The International Securities Exchange (ISE) announced today that it has launched two new indexes, the ISE Oil Futures SpreadTMIndex (Ticker: GZN) and the ISE Natural Gas Futures SpreadTM Index (Ticker: GYY). These new indexes track continuous exposure to oil futures prices and natural gas futures prices, respectively, using packaged calendar spread strategies.
In addition, ISE has partnered with UBS to launch two exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to these indexes. ETRACS Oil Futures Contango ETN (Ticker: OILZ) and ETRACS Natural Gas Futures Contango ETN (Ticker: GASZ) are the first ETNs to provide investors with exposure to futures-based calendar spread strategies in the oil and natural gas markets. Both products began trading on NYSE Arca on June 16, 2011.
“Our new partnership with UBS and the launch of two ETNs based on ISE’s strategy-based futures indexes mark significant achievements for our index business,” said Kris Monaco, Head of New Product Development at ISE. “We are excited to collaborate with UBS to meet the growing marketplace demand for exchange-traded investment vehicles that provide investors with exposure to sophisticated packaged investment strategies. By broadening our product offering to include both strategy-based indexes and futures-based indexes for the first time, we continue to expand our unique portfolio of indexes that serve as actionable investment strategies for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), ETNs and structured products.”
Historical index values, real-time pricing information and methodology guides for the new indexes are available on ISE’s website at www.ise.com/index.
In addition to the new ETNs, there are currently 10 ETFs based on ISE’s proprietary indexes. Aggregate assets under management (AUM) for the associated funds is approximately $1.3 billion.
First Trust Advisors offers eight ETFs based on ISE’s proprietary indexes: the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (FCG), the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (FAN), the First Trust ISE Chindia Index Fund (FNI), the First Trust ISE Water Index Fund (FIW), the First Trust ISE Global Engineering and Construction Index Fund (FLM), the First Trust BICK Index Fund (BICK), the First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (CU)and the First Trust Global Platinum Index Fund (PLTM). Direxion offers two ETFs based on the ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index: the Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bull 2x Shares (FCGL) and the Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bear 2x Shares (FCGS). ISE also offers options on certain indexes and ETFs within the First Trust and Direxion portfolios.
For more information, please visit www.ise.com/etf.