PRESS ROOM
WisdomTree lists two smart beta fixed income ETFs on SIX Swiss Exchange
Friday 26th July '19
ETFs aim to provide investors with increased yield potential while mitigating risk
WisdomTree, the exchange traded fund ("ETF") and exchange traded product ("ETP") sponsor, today announced the listing of the WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF and the WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF on the Six Swiss Exchange.
The strategies seek to take a more intuitive approach to indexing by seeking to provide enhanced yields on core European investment grade bonds and treasuries, without potentially riskier exposures.
- WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF aims to achieve both a higher yield and a low tracking error with respect to the market benchmark, the Bloomberg Barclays Euro Aggregate Bond Index, which measures the performance of the investment grade, Euro denominated, fixed rate bond market. This includes treasuries, government-rated, corporate and securitized bonds. The ETF does this by following a rules-based approach which tilts the weights of the market benchmark towards higher yielding segments of the market while controlling risk and tracking error vs the market benchmark. TER is 0.18%
- WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF aims to achieve both a higher yield and a low tracking error with respect to the market benchmark, the Bloomberg Barclays Euro Treasury Bond Index, which measures the performance of the investment grade, Euro denominated, fixed rate government bonds issued by the sovereign countries participating in the EMU. The ETF does this by following a rules-based approach to tilt the weights of the market benchmark towards higher yielding segments of the market while controlling for risk and tracking error versus the market benchmark. TER is 0.16%
Rafi Aviav, WisdomTree Head of Product Development in Europe, said, “The ETFs listed today are an important addition to the European fixed income fund landscape. The strategy employed by both funds offers a unique solution for investors to potentially increase the yield they’re getting from the market while tightly controlling risk. By tilting towards yield the strategy aims to deliver on one of the most important attributes for fixed income investors, while avoiding excessive tracking error and risk-taking with respect to the benchmark.”
Lidia Treiber, Director of Research in Europe said, “European investors have been faced with negative yields in the 1 to 5 year part of most European government yield curves and most recently the uncertainty surrounding global trade tensions has pushed 10-year German bond yields to all time lows of negative 20 basis points as of the end of May 2019. With yields at historically low levels, investors are looking for solutions that provide greater yields for the core of their fixed income portfolios and WisdomTree’s suite of fixed income Enhanced Yield ETFs have been designed to address this need. Their objective to provide higher income using only investment grade rated bonds and maintaining defined risk constraints are very relevant.”
A total of 18 WisdomTree strategies are now listed on SIX Swiss Exchange.
GOVE and YLD: Under the hood
The index methodology for each fund uses a 3-step process for yield optimisation and incorporates the following:
- Step 1: Divide index constituents into buckets. The constituents are divided into buckets across either country and maturity (GOVE) or sector, country, maturity and credit quality (YLD).
- Step 2: Determine and apply constraints. To control risk and concentration while limiting turnover, a number of constraints are added (see below).
- Step 3: Determine bucket weights. Each month, weights of each Index are reallocated across the buckets to maximise yield while adhering to the constraints. The constraints are designed such that the resulting “enhanced yield” indices are managed against the risk of undue tracking error relative to the parent universes.
Constraints:
- Tracking Error: Tracking Error Volatility for each enhanced yield index should be less than 35 basis points each month when measured against its respective parent index.
- Duration: Duration of each Index cannot be more than 1 year greater than that of either the Euro Treasury or the Euro Agg parent indices.
- Country and Bucket constraints and sector and subcomponent constraints are applied. For the Bloomberg Barclays Euro Treasury Enhanced Yield Index, country weights cannot deviate by more than 20% from their weight in the Euro Treasury Index whilst for the Bloomberg Barclays Euro Aggregate Enhanced Yield Index major sectors cannot deviate by more than 20% from their weight in the Euro Agg index.
- Bucket Size: To be eligible for selection a buckets market value must meet minimum requirements.
- Turnover: Portfolio turnover due to monthly rebalancing is capped at 5%.
Product Information:
Share Class Name | Exchange | Trading Currency | Exchange Code | ISIN |
---|---|---|---|---|
WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR | SIX | EUR | YLD | IE00BD49R912 |
WisdomTree EUR Aggregate Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR Acc | SIX | EUR | EYLD | IE00BD49RB39 |
WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR | SIX | EUR | GOVE | IE00BD49RJ15 |
WisdomTree EUR Government Bond Enhanced Yield UCITS ETF – EUR Acc | SIX | EUR | WGOV | IE00BD49RK20 |
- Total Expense Ratio (TER): A measure of the total costs associated with managing and operating a fund. The TER consists primarily of management fees plus other expenses such as trustee, custody and operating expenses. It is expressed as a percentage of the fund's total net asset value.
- Interest Rate Risk: The risk that an investment’s value will decline due to an increase in interest rates.
- Tracking error volatility: The volatility of the difference between the performance of a portfolio and its benchmark. In this case, the portfolio is the Euro Treasury Index.
- Duration: A measure of a bond’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The weighted average accounts for the various durations of the bonds purchased as well as the proportion of the total government bond portfolio that they make up.
- Rebalance: An index is created by applying a certain set of selection and weighting rules at a certain frequency.