{"id":2246,"date":"2021-07-12T10:44:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T10:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investwithanedge.com\/?page_id=2246"},"modified":"2021-11-22T10:56:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T10:56:27","slug":"complete-list-of-79-etp-closures-for-2014-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/investwithanedge.com\/complete-list-of-79-etp-closures-for-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Complete List of 79 ETP Closures for 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seventy-nine exchange traded products bit the dust in 2014, marking the second highest annual death toll in the history of the ETF industry.\u00a0 The 72 ETF and 7 ETN closures were second only to the 102 closures of 2012.\u00a0 Broken down by major categories, the closures of 2014 consisted of 22 sector, 15 style and strategy, 14 global and international, 13 bond, 7 inverse, 4 leveraged, and 4 commodity. \u00a0Of the 2,121 U.S. ETPs launched since the dawn of the industry in 1993, only 1,662 remain listed while 459 have closed.\u00a0 Said another way, the historic probability of ETP survivability is 78.4%.<\/p>\n

\"\"Closures affected 15 brands and sponsors in 2014.\u00a0 Pax World was the only sponsor to exit the ETF space completely, and it did so in a very strange fashion.\u00a0 ETF pundits have long discussed the possibility of a large quantity of mutual funds converting to ETFs.\u00a0 However, no one ever thought conversions might go the other direction, but that is exactly what happened when all $64 million of the assets in the Pax MSCI EAFE ESG Index ETF (EAPS) suddenly became Institutional Class shares of the Pax World International ESG Index Fund (PXNIX), a traditional mutual fund.\u00a0 See \u2018This Wasn\u2019t Supposed To Happen: ETF Converts To Mutual Fund<\/a>\u2019 for additional details.<\/p>\n

Goldman Sachs is highly regarded on Wall Street, and it is often thought of as a firm that can do no wrong when it comes to making money.\u00a0 However, it hasn\u2019t figured out the ETF space yet.\u00a0 Goldman attached its name and investment strategies to four ETFs sponsored by ALPS in 2012.\u00a0 Apparently, the\u00a0Goldman name carries no weight in ETF land<\/a>, and all four ETFs closed in 2014 with combined assets of less than $11 million.<\/p>\n

For a number of reasons, the most notable closures of the year belong to iShares.\u00a0 First, 29 iShares ETFs had their last day of listed trading in 2014, giving iShares a 37% market share of closures.\u00a0 No other brands came close to this figure, with Direxion and EGShares tying for second-place \u201chonors\u201d with just six closures each.\u00a0 Second,\u00a0iShares raised the bar on ETF survivability<\/a>, as its 18 closings in October averaged more than $18 million in assets and two had about $70 million each.\u00a0 At the time, 49% of all listed ETFs and ETNs had fewer assets.\u00a0 Third, two of the liquidated funds (NY and NYC) had been on the market more than ten years.\u00a0 Longevity does not assure survival.\u00a0 Last, I can recall a BlackRock representative questioning why there were iShares funds on\u00a0ETF Deathwatch\u00a0when none had ever closed. \u00a0I reminded him that iShares practically invented ETF closures with three such occurrences in 2002.\u00a0 He rebutted that Barclays owned the iShares brand at that time, and BlackRock had\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0closed an ETF.\u00a0 Never say never.<\/p>\n

Some ETPs have maturation dates, namely target-date maturity bond ETFs and all ETNs.\u00a0 At their time of launch, these products inform investors of their likely closure and liquidation dates.\u00a0 For example, the Guggenheim BulletShares series of target maturity bond ETFs retire a couple of funds at the end of each calendar year.\u00a0 The two 2014 BulletShares ETFs (BSCE and BSJE) had their last day of trading on December 30, and next year we can expect the 2015 funds (BSCF and BSJF) to do the same.\u00a0 These are planned from the time of inception and are not indicative of unhealthy or failing products.<\/p>\n

Every ETN is also issued with a maturity date.\u00a0 Typically, ETNs are launched with 30-year or 20-year maturities.\u00a0 Since the first ETNs didn\u2019t come to market until 2006, most investors thought they wouldn\u2019t have to deal with ETN maturation for another 10 or 20 years.\u00a0 However, in 2009 there were five ETNs issued as 5-year notes scheduled to mature in 2014.\u00a0 Three of these five triggered early terminations, including Barclays ETN+ S&P 500 Short B ETN (BXDB) last April.\u00a0 The two that escaped early termination, BXUC and BXUB, matured in November and were liquidated.<\/p>\n

Most of 2014\u2019s closures had become Zombie ETFs, and 58 of the 79 (73%) were on ETF Deathwatch at the time of their closure announcements.\u00a0 The major exceptions included the maturing products discussed above and many of the iShares with large amounts of assets.\u00a0 The average age of funds that closed in 2014 was 45.8 months (3.8 years).\u00a0 This is greater than the 31.4-month average lifespan of all 459 closed products, suggesting sponsors are willing to subsidize these non-profitable products longer than in years past.<\/p>\n

The interactive table below is currently sorted by product name.<\/p>\n

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