On August 3, Direxion Funds announced its decision to close and liquidate nine of their triple-leveraged and triple-inversed ETFs, after the funds failed to attract significant assets. The final day of trading for the following nine ETFs will be September 5.
Also on August 3, the provider filed paperwork seeking approval to create six new leveraged and inverse ETFs that would focus on broad equity markets in the U.S. and Europe.
- The proposed Direxion Daily Dow 30 Bull 2X Shares would target performance equal to 200% of the daily return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- The proposed Direxion Daily Dow 30 Bear 2X Shares would target performance equal to 200% of the inverse of the daily return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- The proposed Direxion Daily Dow 30 Bull 3X Shares would target performance equal to 300% of the daily return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- The proposed Direxion Daily Dow 30 Bear 3X Shares would target performance equal to 300% of the inverse of the daily return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- The proposed Direxion Daily European Equity Bull 3X Shares would target performance equal to 300% of the daily return of the MSCI Europe Index.
- The proposed Direxion Daily European Equity Bear 3X Shares would target performance equal to 300% of the daily return of the MSCI Europe Index.
On August 7, AdvisorShares launched the new QAM Equity Hedge ETF (QEH) which will employ an active long/short strategy that will attempt to outperform roughly half of the long/short equity hedge fund universe that makes up the HFRI Equity Hedge Index. The underlying index includes various long/short hedge funds who report their results monthly to HFRI. The expense ratio is 1.64 percent. On August 9, John Hancock filed paperwork looking to market its first ETF, an actively managed, multi-asset-class global fund. The proposed Global Balanced ETF is designed to “seek a balance between a high level of current income and growth of capital, with a greater emphasis on growth of capital.” On August 9, iShares filed paperwork seeking permission to create 14 single-currency ETFs. The proposed funds would be actively managed and would attempt to replicate the performance equivalent to holding a foreign currency in a bank account. The strategy of the funds is holding U.S. dollar-denominated short-term fixed income securities and spot foreign exchange currency contracts in a balance that provides exposure that compares to holding the actual foreign currency itself. 
On August 15, iShares will close and liquidate its target-date ETF, the iShares 2012 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series ETF (MUAA). The fund held AMT-free, investment-grade, noncallable municipal-bond debt that matures on its scheduled close date.
