ETF Securities To Launch Entire Range Of ETCs Providing 33 Types Of Both Short And Leveraged Exposure

• World first for listed access to an entire platform of Short & Leveraged commodity indices via ETCs

• 66 new ETCs to be listed making a total of over 110 ETCs available

• 4 New ETCs Cocoa, Lead, Tin & Platinum based on the DJ-AIG Commodity Index

ETF Securities, the global pioneer of exchange traded commodities (ETCs) will add to its ETC platform with the introduction of 33 Short ETCs and 33 Leveraged ETCs. The Short and Leveraged ETCs will complement ETF Securities' existing 51 Classic and Forward ETCs which already provide investors long exposure to different parts of the futures curve.

The 66 new ETCs are all priced off indices and sub-indices of the Dow Jones - AIG Commodities IndexSM. As with the existing Classic and Forward ETCs, these new ETCs will comprise 19 individual commodities and 9 sub-indices. In addition, four new commodities will be added: Cocoa, Lead, Tin and Platinum. With the new ETCs, ETF Securities will have created over 110 ETCs providing long, short and leveraged exposure to the world's major commodity markets.

The new ETCs are expected to be listed on the London Stock Exchange in the next few weeks and will provide investors access to a wide range of investment and trading strategies. Short ETCs will enable investors to gain from falls in commodity prices. Leveraged ETCs will enable investors to gain from rising commodity prices, providing exposure with 50% less capital.

The ETC platform offered by ETF Securities has experienced massive growth in the past eight weeks with assets growing by 50% to over $3.2 billion and daily trading volumes doubling to almost $80 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.

Short and Leveraged ETCs will be made available on the following Dow Jones - AIG Commodity Indices consisting of 23 individual commodity indices and 10 composite commodity indices:

The 20 new Short and Leveraged Index Securities are:

The 46 new Short and Leveraged Individual Securities are:

Short ETCs allow investors to earn a positive return even when the index is falling. Short ETCs earn minus one times (-1x) the daily change in the index (before fees and interest). For example, if the underlying index falls by 2% in a day, a Short ETC will increase by 2% and vice versa. Until now, it has been difficult for investors to benefit from falling prices as to go short, investors would have had to borrow ETCs and then sell those ETCs in the market-both of which was difficult and relatively expensive. Additionally, shorting exposed investors to unlimited losses but the new short ETCs limit the maximum loss to the investors' initial investment.

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 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.

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.

Short and 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 Short and Leveraged ETCs are priced off the same underlying markets as the existing ETCs, this implies that the liquidity of Short and Leveraged ETCs will also be similar. In addition to liquidity on five European stock exchanges, ETF Securities can create $500 million of additional Short and 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 the Short and Leveraged ETCs are expected to commence on the London Stock Exchange in the next few weeks.

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

"ETF Securities is synonymous with exchange traded commodities (ETCs). By offering a full platform of ETCs, investors can now utilise ETCs for almost any commodity investment and trading strategy. The new Short and Leveraged ETCs will complement the existing ETCs which provide unleveraged long exposure through Classic and Forward ETCs. Now investors can take advantage of rising or falling commodity prices in addition to choice of ETCs along each commodity futures curve.

"We have seen unrivalled support and demand for ETCs. Investors are now realising that commodities can offer benefits to a portfolio due to their low correlation to equities. 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 eight weeks there has been a huge surge in global demand for ETCs and we recently passed the landmark of $3 billion invested in our existing offering. Over this period, assets and trading volumes are up over 50%. With listings on five of Europe's major exchanges ETF Securities has successfully delivered simple, cost-efficient and accessible products for all investors."

* '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.