Symposium on Exchange Traded Funds
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a share in a structured active or passive portfolio, but it trades on an exchange like an individual stock. Unlike a mutual fund, an ETF is traded continuously intraday and can be both purchased on margin and sold short.
ETFs were introduced in 1993 with the launch of the SPDR that replicates the S&P 500 index portfolio, and the market has grown enormously since then. By the end of 2008, there were nearly 1600 ETFs, traded on 42 different exchanges worldwide, and representing over $700 billion in assets. With nearly 500 new ETFs launched in 2008 alone, this is where some of the most innovative ideas in the equity space are currently being developed and launched.
The B-school "party line" is that most investors should passively hold a market index portfolio. In practice, this means investing in index mutual funds. But more active strategies like buying on margin or selling short are not possible. One can't even trade intraday to lock in the current index level when putting money in or taking it out. Many active trading strategies invest in a particular industry (autos, banks), or firm characteristic (small firms, growth stocks), or type of trading strategy (short selling, covered call writing). Each of these uses a carefully selected stock portfolio, structured to maximize exposure to the factor of interest and minimize sensitivity to other factors. The best vehicle for this kind of active trading is an ETF.
This Symposium brings together several well-known ETF experts to share their insights and perspectives on this important and exciting class of securities.
Date:
Friday, March 6, 2009
Location:
New York University
Stern School of Business
Kaufman Management Center
Room 2-60
44 West Fourth Street
New York, NY 10012
Registration:
Admission is free, but please RSVP to the Salomon Center at salomon@stern.nyu.edu or 212-998-0700
Program:
2:30 Perspectives on Exchange Traded Funds
Robert Hughes, NASDAQ OMX
Gary Gastineau, ETF Consultants
Richard Radnay, Marco Polo XTF
Noel Archard, Barclays Global Investors
5:00 Reception
About the Speakers:
Noel Archard, CFA
Head of Product Research & Development, U.S. iShares
Managing Director
Noel Archard is Head of Product Research & Development for the U.S. iShares team. In this role, he is responsible for leading and coordinating efforts around the research and development of new product or business opportunity concepts within the U.S. iShares business. In addition, his teams orchestrate the ongoing build-out of other innovative Exchange Traded Products, such as the iPath ETNs. Prior to joining BGI in 2006, Noel spent over 10 years at The Vanguard Group, first working within their brokerage services unit and then moving into their Exchange Traded Funds group. Noel has a BS from Northwestern University and is a CFA charterholder.
Gary L. Gastineau
Managing Member
Managed ETFs LLC
Gary Gastineau is a Co-Founder and Managing Member of Managed ETFs LLC, a firm that has filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to launch actively managed and improved index exchange-traded funds. He is Managing Director of ETF Consultants LLC, a firm that provides specialized exchange-traded fund consulting services to ETF issuers, exchanges and other markets, market makers, research organizations and investors. He is also a Director of Skyhawk Management LLC, an investment management firm that uses ETFs in its investment strategies.
Gastineau is a recognized expert on open-end exchange traded funds. Prior to joining ETF Advisors, LP, a new ETF management firm, as Managing Director in May 2002, he was Managing Director for ETF Product Development at Nuveen Investments Preceding his tenure at Nuveen, he directed product development at the American Stock Exchange for approximately five years. As Senior Vice President in New Product Development, Gastineau was instrumental in the introduction of many of the popular ETF products which have attracted more than $400 billion in assets since their first appearance in 1993. Previously, he held senior positions in research, product development and portfolio management at major investment banking firms.
His book, Someone Will Make Money on Your Funds - Why Not You? A Better Way to Select Mutual and Exchange-Traded Funds, was published by Wiley in September 2005. His earlier book, The Exchange-Traded Funds Manual, was published in February 2002 by Wiley. Gary is also the author of The Options Manual (Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1988), and co-author of the Dictionary of Financial Risk Management (Fabozzi, 1999) and Equity Flex Options (Fabozzi, 1999), as well as numerous journal articles. He received the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for an Outstanding Article for "Equity Index Funds Have Lost Their Way," which appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of The Journal of Portfolio Management.
Gary serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Derivatives and The Journal of Indexes. Gary is a member of a number of advisory boards including the Review Board for the Research Foundation of the CFA Institute. He is an honors graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
Robert J. Hughes
Director, Index Services
The NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group
Robert J. Hughes is the Director of Index Services for the NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group (GIG). He is responsible for the global business development and licensing of NASDAQ OMX Indexes. Hughes devises strategies to create business opportunities in the U.S. and throughout the world for current and prospective NASDAQ OMX clients.
Prior to joining NASDAQ OMX, Hughes served as a Regional Director for the Independent Research Network (IRN), a joint venture co-owned by The NASDAQ Stock Market and Reuters. The IRN was developed to provide small and micro-cap companies access to broker quality independent research.
Hughes has worked in the financial sector his entire career. He spent more than a decade in Investors Relations and was also employed with Morgan Stanley as a financial advisor.
Hughes received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and was a Monogram winner for the university's nationally-renowned football team.
Richard Radnay
Chief Technology Officer
Richard is responsible for IT, quantitative research, database architecture, and product development. Richard has over 18 years of experience in the financial industry with a specific focus on technology applications and systems that optimize performance and trade execution. Richard began his career at Bear Stearns where he built and managed complex proprietary trading engines in both equity and fixed income trading. Richard joined XTF Market Making in 2001. In addition to managing the daily operations, he built the technology infrastructure that enables ETF traders to successfully price and provide liquid markets in all ETFs. Richard holds BA in Finance from University of Florida and is an honors graduate from Baruch University Zicklin School Business with an MBA in Computer Information Science. He is an allied member of the American Stock Exchange. Richard has qualified S7 and S24 licenses and MCSE certification.