa, Lead, Tin and Platinum. The new ETCS will be available as of today on the London Stock Exchange. A total of 110 ETCs will have been created by ETF Securities. The new ETCs will complement ETF Securities' existing Physical, Classic, Forward and the recently launched Short ETCs which provide investors long and short exposure to the commodities market.

Leveraged ETCs allow investors to earn a positive return when the index is rising with 50% less capital. Leveraged ETCs earn two times (+2x) the daily percent change in the index (before fees and interest). For example, if the underlying index rises by 2% in a day, a Leveraged ETC will increase by 4% and vice versa. In today's market where it is increasingly difficult to obtain credit and margin, Leveraged ETCs free up additional capital for investor's to gain additional portfolio diversification.

The ETC platform offered by ETF Securities has experienced massive growth in the past thirteen weeks with assets growing by 150% to over $5.1 billion and daily trading volumes doubling to over $120 million per day across five European exchanges. The increase in assets has occurred as a result of increased awareness of commodities and ETCs, volatile equity markets creating demand for non-correlated assets, positive commodity fundamentals, inflation fears and annual portfolio rebalancings made at the start of the new year.

Leveraged ETCs tracking existing indices:

In addition to their obvious benefits, Short and Leveraged ETCs provide investors with a wider range of investment strategies including: pairs trades when an investor has a view that one commodity will rise or fall in price relative to another commodity; reducing or increasing commodity price risk where a portfolio owns commodity companies; and investment strategies which exploit the shape of a commodity futures curve allowing investors to "short" the part of the curve in contango and to go "long" the part of the curve in backwardation.

Leveraged ETCs also offer the same benefits as the existing ETCs. They are simple to trade on a major stock exchange, they can be settled and held in ordinary brokerage accounts, they are transparent and have a clear pricing formula. In addition, ETCs are highly liquid with multiple market makers providing liquidity and continuous pricing. Since Leveraged ETCs are priced off the same underlying markets as the existing ETCs, this implies that the liquidity of Short ETCs will also be similar. In addition to liquidity on five European stock exchanges, ETF Securities can issue $250 million of additional new Leveraged ETCs each day. In total, ETF Securities can create over $1 billion of new ETCs on a daily basis across its range of over 110 ETCs. The minimum investment is one ETC.

In total, ETF Securities now offer platforms of physically backed precious metal ETCs and Classic, Forward, Short and Leveraged ETCs providing exposure to energy, agriculture, livestock, industrial metals and precious metals. The ETCs have been listed on five major European stock exchanges in dedicated ETC trading segments.

First dealings in Leveraged ETCs commence on the London Stock Exchange today.

Commenting on the listing of another world first, Graham Tuckwell, Chairman of ETF Securities, said:

"We have seen unrivalled support and demand for ETCs. Since we listed the Short ETCs two weeks ago, we have been inundated with calls for these new Leveraged ETCs. Investors are now realising that commodities can offer benefits to a portfolio due to their low correlation to equities. In times like these where liquidity is tight, Leveraged ETCs can provide these diversification benefits with 50% less capital. In times of economic or financial upheaval, many independent studies have shown that commodities can benefit a portfolio by lowering volatility and/or increasing returns.

"Over the past thirteen weeks there has been a huge surge in global demand for ETCs and we recently passed the landmark of $5.1 billion invested in our existing offering. Over this period, assets and trading volumes are up approximately 150%. With listings on five of Europe's major exchanges ETF Securities has successfully delivered simple, cost-efficient and accessible products for all investors."

Commenting on the launch Pietro Poletto, Head of ETF and ETC Markets at London Stock Exchange Group, said:

"These new Leveraged ETCs are a very welcome new addition to our markets, and with the recently launched Short ETCs will take the number of trading products available on our Exchange Traded Commodities market segment to well over 100.

"As well as being able to access a broad range of commodities, including for the first time Cocoa, Lead and Tin, investors will now have a simple way to gain short and leveraged ETC exposure, putting some of the types of trading strategies at use in the equities markets at their fingertips.

I am sure that this additional flexibility will contribute to the growth in our dedicated Exchange Traded Commodities segment, which has started the year very strongly, with £1.3 billion worth of trading in January, nearly double the previous monthly record"

* 'Backwardation' and 'contango' - definitions:
Backwardation refers to a downward sloping forward curve (as in an inverted yield curve) or, more formally, it is the situation where, and the amount by which, the price of a commodity for future delivery is lower than the spot price, or a far future delivery price lower than a nearer future delivery.

Contango is the opposite to 'backwardation' and refers to an upward sloping forward curve (as in the normal yield curve) in prices or, more formally, it is the situation where, and the amount by which, the price of a commodity for future delivery is higher than the spot price, or a far future delivery price higher than a nearer future delivery.