This month’s ETF Deathwatch list jumped to 84 entries versus 59 at the end of September. The list includes any ETF (or ETN) that is at least six months old and failed to have an Average Daily Value Traded (ADVT) of at least $100,000 during the month of October.
Elements Canadian Dollar CAD/USD (CUD) has the dubious distinction of taking top-honors this month. The table that accompanies this article contains no scaling factors: the average daily volume for CUD was 30 shares. Not 30 hundred nor 30 thousand but 30 shares. In fact, CUD traded on only four days in October. There were 100 shares traded on the 7th, 8th, and 14th. Its big day was the 10th, when 400 shares traded. For the entire month, only about $6,341 of CUD changed hands for an average of just $275 per day the market was open.
There were four ETF deaths in the month of October, bringing the ETF death count to 44 for the year and 49 since the ETF industry began. On October 17, FocusShares ISE CCM Homeland Security (MYP), FocusShares ISE SINdex (PUF), FocusShares ISE Homebuilders (SAW), and FocusShares ISE-Revere WalMart Suppliers (WSI) were put out of their misery.
Neither the ETF death count nor our ETF Deathwatch list include four other ETFs that have been given up for dead, but haven’t yet been pronounced so by the Medical Examiner. The presumed-dead include the three Lehman-backed ETNs that are caught up in bankruptcy proceedings: Opta S&P Private Equity Notes ETN (PPE), Opta Lehman Agriculture Pure Beta ETN (EOH), and Opta Lehman Commodity Index ETN (RAW). The fourth is Bear Stearns Current Yield (YYY), which became delisted shortly after the demise of its creator.
Below is my latest ETF Deathwatch List. If you own any of these, then ask yourself why.