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There have been the concerns that leveraged and inverse ETFs contribute to the financial crisis of 2007~2008. Several researchers have investigated this important issue. However, there is no consensus yet whether leveraged and inverse ETFs destabilize a financial market. Financial stability is an important subject for policy makers, practitioners and academia. ETFs are one of the most important financial innovations. In particular, leveraged and inverse become more and more influential. Therefore, such lack of academic and practical consensus is a significant challenge. In this paper, we analyze whether leveraged and inverse ETFs affect the price and volatility of Korean market. Thus, our research contributes to the body of literature and to the design of public policies and trading strategies. Our research can also advance the development of ETF industry, one of the fastest growing and promising sector in the Korean financial market.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are one of the most innovative financial products listed on exchanges. As reflected by the size of the market, they have become popular among both retail and institutional investors. The original ETFs were simple and easy to understand; however, recent products, such as leveraged, inverse, and synthetic ETFs, are more complex and have additional dimensions of risk. The additional risks, complexity, and reduced transparency have resulted in heightened attention by regulators. This chapter aims to increase understanding of how ETFs function in the market and can potentially impact financial stability and market volatility.

We discuss the evolution of ETFs, growing regulatory concerns, and the various responses to these concerns.

We find that concerns related to systemic risk and excess volatility, suitability for retail investors, lack of transparency and liquidity, securities lending and counterparty exposure are being addressed by both market participants and policy makers. There has been a shift toward multiple counterparties, overcollateralization, disclosure of collateral holdings and index holdings.

The analysis contained in this chapter provides an understanding of the role of ETFs in the financial markets and the global economy that should be valuable to market participants, investors, and policy makers.

This paper aims to provide the necessity to activate long-term exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) in Korea. In the era of aging, low interest rates and low economic growth, the investment demand for long-term financial products, and its hedging demand have steadily increased. Unfortunately, long-term ETD do not trade in Korea, and this study presents political suggestions to invigorate long-term ETD based on overseas cases and empirical analysis. Specifically, this study suggests the necessity to activate exchange traded funds (ETFs) options, long-term Korea treasury bond futures and options and long-term Volatility Index of Korea Composite Stock Price Index future and options. The introduction of those long-term ETD not only contributes to providing long-term investment and hedging vehicles but also reduces market inefficiencies in the Korean industry of ETFs, bonds and structured products.

The purpose of this summary is to provide excerpts of selected Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulatory notices and disciplinary actions issued in July and August 2009 and a sample of disciplinary actions during that period.

The paper provides excerpts from FINRA Regulatory Notice 09‐42, Variable Life Settlement Transactions; 09‐49, Conflicts of Interest; 09‐52, Trade Reporting; and 09‐53, Non‐traditional ETFs.

(09‐42) FINRA is concerned about variable life settlements because they involved materially different factors and raise materially different issues than more widely held securities such as stocks or bonds. (09‐49) Rule 2720 prohibits a member firm with a conflict of interest from participating in a public offering, unless the nature of the conflict is prominently disclosed and certain other specific requirements are met. (09‐52) Effective January 11, 2010, firms that execute OTC trades in equity securities during the hours that a FINRA trade reporting facility is closed must report the trade within 15 minutes of the opening of the facility. (09‐53) Effective December 1, 2009, FINRA is implementing increased customer margin requirements for leveraged ETFs and uncovered options overlaying leveraged ETFs.

These are direct excerpts designed to provide a useful digest for the reader and an indication of regulatory trends. The FINRA staff are aware of this summary but have neither reviewed, nor edited it. For further detail as well as other useful information, the reader should visit www.finra.org.

To describe and analyze a proposed rule recently issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that would overhaul the use of derivatives and financial commitment transactions by registered investment companies and business development companies.

This article summarizes the various aspects of the proposed rule, discusses the elements of the proposed rule in greater detail, explains the effect of the proposed rule on existing guidance from the SEC and its staff, and notes the potential transition period for any final rule.

While the proposed rule is subject to public comment and subsequent consideration by the SEC and its staff, if the proposed rule is adopted in its current form it would result in sweeping changes for registered investments companies and business development companies.

This article contains a detailed overview of a recent SEC rule proposal regarding the use of derivatives by registered investment companies and business development companies and practical guidance from experienced asset management lawyers.

This study analyses empirically the Granger causality between commodity ETFs listed in KRX (Korea Stock Exchange) and the price determinants of the underlying commodities as well as the KOSPI200 index and the underlying indices, and compares the performance of four commodity ETFs : gold futures, oil futures, soybean futures and the copper price. The main findings are as follows : First, the commodity ETFs tracking gold futures, oil futures and soybean futures prices in the sample from the inception to June 2015 were not directly related to the price determinants of the underlying commodities except for the copper ETF which was affected by the oil price as one of the price determinants of copper. In addition, all four ETFs were not related to the KOSPI200 index while they were affected by the underlying indices. Second, the soybean futures ETF outperformed the KOSPI200 index in terms of the cumulative returns and the oil futures ETF recorded the worst performance in terms of the cumulative returns and IR (information ratio). Third, the average tracking error of each ETF except for the oil futures ETF showed a positive value and the price of each ETF except for the soybean futures ETF has been undervalued compared to its net asset value. From the above findings, we can infer that investors in the copper ETF should closely watch the movement of the oil price to enhance the return and investors in the commodity ETFs should first consider agriculture-related ETFs rather than oil-related ETFs considering the price volatility. In addition, the inverse ETFs for copper and agriculture-related products should be introduced following the oil and gold futures inverse ETFs to protect against negative returns in a declining period of commodity prices.

Leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs) have become increasingly popular since their introduction in 2006. In recent years, options on leveraged ETFs have been promoted as a means of enhancing returns and reducing risk. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interchangeability of S & P 500 ETF options with leveraged S & P 500 ETF options and to what extent these options allow investors to manage their risk exposure.

With increasing liquidity for these fund’s options, simple option strategies such as covered calls and protective puts can be implemented. This study derives call-call and put-put parity between options on the underlying index and the associated leveraged ETFs. The paper examines comparative measures of return and risk on the underlying indices, along with covered call and protective put positions.

Using the formulations derived, this study shows options on non-leveraged ETFs or on the underlying index can be substituted for leveraged ETF options. Empirical results suggest substituting options on leveraged ETFs with options on the underlying index or index ETF give comparable results, but can differ as the realized leverage ratio over time differs from projected values.

This study is the first to the authors’ knowledge that investigates option strategies on leveraged and inverse ETFs of equity indices. It is also the first to derive call-call and put-put parity relations between options on ETFs and related leveraged and inverse ETFs. The results contribute to securities issuance, investment strategies, and option parity relations.

Leveraged and inverse ETFs (hereafter leveraged ETFs) have received much press coverage of late due to issues with their performance. Managers and the media have focused investors' attention on the impact of compounding, when the funds are held for more than one day. The aim of this paper is to lay out a framework for assessing the performance of leveraged ETFs.

The authors propose a simple way to disentangle the effect of compounding and that of the management of the fund and the trading premiums/discounts, all of which affect investors' bottom line. The former is influenced by the effectiveness and the costs of the manager's (synthetic) replication strategy and the use of leverage. The latter reflects liquidity and the efficiency of the market.

The paper finds that tracking errors were not caused by the effects of compounding alone. Depending on the fund, the impact of management factors can outweigh the impact of compounding, and substantial premiums/discounts caused by reduced liquidity during the financial crisis further distorted performance.

The authors propose a framework for practitioners to evaluate the performance of leveraged ETFs. This framework highlights a very topical issue, that of the impact of synthetic replication, which all leveraged ETFs use. Financial regulators such as the SEC and the Financial Stability Board have all taken issue with synthetically replicated ETFs. In leveraged ETFs, this issue is masked by the effects of compounding. The framework the authors propose allows investors to disentangle the two effects.