Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca, Inc.; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change To Adopt NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900, Which Permits the Listing and Trading of Managed Portfolio Shares, and To List and Trade Shares of the ActiveSharesSM, 10848-10861 [2014-04130]
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10848
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
Dated: February 19, 2014.
Kevin M. O’Neill,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014–04131 Filed 2–25–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–71588; File No. SR–
NYSEArca–2014–10]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE
Arca, Inc.; Notice of Filing of Proposed
Rule Change To Adopt NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900, Which Permits the
Listing and Trading of Managed
Portfolio Shares, and To List and Trade
Shares of the ActiveSharesSM LargeCap Fund, ActiveSharesSM Mid-Cap
Fund, and ActiveSharesSM Multi-Cap
Fund Pursuant to That Rule
February 20, 2014.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) 1 of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
‘‘Act’’) 2 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,3
notice is hereby given that, on February
7, 2014, NYSE Arca, Inc. (the
‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘NYSE Arca’’) filed with
the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the ‘‘Commission’’) the
proposed rule change as described in
Items I and II below, which Items have
been prepared by the self-regulatory
organization. The Commission is
publishing this notice to solicit
comments on the proposed rule change
from interested persons.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Terms of Substance of
the Proposed Rule Change
The Exchange proposes to adopt new
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 to
permit it to list and trade Managed
Portfolio Shares, which are shares of
actively managed exchange-traded
funds (‘‘ETFs’’) for which the portfolio
is disclosed quarterly. In addition, the
Exchange proposes to list and trade
shares of the following under proposed
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900:
ActiveSharesSM Large-Cap Fund;
ActiveSharesSM Mid-Cap Fund; and
ActiveSharesSM Multi-Cap Fund.
The text of the proposed rule change
is available on the Exchange’s Web site
at www.nyse.com, at the principal office
of the Exchange, and at the
Commission’s Public Reference Room.
1 15
U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
U.S.C. 78a.
3 17 CFR 240.19b–4.
2 15
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II. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Purpose of, and
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule
Change
In its filing with the Commission, the
self-regulatory organization included
statements concerning the purpose of,
and basis for, the proposed rule change
and discussed any comments it received
on the proposed rule change. The text
of those statements may be examined at
the places specified in Item IV below.
The Exchange has prepared summaries,
set forth in sections A, B, and C below,
of the most significant parts of such
statements.
A. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Purpose of, and the
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule
Change
1. Purpose
The Exchange proposes to add new
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 for the
purpose of permitting the listing and
trading, or trading pursuant to unlisted
trading privileges (‘‘UTP’’), of Managed
Portfolio Shares, which are securities
issued by an actively managed open-end
investment management company.4 The
Exchange also proposes to amend NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 7.34 (Trading
Sessions) to reference securities
described in proposed NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900 in Rule 7.34(a)(4)(A)
relating to trading halts for trading
pursuant to UTP during the Exchange’s
Opening Session.
In addition to the above-mentioned
proposed rule changes, the Exchange
proposes to list and trade shares
(‘‘Shares’’) of the following under
proposed NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.900: ActiveSharesSM Large-Cap Fund;
ActiveSharesSM Mid-Cap Fund; and
ActiveSharesSM Multi-Cap Fund (each a
‘‘Fund’’ and, collectively, the ‘‘Funds’’).
Proposed Listing Rules
Proposed Rule 8.900(a) provides that
the Corporation will consider for
trading, whether by listing or pursuant
to UTP, Managed Portfolio Shares that
meet the criteria of Rule 8.900.
4 A Managed Portfolio Share is a security that
represents an interest in an investment company
registered under the Investment Company Act of
1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a–1) (‘‘1940 Act’’) organized as
an open-end investment company or similar entity
that invests in a portfolio of securities selected by
its investment adviser consistent with its
investment objectives and policies. In contrast, an
open-end investment company that issues
Investment Company Units, listed and traded on
the Exchange under NYSE Arca Equities Rule
5.2(j)(3) (‘‘Index ETFs’’), seeks to provide
investment results that correspond generally to the
price and yield performance of a specific foreign or
domestic stock index, fixed income securities index
or combination thereof.
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Proposed Rule 8.900(b) provides that
Rule 8.900 is applicable only to
Managed Portfolio Shares and that,
except to the extent inconsistent with
Rule 8.900, or unless the context
otherwise requires, the rules and
procedures of the Corporation’s Board of
Directors shall be applicable to the
trading on the Corporation of such
securities. Proposed Rule 8.900(b)
provides further that Managed Portfolio
Shares are included within the
definition of ‘‘security’’ or ‘‘securities’’
as such terms are used in the Rules of
the Corporation.
Proposed Definitions. Proposed Rule
8.900(c)(1) defines the term ‘‘Managed
Portfolio Share’’ as a security that (a) is
issued by a registered investment
company (‘‘Investment Company’’)
organized as an open-end management
investment company or similar entity,
that invests in a portfolio of securities
selected by the Investment Company’s
investment adviser consistent with the
Investment Company’s investment
objectives and policies; (b) is issued in
any size amount for a cash amount
equal to the next determined net asset
value (‘‘NAV’’); (c) may be redeemed for
cash by any Retail Investor (as defined
below) in any size less than a
Redemption Unit (as defined below) for
a cash amount equal to the next
determined NAV; and (d) when
aggregated in a number of shares equal
to a Redemption Unit or multiples
thereof, may be redeemed at a holder’s
request, which holder will be paid
though a blind trust established for its
benefit a portfolio of securities and/or
cash with a value equal to the next
determined NAV.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(2) defines the
term ‘‘Retail Investor’’ as (i) a natural
person; (ii) a trust established
exclusively for the benefit [sic] a natural
person or a group of related family
members; or (iii) a tax deferred
retirement plan where investments are
selected by a natural person purchasing
for its own account.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(3) defines the
term ‘‘Portfolio Indicative Value’’ as the
estimated indicative value of an
Managed Portfolio Share based on all of
the issuer’s holdings as of the close of
business on the prior business day.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(4) defines the
term ‘‘Redemption Unit’’ as a specified
number of Managed Portfolio Shares
used for determining whether a Retail
Investor may redeem for cash.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(5) defines the
term [sic]Reporting Authority’’ in
respect of a particular series of Managed
Portfolio Shares as a reporting service
designated by the issuer and acceptable
to the Corporation or by the exchange
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
that lists a particular series of Managed
Portfolio Shares (if the Corporation is
trading such series pursuant to UTP) as
the official source for calculating and
reporting information relating to such
series, including, but not limited to, the
Portfolio Indicative Value, NAV, or
other information relating to the
issuance, redemption or trading of
Managed Portfolio Shares. A series of
Managed Portfolio Shares may have
more than one Reporting Authority,
each having different functions.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d) sets forth
initial and continued listing criteria
applicable to Managed Portfolio Shares.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(1) provides that,
for each series of Managed Portfolio
Shares, the Corporation will establish a
minimum number of Managed Portfolio
Shares required to be outstanding at the
time of commencement of trading on the
Corporation. In addition, the
Corporation will obtain a representation
from the issuer of each series of
Managed Portfolio Shares that the NAV
per share for the series will be
calculated daily and that the NAV will
be made available to all market
participants at the same time.5
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2) provides
that each series of Managed Portfolio
Shares will be listed and traded subject
to application of the following
continued listing criteria. Proposed Rule
8.900(d)(2)(A) provides that the
Portfolio Indicative Value for Managed
Portfolio Shares will be widely
disseminated by one or more major
market data vendors at least every 15
seconds during Core Trading Session.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(B) provides
that the Corporation will consider the
suspension of trading in or removal
from listing of a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares under any of the
following circumstances: (i) if, following
the initial twelve-month period after
commencement of trading on the
Exchange of a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares, there are fewer than 50
beneficial holders of the series of
Managed Portfolio Shares for 30 or more
consecutive trading days; (ii) if the
value of the Portfolio Indicative Value is
no longer calculated or made available
to all market participants at the same
time; (iii) if the Investment Company
5 NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a)(5) (‘‘Trading
Halts of Derivative Securities Products Listed on the
NYSE Arca Marketplace)’’ provides that, with
respect to Derivative Securities Products listed on
the NYSE Arca Marketplace for which a net asset
value is disseminated, if the Exchange becomes
aware that the a net asset value is not being
disseminated to all market participants at the same
time, it will halt trading in the affected Derivative
Securities Product on the NYSE Arca Marketplace
until such time as the a net asset value is available
to all market participants.
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issuing the Managed Portfolio Shares
has failed to file any filings required by
the Commission or if the Corporation is
aware that the Investment Company is
not in compliance with the conditions
of any exemptive order or no-action
relief granted by the Commission to the
Investment Company with respect to the
series of Managed Portfolio Shares; or
(iv) if such other event shall occur or
condition exists which, in the opinion
of the Corporation, makes further
dealings on the Corporation inadvisable.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C) provides
that, if the Portfolio Indicative Value of
a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is
not being disseminated as required, the
Corporation may halt trading during the
day in which the interruption to the
dissemination of the Portfolio Indicative
Value occurs. If the interruption to the
dissemination of the Portfolio Indicative
Value persists past the trading day in
which it occurred, the Corporation will
halt trading no later than the beginning
of the trading day following the
interruption. If a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares is trading on the
Corporation pursuant to UTP, the
Corporation will halt trading in that
series as specified in Rule 7.34(a). In
addition, if the Exchange becomes
aware that the NAV with respect to a
series of Managed Portfolio Shares is not
disseminated to all market participants
at the same time, it will halt trading in
such series until such time as the NAV
is available to all market participants.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(D) provides
that, upon termination of an Investment
Company, the Corporation requires that
Managed Portfolio Shares issued in
connection with such entity be removed
from Corporation listing.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(E) provides
that voting rights shall be as set forth in
the applicable Investment Company
prospectus. Proposed Rule 8.600(e)
relates to limitation of Corporation
liability.
Proposed Rule 8.900(e), which relates
to limitation of corporation liability,
provides that neither the Corporation,
the Reporting Authority, nor any agent
of the Corporation shall have any
liability for damages, claims, losses or
expenses caused by any errors,
omissions, or delays in calculating or
disseminating any current portfolio
value; the current value of the portfolio
of securities required to be deposited to
the open-end management investment
company in connection with issuance of
Managed Portfolio Shares; the amount
of any dividend equivalent payment or
cash distribution to holders of Managed
Portfolio Shares; NAV; or other
information relating to the purchase,
redemption, or trading of Managed
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10849
Portfolio Shares, resulting from any
negligent act or omission by the
Corporation, the Reporting Authority or
any agent of the Corporation, or any act,
condition, or cause beyond the
reasonable control of the Corporation,
its agent, or the Reporting Authority,
including, but not limited to, an act of
God; fire; flood; extraordinary weather
conditions; war; insurrection; riot;
strike; accident; action of government;
communications or power failure;
equipment or software malfunction; or
any error, omission, or delay in the
reports of transactions in one or more
underlying securities.
Proposed Commentary .01 to NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides that
the Corporation will file separate
proposals under Section 19(b) of the Act
before the listing and trading of
Managed Portfolio Shares. Proposed
Commentary .02 to NYSE Arca Equities
Rule 8.900 provides that transactions in
Managed Portfolio Shares will occur
during the trading hours specified in
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a).
Proposed Commentary .03 to NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides that
the Exchange will implement written
surveillance procedures for Managed
Portfolio Shares.
Proposed Commentary .04 to NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides that
Authorized Participants (as described
further below) redeeming Managed
Portfolio Shares will sign an agreement
with the applicable fund requiring the
establishment of a blind trust for the
benefit of such Authorized Participant
that will receive all consideration from
the issuer in a redemption, which blind
trust will be bound not to disclose the
consideration received in a redemption
except as required by law and will
liquidate any securities received in a
redemption in accordance with standing
instructions for the Authorized
Participant.
Proposed Commentary .05 to NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides that,
if the investment adviser to the
Investment Company issuing Managed
Portfolio Shares is affiliated with a
broker-dealer, such investment adviser
shall erect a ‘‘fire wall’’ between the
investment adviser and the brokerdealer with respect to access to
information concerning the composition
and/or changes to such Investment
Company portfolio. Personnel who
make decisions on the Investment
Company’s portfolio composition must
be subject to procedures designed to
prevent the use and dissemination of
material nonpublic information
regarding the applicable Investment
Company portfolio.
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
Other Rules
The Exchange proposes to amend
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a)(4) to
include Managed Portfolio Shares under
‘‘Derivative Securities Products’’ for
purposes of Rule 7.34(a)(4) relating to
trading halts for trading pursuant to
UTP of Derivative Securities Products
on the Exchange.6
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Key Features of Managed Portfolio
Shares
While funds issuing Managed
Portfolio Shares will be activelymanaged and, to that extent, will be
similar to Managed Fund Shares,
Managed Portfolio Shares differ from
Managed Fund Shares in the following
important respects. First, in contrast to
Managed Fund Shares, which are
actively-managed funds listed and
traded under NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.600 7 and for which a ‘‘Disclosed
Portfolio’’ is required to be disseminated
at least once daily,8 the portfolio for an
issue of Managed Portfolio Shares will
be disclosed quarterly in accordance
with normal disclosure requirements
otherwise applicable to open-end
investment companies registered under
the 1940 Act.9 Second, in connection
6 The Exchange will propose applicable NYSE
Arca Equities listing fees for Managed Portfolio
Shares in the NYSE Arca Equities Schedule of Fees
and Charges via a separate proposed rule change.
7 The Commission has previously approved
listing and trading on the Exchange of a number of
issues of Managed Fund Shares under Rule 8.600.
See, e.g., Securities Exchange Act Release Nos.
57801 (May 8, 2008), 73 FR 27878 (May 14, 2008)
(SR–NYSEArca–2008–31) (order approving
Exchange listing and trading of twelve activelymanaged funds of the WisdomTree Trust); 60460
(August 7, 2009), 74 FR 41468 (August 17, 2009)
(SR–NYSEArca–2009–55) (order approving listing
of Dent Tactical ETF); 63076 (October 12, 2010), 75
FR 63874 (October 18, 2010) (SR–NYSEArca–2010–
79) (order approving Exchange listing and trading
of Cambria Global Tactical ETF); 63802 (January 31,
2011), 76 FR 6503 (February 4, 2011) (SR–
NYSEArca–2010–118) (order approving Exchange
listing and trading of the SiM Dynamic Allocation
Diversified Income ETF and SiM Dynamic
Allocation Growth Income ETF).
8 NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.600(c)(2) defines the
term ‘‘Disclosed Portfolio’’ as the identities and
quantities of the securities and other assets held by
the Investment Company that will form the basis for
the Investment Company’s calculation of net asset
value at the end of the business day. NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.600(d)(2)(B)(i) requires that the
Disclosed Portfolio will be disseminated at least
once daily and will be made available to all market
participants at the same time.
9 A mutual fund is required to file with the
Commission its complete portfolio schedules for the
second and fourth fiscal quarters on Form N–SAR
under the 1940 Act, and is required to file its
complete portfolio schedules for the first and third
fiscal quarters on Form N–Q under the 1940 Act,
within 60 days of the end of the quarter. Form N–
Q requires funds to file the same schedules of
investments that are required in annual and semiannual reports to shareholders. These forms are
available to the public on the Commission’s Web
site at www.sec.gov.
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with the redemption of shares in
Redemption Unit size, the delivery of
any portfolio securities in kind will
generally be effected through a blind
trust for the benefit of the redeeming
Authorized Participant and the blind
trust will liquidate the portfolio
securities without disclosing the
identity of such securities to the
Authorized Participant. Third, as with
traditional open-end investment
companies, retail investors will be able
to redeem shares for cash directly from
a fund on any day and in any size less
than a Redemption Unit at the fund’s
NAV, as described in more detail below.
Fourth, investors will be able to
purchase shares for cash directly from a
fund in any amount on any day a fund
determines its NAV, as described in
more detail below. Investors may choose
to purchase shares directly from a fund
if they want to assure that they will not
purchase shares at a premium.
For each series of Managed Portfolio
Shares, an estimated value, defined in
the proposed rules as the ‘‘Portfolio
Indicative Value,’’ (‘‘PIV’’) that reflects
an estimated intraday value of a fund’s
portfolio will be disseminated. The PIV
will be based upon all of a fund’s
holdings as of the close of the prior
business day and will be widely
disseminated by one or more major
market data vendors at least every 15
seconds during the Exchange’s Core
Trading Session (normally, 9:30 a.m. to
4:00 p.m., Eastern Time). The
dissemination of the PIV will allow
investors to determine the estimated
intra-day value of the underlying
portfolio of a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares on a daily basis and
will provide a close estimate of that
value throughout the trading day. The
PIV should not be viewed as a ‘‘realtime’’ update of the NAV per share of
each fund because the PIV may not be
calculated in the same manner as the
NAV, which will be computed once a
day, generally at the end of the business
day. Unlike the PIV, which will be
based on consolidated last sale
information, the NAV per share will be
based on the closing price on the
primary market for each portfolio
security. If there is no closing price for
a particular portfolio security, such as
when it [sic] the subject of a trading
halt, a fund will use fair value pricing.
That fair value pricing will be carried
over to the next day’s PIV until the first
trade in that stock is reported.
The Exchange, after consulting with
various Lead Market Makers that trade
ETFs on the Exchange, believes that
market makers will be able to make
efficient and liquid markets priced near
the PIV as long as an accurate PIV is
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disseminated every 15 seconds and
market makers have knowledge of a
fund’s means of achieving its
investment objective, even without
daily disclosure of a fund’s underlying
portfolio. The Exchange believes that
market makers will employ riskmanagement techniques such as
‘‘statistical arbitrage’’, which is
currently used throughout the financial
services industry, to make efficient
markets in exchange-traded products.10
This ability should permit market
makers to make efficient markets in an
issue of Managed Portfolio Shares
without knowledge of a fund’s
underlying portfolio.
The Exchange understands that
traders use statistical analysis to derive
correlations between different sets of
instruments to identify opportunities to
buy or sell one set of instruments when
it is mispriced relative to the others. For
Managed Portfolio Shares, market
makers will initially use the knowledge
of a fund’s means of achieving its
investment objective, as described in the
applicable fund registration statement,
to construct a hedging proxy for a fund
to manage a market maker’s quoting risk
in connection with trading fund shares.
Market makers will then conduct
statistical arbitrage between their
hedging proxy (for example, the Russell
1000 Index) and shares of a fund,
buying and selling one against the other
over the course of the trading day,[sic]
They will evaluate how their proxy
performed in comparison to the price of
a fund’s shares, and use that analysis as
well as knowledge of risk metrics, such
as volatility and turnover, to enhance
their proxy calculation to make it a
more efficient hedge.
Market makers have indicated to the
Exchange that, after the first few days of
trading, there will be sufficient data to
run a statistical analysis which will lead
to spreads being tightened substantially
around the PIV. This is similar to
certain other existing exchange traded
products (for example, ETFs that invest
10 Statistical arbitrage enables a trader to
construct an accurate proxy for another instrument,
allowing it to hedge the other instrument or buy or
sell the instrument when it is cheap or expensive
in relation to the proxy. Statistical analysis permits
traders to discover correlations based purely on
trading data without regard to other fundamental
drivers. These correlations are a function of
differentials, over time, between one instrument or
group of instruments and one or more other
instruments. Once the nature of these price
deviations have been quantified, a universe of
securities is searched in an effort to, in the case of
a hedging strategy, minimize the differential. Once
a suitable hedging proxy has been identified, a
trader can minimize portfolio risk by executing the
hedging basket. The trader then can monitor the
performance of this hedge throughout the trade
period making correction [sic] where warranted.
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
in foreign securities that do not trade
during U. S. trading hours), in which
spreads may be generally wider in the
early days of trading and then narrow as
market makers gain more confidence in
their real-time hedges.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Description of the Funds and the Trust
The Shares of each Fund will be
issued by Precidian ETFs Trust
(‘‘Trust’’), a statutory trust organized
under the laws of the State of Delaware
and registered with the Commission as
an open-end management investment
company.11 The investment adviser to
the Trust will be Precidian Funds LLC
(the ’’Adviser’’). JPMorgan Chase Bank,
N.A. (the ‘‘Transfer Agent’’,
‘‘Administrator’’, or ‘‘Custodian’’) will
serve as the Funds’ transfer agent,
administrator and custodian. Foreside
Fund Services, LLC (‘‘Distributor’’) will
serve as the distributor of the Shares.
As noted above, proposed
Commentary .05 to Rule 8.900 provides
that, if the investment adviser to the
investment company issuing Managed
Portfolio Shares is affiliated with a
broker-dealer, such investment adviser
shall erect a ‘‘fire wall’’ between the
investment adviser and the brokerdealer with respect to access to
information concerning the composition
and/or changes to such investment
company portfolio.12 In addition,
11 The Trust will be registered under the 1940
Act. On January 22, 2014, the Trust filed a
registration statement on Form N–1A under the
Securities Act of 1933 (the ‘‘1933 Act’’) (15 U.S.C.
77a), and under the 1940 Act relating to the Funds
(File Nos. 333–171987 and 811–22524) (the
‘‘Registration Statement’’). The Trust filed an
Application for an Order under Section 6(c) of the
1940 Act for exemptions from various provisions of
the 1940 Act and rules thereunder (File No. 812–
14116), dated July 18, 2013 (‘‘Exemptive
Application’’). The Shares will not be listed on the
Exchange until an order (‘‘Exemptive Order’’) under
the 1940 Act has been issued by the Commission
with respect to the Exemptive Application.
Investments made by the Funds will comply with
the conditions set forth in the Exemptive Order.
The description of the operation of the Trust and
the Funds herein is based, in part, on the
Registration Statement and the Exemptive
Application.
12 An investment adviser to an open-end fund is
required to be registered under the Investment
Advisers Act of 1940 (the ‘‘Advisers Act’’). As a
result, the Adviser and its related personnel will be
subject to the provisions of Rule 204A–1 under the
Advisers Act relating to codes of ethics. This Rule
requires investment advisers to adopt a code of
ethics that reflects the fiduciary nature of the
relationship to clients as well as compliance with
other applicable securities laws. Accordingly,
procedures designed to prevent the communication
and misuse of non-public information by an
investment adviser must be consistent with Rule
204A–1 under the Advisers Act. In addition, Rule
206(4)–7 under the Advisers Act makes it unlawful
for an investment adviser to provide investment
advice to clients unless such investment adviser has
(i) adopted and implemented written policies and
procedures reasonably designed to prevent
violations, by the investment adviser and its
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Description of the Funds
proposed Commentary .05 further
requires that personnel who make
decisions on the open-end fund’s
portfolio composition must be subject to
procedures designed to prevent the use
and dissemination of material
nonpublic information regarding the
open-end fund’s portfolio. Proposed
Commentary .05 to Rule 8.900 is similar
to Commentary .03(a)(i) and (iii) to
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 5.2(j)(3);
however, Commentary .05 in connection
with the establishment of a ‘‘fire wall’’
between the investment adviser and the
broker-dealer reflects the applicable
open-end fund’s portfolio, not an
underlying benchmark index, as is the
case with index-based funds. The
Adviser is not registered as a brokerdealer or affiliated with a broker-dealer.
In the event (a) the Adviser or any
sub-adviser becomes registered as a
broker-dealer or becomes newly
affiliated with a broker-dealer, or (b) any
new adviser or sub-adviser is a
registered broker-dealer, or becomes
affiliated with a broker-dealer, it will
implement a fire wall with respect to its
relevant personnel or its broker-dealer
affiliate regarding access to information
concerning the composition and/or
changes to the portfolio, and will be
subject to procedures designed to
prevent the use and dissemination of
material non-public information
regarding such portfolio.
The portfolio for each Fund will
consist primarily of stocks in the Russell
3000 Index and shares issued by other
exchange-traded funds (‘‘ETFs’’) that
invest primarily in shares of issuers in
the Russell 3000 Index (which consists
of stocks included in the Russell 1000
Index and the Russell 2000 Index).13 All
exchange-listed equity securities in
which the Funds will invest will be
listed and traded on U.S. national
securities exchanges.
The ActiveSharesSM Large Cap Fund
According to the Registration
Statement, the Fund’s investment
objective will be long-term capital
appreciation. The Fund will seek to
achieve its objective by taking long and
possibly short positions in equity
securities or groups of equities that the
Fund’s portfolio managers believe will
provide long term capital appreciation.
The Fund normally will invest at least
80% of its net assets (plus borrowings
for investment purposes) in stocks
included in the Russell 1000 Index and
ETFs that primarily invest in stocks in
the Russell 1000 Index.
The Fund will target an overall net
equity market exposure of between 70%
to 130%. However, at times the portfolio
managers may reduce market exposure
to less than 70%.
The Fund will purchase securities
that the portfolio managers believe are
undervalued and sell short securities
that the portfolio managers believe are
overvalued. Under normal market
conditions,14 the Fund’s net long equity
market exposure will not exceed 130%
and its net short equity market exposure
will not exceed 30%; however, the
portfolio managers may at times exceed
these percentages. The Fund may hold
a substantial portion of its total assets in
cash or cash equivalents when it holds
significant short positions.15
The Fund may use ETFs to manage
the Fund’s overall equity market and
sector exposures. In particular, the
portfolio managers may take long and
short positions in ETFs to increase/
decrease equity market/sector exposures
in place of using individual equity
securities. The ETFs in which the Fund
will invest are registered investment
companies that seek to track the
performance of an underlying index.
These underlying indexes include not
only broad-based market indexes but
supervised persons, of the Advisers Act and the
Commission rules adopted thereunder; (ii)
implemented, at a minimum, an annual review
regarding the adequacy of the policies and
procedures established pursuant to subparagraph (i)
above and the effectiveness of their
implementation; and (iii) designated an individual
(who is a supervised person) responsible for
administering the policies and procedures adopted
under subparagraph (i) above.
13 For purposes of this filing, ETFs include
Investment Company Units (as described in NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 5.2(j)(3)); Portfolio Depositary
Receipts (as described in NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.100); and Managed Fund Shares (as described in
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.600). All ETFs will be
listed and traded on a U.S. national securities
exchange. The Funds will invest in the securities
of ETFs registered under the 1940 Act consistent
with the requirements of Section 12(d)(1) of the
1940 Act, or any rule, regulation or order of the
Commission or interpretation thereof.
14 The terms ‘‘normally’’ and ‘‘under normal
market conditions’’ include, but are not limited to,
the absence of extreme volatility or trading halts in
the equity markets or the financial markets
generally; operational issues causing dissemination
of inaccurate market information; or force majeure
type events such as systems failure, natural or manmade disaster, act of God, armed conflict, act of
terrorism, riot or labor disruption or any similar
intervening circumstance.
15 According to the Registration Statement, with
respect to each of the Funds, selling securities short
will allow a Fund to more fully exploit insights into
securities that a Fund’s portfolio managers expect
to underperform. Short sales generally involve the
sale of a security that a Fund does not own in hopes
of purchasing the same security at a later date at
a lower price. To make delivery to the buyer, a
Fund may borrow the security. If so, a Fund is
obligated to return the security to the lender, which
is accomplished by a later purchase of the security
by a Fund.
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more specific indexes as well, including
those relating to particular sectors,
markets, regions or industries.
The Fund will use a variety of
proprietary and non-proprietary [sic]
analytical methodologies including
‘‘bottom-up’’ fundamental analysis,
macro-economic data, technical
analysis, and quantitative analysis to
determine the ratio of long to short
positions. It also will use these tools to
determine whether a particular stock or
group of stocks is under-valued or overvalued and, therefore, whether to
purchase or sell those securities. In
reviewing companies, the Fund will
apply the characteristics identified
above on a case-by-case basis as the
order of importance varies depending
on the type of business or industry and
the company being reviewed.
The ActiveSharesSM Mid-Cap Fund
According to the Registration
Statement, the Fund’s investment
objective will be long-term capital
appreciation. The Fund will seek to
achieve its objective by taking long and
possibly short positions in equity
securities or groups of equities that the
Fund’s portfolio managers believe will
provide long term capital appreciation.
The Fund will invest primarily in
securities included in the Russell 3000
Index and ETFs that primarily invest in
stocks in the Russell 3000 Index.
The Fund will target an overall net
equity market exposure of between 70%
to 130%. However, at times the Fund’s
portfolio managers may reduce market
exposure to less than 70%.
The Fund will purchase securities
that the portfolio managers believe are
undervalued and sell short securities
that the portfolio managers believe are
overvalued. Under normal market
conditions, the Fund’s net long equity
market exposure will not exceed 130%
and its net short equity market exposure
will not exceed 30%; however, the
portfolio managers may at times exceed
these percentages. The Fund may hold
a substantial portion of its total assets in
cash or cash equivalents when it holds
significant short positions.
The Fund may use ETFs to manage
the Fund’s overall equity market and
sector exposures. In particular, the
Fund’s portfolio managers may take
long and short positions in ETFs to
increase/decrease equity market/sector
exposures in place of using individual
equity securities. The ETFs in which the
Fund will invest are registered
investment companies that seek to track
the performance of an underlying index.
These underlying indexes include not
only broad-based market indexes but
more specific indexes as well, including
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Jkt 232001
those relating to particular sectors,
markets, regions or industries.
The Fund will use a variety of
proprietary and non-propriety [sic]
analytical methodologies including
‘‘bottom-up’’ fundamental analysis,
macro-economic data, technical
analysis, and quantitative analysis to
determine the ratio of long to short
positions. It also will use these tools to
determine whether a particular stock or
group of stocks is under-valued or overvalued and, therefore, whether to
purchase or sell those securities. In
reviewing companies, the Fund will
apply the characteristics identified
above on a case-by-case basis as the
order of importance varies depending
on the type of business or industry and
the company being reviewed.
issued by the U.S. government; (2)
negotiable certificates of deposit
(‘‘CDs’’), fixed time deposits and
bankers’ acceptances of U.S. and foreign
banks and similar institutions; (3)
commercial paper rated at the date of
purchase ‘‘Prime-1’’ by Moody’s
Investors Service, Inc. or ‘‘A–1+’’ or ‘‘A–
1’’ by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group,
Inc., a division of The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc., or, if unrated, of
comparable quality as determined by
the Adviser; 16 and (4) money market
mutual funds.
Each Fund may invest in the
securities of other investment
companies (including money market
funds) to the extent allowed by law.
Other Investments
While each Fund, under normal
market conditions, will invest primarily
in stocks included in the Russell 3000
Index and ETFs, as described above,
each Fund may invest its remaining
assets in other securities and financial
instruments, as described below.
According to the Registration
Statement, each Fund may enter into
repurchase agreements. A repurchase
agreement is an instrument under which
the purchaser (i.e., a Fund) acquires the
security and the seller agrees, at the
time of the sale, to repurchase the
security at a mutually agreed upon time
and price, thereby determining the yield
during the purchaser’s holding period.
Repurchase agreements may be
construed to be collateralized loans by
the purchaser to the seller secured by
the securities transferred to the
purchaser.
Each Fund may enter into reverse
repurchase agreements, which involve
the sale of securities with an agreement
to repurchase the securities at an
agreed-upon price, date and interest
payment and have the characteristics of
borrowing. Generally the effect of such
transactions is that the Fund can recover
all or most of the cash invested in the
portfolio securities involved during the
term of the reverse repurchase
agreement, while in many cases the
Fund is able to keep some of the interest
income associated with those securities.
Each Fund may invest a portion of its
assets in high-quality money market
instruments on an ongoing basis rather
than in other investments, when it
would be more efficient or less
expensive for the Fund to do so, or as
cover for other financial instruments
held by a Fund, for liquidity purposes,
or to earn interest. Money market
instruments in which a Fund may invest
include: (1) Short-term obligations
A Fund may not, with respect to 75%
of its total assets, purchase securities of
any issuer (except securities issued or
guaranteed by the U.S. government, its
agencies or instrumentalities or shares
of investment companies) if, as a result,
more than 5% of its total assets would
be invested in the securities of such
issuer; or (ii) acquire more than 10% of
the outstanding voting securities of any
one issuer (and for purposes of this
policy, the issuer of the underlying
security will be deemed to be the issuer
of any respective depositary receipt.) 17
A Fund may not invest 25% or more
of its total assets in the securities of one
or more issuers conducting their
principal business activities in the same
industry or group of industries. This
limitation does not apply to investments
in securities issued or guaranteed by the
U.S. government, its agencies or
instrumentalities, or shares of
investment companies. A Fund will not
invest 25% or more of its total assets in
any investment company that so
concentrates.18
Each Fund may invest up to an
aggregate amount of 15% of its net
assets in illiquid assets (calculated at
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Investment Restrictions
16 In determining whether a security is of
‘‘comparable quality,’’ the Adviser will consider, for
example, whether the issuer of the security has
issued other rated securities; whether the
obligations under the security are guaranteed by
another entity and the rating of such guarantor (if
any); whether and (if applicable) how the security
is collateralized; other forms of credit enhancement
(if any); the security’s maturity date; liquidity
features (if any); relevant cash flow(s); valuation
features; other structural analysis; macroeconomic
analysis; and sector or industry analysis.
17 The diversification standard is set forth in
Section 5(b)(1) of the 1940 Act.
18 See Form N–1A, Item 9. The Commission has
taken the position that a fund is concentrated if it
invests more than 25% of the value of its total
assets in any one industry. See, e.g., Investment
Company Act Release No. 9011 (October 30, 1975),
40 FR 54241 (November 21, 1975).
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the time of investment),19 consistent
with Commission guidance. Each Fund
will monitor its portfolio liquidity on an
ongoing basis to determine whether, in
light of current circumstances, an
adequate level of liquidity is being
maintained, and will consider taking
appropriate steps in order to maintain
adequate liquidity if, through a change
in values, net assets, or other
circumstances, more than 15% of a
Fund’s net assets are invested in illiquid
assets. Illiquid assets include securities
subject to contractual or other
restrictions on resale and other
instruments that lack readily available
markets as determined in accordance
with Commission staff guidance.20
According to the Registration
Statement, each Fund will seek to
qualify for treatment as a Regulated
Investment Company (‘‘RIC’’) under the
Internal Revenue Code.21
The Shares of each Fund will conform
to the initial and continued listing
criteria under proposed Rule 8.900. The
Funds will not invest in options,
futures, forwards or swaps.
Each Fund’s investments will be
consistent with its investment objective
and will not be used to enhance
leverage. While a Fund may invest in
inverse ETFs, a Fund will not invest in
leveraged (e.g., 2X, ¥2X, 3X or ¥3X)
ETFs. The Funds will not invest in nonU.S. equity securities.
Creations and Redemptions
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Placement of Purchase Orders
Each Fund will issue Shares through
the Distributor on a continuous basis at
19 In reaching liquidity decisions, the Adviser
may consider the following factors: the frequency
of trades and quotes for the security; the number of
dealers wishing to purchase or sell the security and
the number of other potential purchasers; dealer
undertakings to make a market in the security; and
the nature of the security and the nature of the
marketplace in which it trades (e.g., the time
needed to dispose of the security, the method of
soliciting offers and the mechanics of transfer).
20 The Commission has stated that long-standing
Commission guidelines have required open-end
funds to hold no more than 15% of their net assets
in illiquid securities and other illiquid assets. See
Investment Company Act Release No. 28193 (March
11, 2008), 73 FR 14618 (March 18, 2008), footnote
34. See also, Investment Company Act Release No.
5847 (October 21, 1969), 35 FR 19989 (December
31, 1970) (Statement Regarding ‘‘Restricted
Securities’’); Investment Company Act Release No.
18612 (March 12, 1992), 57 FR 9828 (March 20,
1992) (Revisions of Guidelines to Form N–1A). A
fund’s portfolio security is illiquid if it cannot be
disposed of in the ordinary course of business
within seven days at approximately the value
ascribed to it by the fund. See Investment Company
Act Release No. 14983 (March 12, 1986), 51 FR
9773 (March 21, 1986) (adopting amendments to
Rule 2a–7 under the 1940 Act); Investment
Company Act Release No. 17452 (April 23, 1990),
55 FR 17933 (April 30, 1990) (adopting Rule 144A
under the Securities Act of 1933).
21 26 U.S.C. 851.
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17:24 Feb 25, 2014
Jkt 232001
NAV. The Exchange represents that the
issuance of Shares will operate in a
manner substantially similar to that of
other ETFs and, in particular, certain
fixed-income ETFs that issue shares
solely for settlement in cash. However,
Shares may be issued in any amount
rather than only in a specified block
size.
Each Fund will issue Shares only at
the NAV per Share next determined
after an order in proper form is received.
The Trust will sell and redeem Shares
on each such day and will not suspend
the right of redemption or postpone the
date of payment or satisfaction upon
redemption for more than seven days,
other than as provided by Section 22(d)
of the 1940 Act (each such day, a
‘‘Business Day’’).
Shares may be purchased from a Fund
by any Depository Trust Company
(‘‘DTC’’) Participant for its own account
or for the account of a customer.
Purchase orders will not be limited to
any specified size but may be in any
whole share amount. Since Shares will
be paid for in cash, settlement will be
through the normal continuous net
settlement process. The Distributor will
furnish acknowledgements to those
placing such orders that the orders have
been accepted, but the Distributor may
reject any order which is not submitted
in proper form, as described in a Fund’s
prospectus or Statement of Additional
Information (‘‘SAI’’). Purchases of
Shares will be settled in cash for an
amount equal to the applicable NAV per
Share purchased plus applicable
transaction fees, as discussed below.
The NAV of each Fund is expected to
be determined once each Business Day
at a time determined by the Trust’s
Board of Directors (‘‘Board’’), currently
anticipated to be as of the close of the
regular trading session on the New York
Stock Exchange (‘‘NYSE’’) (ordinarily
4:00 p.m. Eastern time) (the ‘‘Valuation
Time’’). Each Fund will establish a cutoff time (‘‘Order Cut-Off Time’’) for
purchase orders in proper form. To
initiate a purchase of Shares, a DTC
participant must submit to the
Distributor an irrevocable order to
purchase such Shares after the most
recent prior Valuation Time but not
later than the Order Cut-Off Time. The
Order Cut-Off Time for a Fund may be
its Valuation Time, or may be prior to
the Valuation Time if the Board
determines that an earlier Order Cut-Off
Time for purchase of Shares is necessary
and is in the best interests of Fund
shareholders. It is anticipated that the
Funds may adopt Order Cut-Off Times
prior to their Valuation Time in order to
make arrangements for any securities
borrowing transactions consistent with a
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10853
Fund’s investment strategy that may be
necessary in light of creation of Shares
and in a manner consistent with orderly
portfolio management. An early Order
Cut-Off Time will allow the Adviser to
net creations and redemptions and
facilitate borrowing securities in an
efficient manner.
Transaction Fees
The Trust may impose purchase or
redemption transaction fees
(‘‘Transaction Fees’’) in connection with
the purchase or redemption of Shares
from the Funds. The exact amounts of
any such Transaction Fees will be
determined by the Adviser but will not
exceed 2%. The purpose of the
Transaction Fees is to protect the
continuing shareholders against
possible dilutive transactional expenses,
including operational processing and
brokerage costs, associated with
establishing and liquidating portfolio
positions, including short positions, in
connection with the purchase and
redemption of Shares. The Adviser
believes that imposing Transaction Fees
will best respond to market needs and
help to defray certain costs that would
otherwise be borne by the Trust, such as
custodian transaction fees and various
other Fund overhead costs and fund
accounting costs.
From time to time and for such
periods as the Adviser in its sole
discretion may determine, the
Transaction Fees for the purchase or
redemption of Shares may be increased,
decreased or otherwise modified. Such
Transaction Fees will be limited to
amounts that will have been determined
by the Adviser to be appropriate and
will take into account transaction and
operational processing costs associated
with the recent purchases and sales of
the equity securities held by the Trust.
In all cases, such Transaction Fees will
be limited in accordance with thenexisting requirements of the
Commission applicable to management
investment companies offering
redeemable securities.
Purchases of Shares—Secondary Market
Only DTC Participants and their
customers will be able to acquire Shares
at NAV directly from a Fund through
the Distributor. The entire required cash
payment must be transferred in the
manner set forth in a Fund’s SAI by the
specified time on the third DTC
settlement day following the day it is
transmitted (the ‘‘Transmittal Date’’).
These investors and others will also be
able to purchase Shares in secondary
market transactions at prevailing market
prices. Each Fund will reserve the right
to reject any purchase order at any time.
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Redemption
Beneficial Owners may sell their
Shares in the secondary market.
Alternatively, investors that own
enough Shares to constitute a
Redemption Unit (currently, 50,000
Shares) or multiples thereof may redeem
those Shares through the Distributor,
which will act as the Trust’s agent for
redemption. The size of a Redemption
Unit will be subject to change.
Redemption orders for Redemption
Units or multiples thereof must be
placed by or through an Authorized
Participant. A Beneficial Owner that is
an individual, a trust exclusively for the
benefit of an individual or group of
related family members or a tax deferred
retirement plan directed by an
individual would be treated as a ‘‘Retail
Owner’’. Any entity other than a trust or
retirement plan exclusively for the
benefit of individuals would be treated
as an institutional investor. Retail
Investors that wish to redeem Shares in
less than Redemption Unit size may
redeem those Shares directly from the
Fund as described below under ‘‘Retail
Redemption Facility.’’
Authorized Participant Redemption
The Shares may be redeemed to a
Fund in Redemption Unit size or
multiples thereof as described below.
Redemption orders of Redemption Units
must be placed by or through an
Authorized Participant (‘‘AP
Redemption Order’’). Each Fund will
establish an Order Cut-Off Time for
redemption orders of Redemption Units
in proper form. Redemption Units of the
Fund will be redeemable at their NAV
per Share next determined after receipt
of a request for redemption by the Trust
in the manner specified below before
the Order Cut-Off Time. To initiate an
AP Redemption Order, an Authorized
Participant must submit to the
Distributor an irrevocable order to
redeem such Redemption Unit after the
most recent prior Valuation Time but
not later than the Order Cut-Off Time.
The Order Cut-Off Time for a Fund may
be its Valuation Time, or may be prior
to the Valuation Time if the Board
determines that an earlier Order Cut-Off
Time for redemption of Redemption
Units is necessary and is in the best
interests of Fund shareholders. An
earlier Order Cut-Off Time is primarily
necessary because of the redemption
process for the Funds. It is
contemplated that Authorized
Participants will instruct the trustee of
its blind trust to liquidate redemption
securities in market on close orders on
the date of redemption so that
Authorized Participants can realize
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redemption proceeds as close to the
Fund’s NAV on the redemption date as
possible. In order to allow the Adviser
sufficient time to identify the
redemption securities, transfer the
redemption basket of portfolio securities
to the blind trusts and permit the trustee
adequate time to process liquidation
transactions in accordance with the
Authorized Participant’s instructions, it
will likely be necessary to employ an
Order Cut-Off Time prior to that time to
allow such actions to take place. It is
anticipated that all Funds will adopt
Order Cut-Off Times for redemptions
prior to their Valuation Time in order to
facilitate the timely identification and
notice to the trustee of the blind trusts
(as described below) of securities to be
redeemed in-kind.
Consistent with the provisions of
Section 22(e) of the 1940 Act and Rule
22e-2 thereunder, the right to redeem
will not be suspended, nor payment
upon redemption delayed, except for:
(1) Any period during which the NYSE
is closed other than customary weekend
and holiday closings, (2) any period
during which trading on the NYSE is
restricted, (3) any period during which
an emergency exists as a result of which
disposal by a Fund of securities owned
by it is not reasonably practicable or it
is not reasonably practicable for a Fund
to determine its NAV, and (4) for such
other periods as the Commission may by
order permit for the protection of
shareholders.
Redemptions other than Retail
Redemptions will occur primarily inkind, although redemption payments
may also be made partly or wholly in
cash.22 The Participant Agreement
signed by each Authorized Participant
will require establishment of a blind
trust to receive distributions of
securities in-kind upon redemption.23
Each Authorized Participant will be
required to appoint the Custodian as
trustee of its blind trust in order to
facilitate orderly processing of
redemptions. While the Fund will
generally distribute securities in-kind,
the Adviser may determine from time to
time that it is not in the Fund’s best
22 It is anticipated that any portion of a Fund’s
NAV attributable to appreciated short positions will
be paid in cash, as securities sold short are not
susceptible to in-kind settlement. The value of other
positions not susceptible to in-kind settlement may
also be paid in cash.
23 The terms of each blind trust will be set forth
as an exhibit to the applicable Participant
Agreement, which will be signed by each
Authorized Participant. The terms of the blind trust
will provide that the trust be formed under either
New York or Massachusetts State law; the
Custodian will act as trustee of the blind trusts; and
the trustee will be paid by the Authorized
Participant a fee negotiated by the Adviser on
behalf of Authorized Participants.
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interests to distribute securities in-kind,
but rather to sell securities and/or
distribute cash. For example, the
Adviser may distribute cash to facilitate
orderly portfolio management in
connection with rebalancing or
transitioning a portfolio in line with its
investment objective, or if there is
substantially more creation than
redemption activity during the period
immediately preceding a redemption
request, or as necessary or appropriate
in accordance with applicable laws and
regulations. In this manner, the Fund
can use in-kind redemptions to reduce
the unrealized capital gains that may, at
times, exist in a Fund by distributing
low cost lots of each security that a
Fund needs to dispose of to maintain its
desired portfolio exposures.
Shareholders of a Fund would benefit
from the in-kind redemptions through
the reduction of the unrealized capital
gains in a Fund that would otherwise
have to be realized and, eventually,
distributed to shareholders.
The redemption basket will consist of
the same securities for all Authorized
Participants on any given day subject to
the Adviser’s ability to make minor
adjustments to address odd lots,
fractional shares, tradeable sizes or
other situations.
After receipt of an AP Redemption
Order, the Custodian will typically
deliver securities to the blind trust
(which securities are determined by the
Adviser) with a value approximately
equal to the value of the Shares 24
tendered for redemption at the Cut-Off
time. The Custodian will make delivery
of the securities by appropriate entries
on its books and records transferring
ownership of the securities to the blind
trust, subject to delivery of the Shares
redeemed. The trustee of the blind trust
will in turn liquidate, hedge or
otherwise manage the securities based
on instructions from the Authorized
Participant.25 If the trustee is instructed
24 If the NAV of the Shares redeemed differs from
the value of the securities delivered to the
applicable blind trust, the Fund or the blind trust
will pay a cash balancing amount to compensate for
the difference between the value of the securities
delivered and the NAV.
25 Because an Authorized Participant would not
know the holdings of its blind trust, it is anticipated
that such instructions would be generic standing
instructions to the trustee. Although an Authorized
Participant could, in its sole discretion, provide
different standing instructions, it is expected that,
in order to realize proceeds from a redemption at
a value as close as possible to the redemption’s
NAV, all Authorized Participants will likely
instruct the trustee of the blind trust to sell all
securities received in kind as redemption proceeds
at the close of the market on the date of redemption.
For this reason, an Order Cut-Off Time for
redemptions will be necessary so that the Adviser
is able to identify securities to be redeemed in-kind
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tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
to sell all securities received at the close
on the redemption date, the trustee will
pay the liquidation proceeds net of
expenses plus or minus any cash
balancing amount to the Authorized
Participant through DTC.26 The
redemption securities that the blind
trust receives may mirror the portfolio
holdings of a Fund pro rata or, if the
Adviser determines to reduce one or
more portfolio exposures through an inkind distribution, may constitute only a
portion of the holdings that would not
be proportionate to the overall portfolio
holdings of a Fund. To the extent a
Fund distributes portfolio securities
through an in-kind distribution to more
than one blind trust for the benefit of
that trust’s Authorized Participant, each
Fund expects to distribute a pro rata
portion of the portfolio securities
selected for distribution to each
redeeming Authorized Participant.
The Adviser would be free to select
redemption securities that do not
represent an exact slice of a Fund’s
portfolio on any given day, so long as
each Authorized Participant redeeming
on a given day receives the same set of
redemption securities on such day.
Authorized Participants will advise the
Fund of any securities they are
restricted from receiving. If the
Authorized Participant would receive a
security that it is restricted from
receiving, the Fund will deliver cash
equal to the value of that security.
The Adviser might choose to select
redemption securities that do not
represent an exact slice of a Fund’s
portfolio in order to effectively
implement changes to a Fund’s portfolio
composition, take advantage of tax
strategies or address corporate actions.
The Adviser represents that this
freedom will benefit Beneficial Owners
because the Adviser can use redemption
events to liquidate unwanted positions
without incurring brokerage charges or
taxable gains. To address odd lots,
fractional shares, tradeable sizes or
other situations where dividing
securities is not practical or possible,
the Adviser may make minor
adjustments to the pro rata portion of
portfolio securities selected for
to the Custodian prior to the close of the market on
the redemption date.
26 Under applicable provisions of the Internal
Revenue Code, the Authorized Participant is
expected to be deemed a ‘‘substantial owner’’ of the
blind trust because it receives distributions from the
blind trust. As a result, all income, gain or loss
realized by the blind trust will be directly attributed
to the Authorized Participant. In a redemption, the
Authorized Participant will have a basis in the
distributed securities equal to the fair market value
at the time of the distribution and any gain or loss
realized on the sale of those Shares will be taxable
income to the Authorized Participant.
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distribution to each redeeming
Authorized Participant on such
Business Day.
The Trust will accept an AP
Redemption Order in proper form. An
AP Redemption Order is subject to
acceptance by the Trust and must be
preceded or accompanied by an
irrevocable commitment to deliver the
requisite number of Shares. At the time
of settlement, an Authorized Participant
will initiate a delivery of the Shares
versus subsequent payment against the
proceeds, if any, of the sale of portfolio
securities distributed to the applicable
blind trust plus or minus any cash
balancing amounts, and less the
expenses of liquidation. The Trust, on
behalf of a Fund, will maintain a
security interest in the assets of a blind
trust and, under applicable
documentation, will be entitled to such
assets in the event an Authorized
Participant fails to make timely delivery
of redeemed Shares.
Retail Redemption Facility
Retail Investors may submit orders to
redeem Shares at NAV directly with a
Fund as described below (‘‘Retail
Redemption Facility’’). Retail Investors
will be able to place orders to redeem
Shares in less than Redemption Unit
size by instructing their broker to
submit an order to redeem Shares
directly from the Fund (‘‘Retail
Redemption Order’’). The Retail
Redemption Order will be submitted to
the ‘‘Redemption Agent’’ by the Retail
Investor’s broker if the broker is a DTC
Participant or by its clearing firm if it is
not a DTC Participant. Redemption
proceeds in connection with any Retail
Redemption Order will be distributed in
cash. Retail Investors may decide to
redeem their Shares for cash if they
want to make sure they receive the NAV
and do not want to risk selling their
Shares in the secondary market at a
discount. Investors that are not Retail
Investors can only redeem with the
Fund in Redemption Unit size or larger.
On each Business Day, a Fund will
process all Retail Redemption Orders
received at the NAV of the Fund next
calculated following submission of the
Retail Redemption Order in proper
form. The date the Retail Redemption
Order is received in proper form will be
the redemption date with respect to
those Shares (the ‘‘Redemption Date’’).
Each Fund will establish a cut-off time
for Retail Redemption Orders in proper
form, which may be earlier than the
time of calculation of the NAV in order
to facilitate the timely submission of
such orders to the Redemption Agent for
processing the order at NAV on each
applicable Redemption Date. All
PO 00000
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10855
instructions from Retail Investors to
their broker to submit a Retail
Redemption Order in proper form will
be processed by the Redemption Agent
and submitted through DTC as long as
it is received prior to the cut-off time,
resulting in an aggregated redemption
order received by the Transfer Agent
from DTC on that Business Day. Any
redemption instructions submitted by a
DTC Participant on behalf of Retail
Investors and received in proper form
by the Transfer Agent/Redemption
Agent shall be irrevocable. Only Retail
Redemption Orders for an amount of
Shares smaller than a Redemption Unit
will be considered in proper form.
The date of payment upon
redemption will not exceed seven days
after the Redemption Date, other than as
provided by Section 22(d) of the 1940
Act. The cash proceeds from any Retail
Redemption Order received are
generally expected to be delivered
through DTC to the applicable DTC
Participant’s account at DTC. The DTC
Participant will in turn deposit the
proceeds in the Beneficial Owner’s
account or the account of the financial
institution carrying the account of the
Beneficial Owner.
Net Asset Value
The NAV per Share of a Fund will be
computed by dividing the value of the
net assets of a Fund (i.e., the value of
its total assets less total liabilities) by
the total number of Shares of a Fund
outstanding, rounded to the nearest
cent. Expenses and fees, including,
without limitation, the management,
administration and distribution fees,
will be accrued daily and taken into
account for purposes of determining
NAV. Interest and investment income
on the Trust’s assets accrue daily and
will be included in the Fund’s total
assets. The NAV per Share for a Fund
will be calculated by the Administrator
and determined as of the close of the
regular trading session on the New York
Stock Exchange (‘‘NYSE’’) (ordinarily
4:00 p.m., E.T.) on each day that the
NYSE is open. The NAV that is
published will be rounded to the nearest
cent; however, for purposes of
determining the price of Shares in
creations and redemption, the NAV will
be calculated to five decimal places. The
Shares of the Funds will not be priced
on days on which the NYSE is closed
for trading.
Shares of exchange-listed equity
securities will be valued at market
value, which will generally be
determined using the last reported
official closing or last trading price on
the exchange or market on which the
securities are primarily traded at the
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time of valuation. Repurchase and
reverse repurchase agreements will be
valued based on price quotations or
other equivalent indications of value
provided by a third-party pricing
service. Money market instruments (as
described above) will be valued based
on price quotations or other equivalent
indications of value provided by a thirdparty pricing service.
When last sale prices and market
quotations are not readily available, are
deemed unreliable or do not reflect
material events occurring between the
close of local markets and the time of
valuation, investments will be valued
using fair value pricing as determined in
good faith by the Adviser under
procedures established by and under the
general supervision and responsibility
of the Trust’s Board of Trustees.
Investments that may be valued using
fair value pricing include, but are not
limited to: (1) Securities that are not
actively traded; (2) securities of an
issuer that becomes bankrupt or enters
into a restructuring; and (3) securities
whose trading has been halted or
suspended.
The frequency with which each
Fund’s investments will be valued using
fair value pricing will primarily be a
function of the types of securities and
other assets in which the respective
Fund will invest pursuant to its
investment objective, strategies and
limitations. If the Funds invest in openend management investment companies
registered under the 1940 Act (other
than ETFs), they may rely on the NAVs
of those companies to value the shares
they hold of them. Those companies
may also use fair value pricing under
some circumstances.
Valuing the Funds’ investments using
fair value pricing involves the
consideration of a number of subjective
factors and thus the prices for those
investments may differ from current
market valuations. Accordingly, fair
value pricing could result in a
difference between the prices used to
calculate NAV and the prices used to
determine a Fund’s Portfolio Indicative
Value (‘‘PIV’’), as described below,
which could result in the market prices
for Shares deviating from NAV.
Availability of Information
The Funds’ Web site
(www.precidianfunds.com), which will
be publicly available prior to the public
offering of Shares, will include a form
of the prospectus for each Fund that
may be downloaded. The Funds’ Web
site will include additional quantitative
information updated on a daily basis,
including, for each Fund, (1) daily
trading volume, the prior Business Day’s
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17:24 Feb 25, 2014
Jkt 232001
reported closing price, NAV and midpoint of the bid/ask spread at the time
of calculation of such NAV (the ‘‘Bid/
Ask Price’’),27 and a calculation of the
premium and discount of the Bid/Ask
Price against the NAV, and (2) data in
chart format displaying the frequency
distribution of discounts and premiums
of the daily Bid/Ask Price against the
NAV, within appropriate ranges, for
each of the four previous calendar
quarters.
As noted above, a mutual fund is
required to file with the Commission its
complete portfolio schedules for the
second and fourth fiscal quarters on
Form N–SAR under the 1940 Act, and
is required to file its complete portfolio
schedules for the first and third fiscal
quarters on Form N–Q under the 1940
Act, within 60 days of the end of the
quarter. Form N–Q requires funds to file
the same schedules of investments that
are required in annual and semi-annual
reports to shareholders. The Trust’s SAI
and each Fund’s shareholder reports
will be available free upon request from
the Trust. These documents and forms
may be viewed on-screen or
downloaded from the Commission’s
Web site at www.sec.gov.
Information regarding market price
and trading volume of the Shares will be
continually available on a real-time
basis throughout the day on brokers’
computer screens and other electronic
services. Information regarding the
previous day’s closing price and trading
volume information for the Shares will
be published daily in the financial
section of newspapers. Updated price
information for the securities included
in the Russell 1000, Russell 2000 and
Russell 3000 Indexes, and for other U.S.
exchange-listed equity securities is
available through major market data
vendors or securities exchanges trading
such securities. Information relating to
Russell 1000, Russell 2000 and Russell
3000 Index components is available at
www.russell.com. The intraday, closing
and settlement prices of money market
instruments (as described above),
repurchase agreements and reverse
repurchase agreements will be readily
available from published or other public
sources, or major market data vendors
such as Bloomberg and Thomson
Reuters. The NAV of any investment
company security investment will be
readily available on the Web site of the
relevant investment company and from
major market data vendors. Quotation
27 The Bid/Ask Price of a Fund will be
determined using the mid-point of the highest bid
and the lowest offer on the Exchange as of the time
of calculation of a Fund’s NAV. The records relating
to Bid/Ask Prices will be retained by each Fund and
its service providers.
PO 00000
Frm 00094
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
and last sale information for the Shares
will be available via the Consolidated
Tape Association (‘‘CTA’’) high-speed
line. In addition, the Portfolio Indicative
Value (‘‘PIV’’), as defined in NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900(c)(3) and as
described further below, will be widely
disseminated by one or more major
market data vendors at least every 15
seconds during the Exchange’s Core
Trading Session.
Dissemination of the Portfolio Indicative
Value
The PIV, which is approximate [sic]
value of each Fund’s investments on a
per Share basis, will be disseminated
every 15 seconds during the Exchange’s
Core Trading Session. The PIV should
not be viewed as a ‘‘real-time’’ update
of NAV because the PIV may not be
calculated in the same manner as NAV,
which is computed once per day.
An independent third party calculator
will calculate the PIV for each Fund
during the Exchange’s Core Trading
Session by dividing the ‘‘Estimated
Fund Value’’ (as described below) as of
the time of the calculation by the total
number of outstanding Shares of that
Fund. ‘‘Estimated Fund Value’’ is the
sum of the estimated amount of cash
held in a Fund’s portfolio, the estimated
amount of accrued interest owed to a
Fund and the estimated value of the
securities held in the Fund’s portfolio,
minus the estimated amount of a Fund’s
liabilities.
The Funds will provide the
independent third party calculator with
information to calculate the PIV, but the
Funds will not be involved in the actual
calculation of the PIV.28
Additional information regarding the
Trust and the Shares, including
investment strategies, risks, creation and
redemption procedures, fees, portfolio
holdings disclosure policies,
distributions and taxes will be included
in the Registration Statement. All terms
relating to the Funds that are referred to,
but not defined in, this proposed rule
change are defined in the Registration
Statement.
Trading Halts
With respect to trading halts, the
Exchange may consider all relevant
factors in exercising its discretion to
halt or suspend trading in the Shares of
the Funds.29 Trading in Shares of the
28 Currently, it is the Exchange’s understanding
that several major market data vendors display and/
or make widely available PIVs published on CTA
or other data feeds. Dissemination of the PIV will
allow investors to determine the value of the
underlying portfolio of a Fund throughout the
trading day.
29 See NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.12.
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Funds will be halted if the circuit
breaker parameters in NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 7.12 have been reached.
Trading also may be halted because of
market conditions or for reasons that, in
the view of the Exchange, make trading
in the Shares inadvisable. These may
include: (1) If the PIV applicable to a
Fund’s Shares is not being disseminated
as required; (2) the extent to which
trading is not occurring in the securities
and/or the financial instruments
comprising the holdings of a Fund; or
(3) whether other unusual conditions or
circumstances detrimental to the
maintenance of a fair and orderly
market are present. Trading in the
Shares will be subject to NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C), which sets
forth circumstances under which Shares
of the Funds may be halted.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Trading Rules
The Exchange deems the Shares to be
equity securities, thus rendering trading
in the Shares subject to the Exchange’s
existing rules governing the trading of
equity securities. Shares will trade on
the NYSE Arca Marketplace from 4 a.m.
to 8 p.m., E.T. in accordance with NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 7.34 (Opening, Core,
and Late Trading Sessions). The
Exchange has appropriate rules to
facilitate transactions in the Shares
during all trading sessions. As provided
in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.6,
Commentary .03, the minimum price
variation (‘‘MPV’’) for quoting and entry
of orders in equity securities traded on
the NYSE Arca Marketplace is $0.01,
with the exception of securities that are
priced less than $1.00 for which the
MPV for order entry is $0.0001.
The Shares will conform to the initial
and continued listing criteria under
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900. The
Exchange represents that, for initial
and/or continued listing, each Fund will
be in compliance with Rule 10A–3
under the Act,30 as provided by NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 5.3. A minimum of
100,000 Shares of each Fund will be
outstanding at the commencement of
trading on the Exchange. The Exchange
will obtain a representation from the
issuer of the Shares of each Fund that
the NAV per Share of each Fund will be
calculated daily and will be made
available to all market participants at
the same time.
Surveillance
The Exchange represents that trading
in the Shares will be subject to the
existing trading surveillances,
administered by the Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority (‘‘FINRA’’) on
30 See
17 CFR 240.10A–3.
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17:24 Feb 25, 2014
Jkt 232001
behalf of the Exchange, which are
designed to detect violations of
Exchange rules and applicable federal
securities laws.31 The Exchange
represents that these procedures are
adequate to properly monitor Exchange
trading of the Shares in all trading
sessions and to deter and detect
violations of Exchange rules and federal
securities laws applicable to trading on
the Exchange.
The surveillances referred to above
generally focus on detecting securities
trading outside their normal patterns,
which could be indicative of
manipulative or other violative activity.
When such situations are detected,
surveillance analysis follows and
investigations are opened, where
appropriate, to review the behavior of
all relevant parties for all relevant
trading violations.
FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange,
will communicate as needed regarding
trading in the Shares, underlying stocks
and ETFs with other markets and other
entities that are members of the
Intermarket Surveillance Group (‘‘ISG’’),
and FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange,
may obtain trading information
regarding trading such securities from
such markets and other entities. In
addition, the Exchange may obtain
information regarding trading in the
Shares, underlying stocks and ETFs
from markets and other entities that are
members of ISG or with which the
Exchange has in place a comprehensive
surveillance sharing agreement.32
The Funds’ Adviser will make
available to FINRA and the Exchange
the portfolio holdings of each Fund in
order to facilitate the performance of the
surveillances referred to above.
In addition, the Exchange also has a
general policy prohibiting the
distribution of material, non-public
information by its employees.
Information Bulletin
Prior to the commencement of
trading, the Exchange will inform its
Equity Trading Permit (‘‘ETP’’) Holders
in an Information Bulletin (‘‘Bulletin’’)
of the special characteristics and risks
associated with trading the Shares.
Specifically, the Bulletin will discuss
the following: (1) The procedures for
purchases and redemptions of Shares
and the differing rights of Retail
Investors and others to redeem shares;
(2) NYSE Arca Equities Rule 9.2(a),
which imposes a duty of due diligence
31 FINRA surveils trading on the Exchange
pursuant to a regulatory services agreement. The
Exchange is responsible for FINRA’s performance
under this regulatory services agreement.
32 For a list of the current members of ISG, see
www.isgportal.org.
PO 00000
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10857
on its ETP Holders to learn the essential
facts relating to every customer prior to
trading the Shares; (3) the risks involved
in trading the Shares during the
Opening and Late Trading Sessions
when an updated PIV will not be
calculated or publicly disseminated; (4)
how information regarding the PIV is
disseminated; (5) the requirement that
ETP Holders deliver a prospectus to
investors purchasing newly issued
Shares prior to or concurrently with the
confirmation of a transaction; and (6)
trading information.
In addition, the Bulletin will
reference that the Funds are subject to
various fees and expenses described in
the Registration Statement. The Bulletin
will discuss any exemptive, no-action,
and interpretive relief granted by the
Commission from any rules under the
Act. The Bulletin will also disclose that
the NAV for the Shares will be
calculated after 4:00 p.m., E.T. each
trading day.
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that the
proposed rule change is consistent with
Section 6(b) of the Act,33 in general, and
furthers the objectives of Section 6(b)(5)
of the Act,34 in particular, in that it is
designed to prevent fraudulent and
manipulative acts and practices, to
promote just and equitable principles of
trade, to remove impediments to and
perfect the mechanism of a free and
open market and a national market
system, and, in general, to protect
investors and the public interest.
The Exchange believes that proposed
Rule 8.900 is designed to prevent
fraudulent and manipulative acts and
practices in that the proposed rules
relating to listing and trading of
Managed Portfolio Shares provide
specific initial and continued listing
criteria required to be met by such
securities. Proposed Rule 8.900(d) sets
forth initial and continued listing
criteria applicable to Managed Portfolio
Shares. Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(1)
provides that, for each series of
Managed Portfolio Shares, the
Corporation will establish a minimum
number of Managed Portfolio Shares
required to be outstanding at the time of
commencement of trading. In addition,
the Corporation will obtain a
representation from the issuer of each
series of Managed Portfolio Shares that
the NAV per share for the series will be
calculated daily and that the NAV will
be made available to all market
participants at the same time. Proposed
Rule 8.900(d)(2) provides that each
33 15
34 15
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series of Managed Portfolio Shares will
be listed and traded subject to
application of the specified continued
listing criteria, as described above.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(A) provides
that the PIV for Managed Portfolio
Shares will be widely disseminated by
one or more major market data vendors
at least every 15 seconds during the
Exchange’s Core Trading Session.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C) provides
that, if the PIV of a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares is not being
disseminated as required, the
Corporation may halt trading during the
day in which the interruption to the
dissemination of the PIV occurs. If the
interruption to the dissemination of the
PIV persists past the trading day in
which it occurred, the Corporation will
halt trading no later than the beginning
of the trading day following the
interruption. If a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares is trading on the
Corporation pursuant to UTP, the
Corporation will halt trading in that
series as specified in Rule 7.34(a). In
addition, if the Exchange becomes
aware that the NAV with respect to a
series of Managed Portfolio Shares is not
disseminated to all market participants
at the same time, it will halt trading in
such securities until such time as the
NAV is available to all market
participants. Proposed Commentary .05
to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900
provides that, if the investment adviser
to the Investment Company issuing
Managed Portfolio Shares is affiliated
with a broker-dealer, such investment
adviser shall erect a ‘‘fire wall’’ between
the investment adviser and the brokerdealer with respect to access to
information concerning the composition
and/or changes to such Investment
Company portfolio. Personnel who
make decisions on the Investment
Company’s portfolio composition must
be subject to procedures designed to
prevent the use and dissemination of
material nonpublic information
regarding the applicable Investment
Company portfolio.
With respect to the proposed listing
and trading of Shares of the Funds, the
Exchange believes that the proposed
rule change is designed to prevent
fraudulent and manipulative acts and
practices in that the Shares will be
listed and traded on the Exchange
pursuant to the initial and continued
listing criteria in NYSE Arca Equities
Rule 8.900. Price information for the
exchange-listed equity securities held
by the Funds will be available through
major market data vendors or securities
exchanges listing and trading such
securities. All exchange-listed equity
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securities held by the Funds will be
listed on national securities exchanges.
The listing and trading of such
securities is subject to rules of the
exchanges on which they are listed and
traded, as approved by the Commission.
The Funds will primarily hold
securities in the Russell 3000 Index or
ETFs that invest primarily in the Russell
3000 Index. Further, the Funds will not
invest in options, futures or swaps. A
Fund’s investments will be consistent
with its respective investment objective
and will not be used to enhance
leverage. The Funds will not invest in
non-U.S. issues. FINRA, on behalf of the
Exchange, will communicate as needed
regarding trading in the Shares and
underlying stocks and ETFs with other
markets and other entities that are
members of the ISG, and FINRA, on
behalf of the Exchange, may obtain
trading information regarding trading
such securities from such markets and
other entities. In addition, the Exchange
may obtain information regarding
trading in the Shares, underlying stocks
and ETFs from markets and other
entities that are members of ISG or with
which the Exchange has in place a
comprehensive surveillance sharing
agreement.
The Exchange, after consulting with
various Lead Market Makers that trade
ETFs on the Exchange, believes that
market makers will be able to make
efficient and liquid markets priced near
the PIV as long as an accurate PIV is
disseminated every 15 seconds and
market makers have knowledge of a
fund’s means of achieving its
investment objective, even without
daily disclosure of a fund’s underlying
portfolio. The Exchange believes that
market makers will employ riskmanagement techniques such as
‘‘statistical arbitrage’’, which is
currently used throughout the financial
services industry, to make efficient
markets in exchange traded products.35
This ability should permit market
makers to make efficient markets in
Fund Shares without knowledge of a
fund’s underlying portfolio.
The Exchange understands that
traders use statistical analysis to derive
correlations between different sets of
instruments to identify opportunities to
buy or sell one set of instruments when
it is mispriced relative to the others. For
Managed Portfolio Shares, market
makers will initially use the knowledge
of a fund’s means of achieving its
investment objective, as described in the
applicable fund registration statement,
to construct a hedging proxy for a fund
to manage a market maker’s quoting risk
35 See
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36 See Investment Company Act Release No.
25258 (November 8, 2001) (the ‘‘Concept Release’’).
note 10, supra.
Frm 00096
Fmt 4703
in connection with trading fund shares.
Market makers will then conduct
statistical arbitrage between their
hedging proxy (for example, the Russell
1000 Index) and shares of a fund,
buying and selling one against the other
over the course of the trading day.
Eventually, at the end of each day, they
will evaluate how their proxy performed
in comparison to the price of a fund’s
shares, and use that analysis as well as
knowledge of risk metrics, such as
volatility and turnover, to enhance their
proxy calculation to make it a more
efficient hedge.
Market makers have indicated to the
Exchange that, after the first few days of
trading, there will be sufficient data to
run a statistical analysis which will lead
to spreads being tightened substantially
around PIV. This is similar to certain
other existing exchange traded products
(for example, ETFs that invest in foreign
securities that do not trade during U.S.
trading hours), in which spreads may be
generally wider in the early days of
trading and then narrow as market
makers gain more confidence in their
real-time hedges.
The Lead Market Makers also
indicated that, as with some other new
exchange-traded products, spreads may
be generally wider in the early days of
trading and would tend to narrow as
market makers gain more confidence in
the accuracy of their hedges and their
ability to adjust these hedges in realtime relative to the published PIV and
gain an understanding of the applicable
market risk metrics such as volatility
and turnover, and as natural buyers and
sellers enter the market. Other relevant
factors cited by Lead Market Makers
were that a fund’s investment objectives
are clearly disclosed in the applicable
prospectus, the existence of quarterly
portfolio disclosure, and the ability to
create shares in any size.
The Commission’s concept release
regarding ‘‘Actively Managed ExchangeTraded Funds’’ highlighted several
issues that could impact the
Commission’s willingness to authorize
the operation of an actively-managed
ETF, including whether effective
arbitrage of the ETF shares exists.36 The
Concept Release identifies the
transparency of a fund’s portfolio and
the liquidity of the securities in a fund’s
portfolio as central to effective arbitrage.
However, certain existing ETFs with
portfolios of foreign securities have
shown their ability to trade efficiently in
the secondary market at approximately
their NAV even though they do not
provide opportunities for riskless
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arbitrage transactions during much of
the trading day.37 Such ETFs have been
shown to have pricing characteristics
very similar to ETFs that can be
arbitraged in this manner. For example,
index-based ETFs containing securities
that trade during different trading hours
than the ETF, such as ETFs that hold
Asian stocks, have demonstrated
efficient pricing characteristics
notwithstanding the inability of market
professionals to engage in ‘‘riskless
arbitrage’’ with respect to the
underlying portfolio for most, or even
all, of the U.S. trading day when Asian
markets are closed. Pricing for shares of
such ETFs is efficient because market
professionals are still able to hedge their
positions with offsetting, correlated
positions in derivative instruments
during the entire trading day.
The real-time dissemination of a
fund’s PIV, together with the right of
Authorized Participants to create and
redeem each day at the NAV, will be
sufficient for market participants to
value and trade shares in a manner that
will not lead to significant deviations
between the shares’ Bid/Ask Price and
NAV. In addition, with respect to Shares
of the Funds, the Retail Redemption
Facility will permit retail shareholders
holding amounts smaller than a
Redemption Unit to redeem at NAV on
any day the Exchange is open in the
event there is any negative variance
between the NAV of a Fund’s Shares
and the secondary market price of
Shares at the Valuation Time.
The pricing efficiency with respect to
trading a series of Managed Portfolio
Shares will not generally rest on the
ability of market participants to
arbitrage between the shares and a
fund’s portfolio, but rather on the ability
of market participants to assess a fund’s
underlying value accurately enough
throughout the trading day in order to
hedge positions in shares effectively.
Professional traders will buy shares that
they perceive to be trading at a price
less than that which will be available at
a subsequent time, and sell shares they
perceive to be trading at a price higher
37 The Adviser represents that the mechanics of
arbitrage and hedging differ. Prior Rule 10a–1 and
Regulation T under the Act both describe arbitrage
as either buying and selling the same security in
two different markets or buying and selling two
different securities, one of which is convertible into
the other. This is also known as a ‘‘riskless
arbitrage’’ transaction in that the transaction is risk
free since it generally consists of buying an asset at
one price and simultaneously selling that same
asset at a higher price, thereby generating a profit
on the difference. Hedging, on the other hand,
involves managing risk by purchasing or selling a
security or instrument that will track or offset the
value of another security or instrument. Arbitrage
and hedging are both used to manage risk; however,
they involve different trading strategies.
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than that which will be available at a
subsequent time. It is expected that, as
part of their normal day-to-day trading
activity, market makers assigned to
shares by the Exchange, off-exchange
market makers, firms that specialize in
electronic trading, hedge funds and
other professionals specializing in shortterm, non-fundamental trading
strategies will assume the risk of being
‘‘long’’ or ‘‘short’’ shares through such
trading and will hedge such risk wholly
or partly by simultaneously taking
positions in correlated assets 38 or by
netting the exposure against other,
offsetting trading positions—much as
such firms do with existing ETFs and
other equities. Disclosure of a fund’s
investment objective and principal
investment strategies in its prospectus
and SAI, along with the dissemination
of the PIV every 15 seconds, should
permit professional investors to engage
easily in this type of hedging activity.39
With respect to trading of Shares of
the Funds, the ability of market
38 Price correlation trading is used throughout the
financial industry. It is used to discover both
trading opportunities to be exploited, such as
currency pairs and statistical arbitrage, as well as
for risk mitigation such as dispersion trading and
beta hedging. These correlations are a function of
differentials, over time, between one or multiple
securities pricing. Once the nature of these price
deviations have been quantified, a universe of
securities is searched in an effort to, in the case of
a hedging strategy, minimize the differential. Once
a suitable hedging basket has been identified, a
trader can minimize portfolio risk by executing the
hedging basket. The trader then can monitor the
performance of this hedge throughout the trade
period, making corrections where warranted.
39 With respect to trading in Shares of the Funds,
market participants manage risk in a variety of
ways. It is expected that market participants will be
able to determine how to trade Shares at levels
approximating the PIV without taking undue risk by
gaining experience with how various market factors
(e.g., general market movements, sensitivity of the
PIV to intraday movements in interest rates or
commodity prices, etc.) affect PIV, and by finding
hedges for their long or short positions in Shares
using instruments correlated with such factors. The
Adviser expects that market participants will
initially determine the PIV’s correlation to a major
large capitalization equity benchmark with active
derivative contracts, such as the Russell 1000 Index,
and the degree of sensitivity of the PIV to changes
in that benchmark. For example, using hypothetical
numbers for illustrative purposes, market
participants should be able to determine quickly
that price movements in the Russell 1000 Index
predict movements in a Fund’s PIV 95% of the time
(an acceptably high correlation) but that the PIV
generally moves approximately half as much as the
Russell 1000 Index with each price movement. This
information is sufficient for market participants to
construct a reasonable hedge—buy or sell an
amount of futures, swaps or ETFs that track the
Russell 1000 equal to half the opposite exposure
taken with respect to Shares. Market participants
will also continuously compare the intraday
performance of their hedge to a Fund’s PIV. If the
intraday performance of the hedge is correlated
with the PIV to the expected degree, market
participants will feel comfortable they are
appropriately hedged and can rely on the PIV as
appropriately indicative of a Fund’s performance.
PO 00000
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10859
participants to buy and sell Shares at
prices near the PIV is dependent upon
their assessment that the PIV is a
reliable, indicative real-time value for a
Fund’s underlying holdings. Market
participants are expected to accept the
PIV as a reliable, indicative real-time
value because (1) the PIV will be
calculated and disseminated based on a
Fund’s actual portfolio holdings (rather
than a proxy portfolio), (2) the securities
in which the Funds plan to invest are
generally highly liquid and actively
traded and therefore generally have
accurate real time pricing available, and
(3) market participants will have a daily
opportunity to evaluate whether the PIV
at or near the close of trading is indeed
predictive of the actual NAV. Because
there is less risk of variability between
the current PIV and the NAV nearer to
the Valuation Time, it is expected that
the bid/ask spread for Shares will
initially tend to be less as the market
approaches the close and market
participants have a very high degree of
certainty that they can trade at a level
that reflects the current value of a
Fund’s holdings. It is also expected,
however, that market participants will
quickly be able to determine, after
gaining experience with how various
market factors (e.g., general market
movements, sensitivity or correlations
of the PIV to intraday movements in
interest rates or commodity prices, other
benchmarks, etc.) affect PIV, how best to
hedge long or short positions taken in
Shares in a manner that will permit
them to provide a Bid/Ask Price for
Shares that is near to the PIV throughout
the day. The ability of market
participants to accurately hedge their
positions should serve to minimize any
divergence between the secondary
market price of the Shares and the PIV,
as well as create liquidity in the Shares.
The real-time dissemination of a
Fund’s PIV, together with the ability of
Authorized Participants to create and
redeem each day at the NAV, will be
crucial for market participants to value
and trade Shares in a manner that will
not lead to significant deviations
between the Shares’ Bid/Ask Price and
NAV.40 In addition, the Retail
Redemption Facility will permit retail
shareholders holding amounts smaller
than a Redemption Unit to redeem at
NAV on any day the Exchange is open
in the event there is any negative
variance between NAV of a Fund’s
40 The statements in the Statutory Basis section of
this filing relating to pricing efficiency, arbitrage,
and activities of market participants, including
market makers and Authorized Participants, are
based on representations by the Adviser and review
by the Exchange.
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tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
10860
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
Shares and the secondary market price
of Shares at the Valuation Time.
In a typical index-based ETF, it is
necessary for Authorized Participants to
know what securities must be delivered
in a creation or will be received in a
redemption. For Managed Portfolio
Shares, however, Authorized
Participants do not need to know the
securities comprising the portfolio of a
Fund since creations are for cash and
redemptions are handled through the
blind trust mechanism. The use of cash
for creations, and in-kind redemption
through a blind trust, will preserve the
integrity of the active investment
strategy and eliminate the potential for
‘‘free riding’’, while still providing
investors with the advantages of the ETF
structure.
The proposed rule change is designed
to promote just and equitable principles
of trade and to protect investors and the
public interest in that the Exchange will
obtain a representation from the issuer
of an issue of Managed Portfolio Shares
that the NAV per share of a fund will
be calculated daily and that the NAV
and will be made available to all market
participants at the same time. Investors
can also obtain a fund’s SAI,
shareholder reports, and its Form N–
CSR and Form N–SAR. A fund’s SAI
and shareholder reports will be
available free upon request from the
applicable fund, and those documents
and the Form N–CSR and Form N–SAR
may be viewed on-screen or
downloaded from the Commission’s
Web site. In addition, with respect to
the Funds, a large amount of
information will be publicly available
regarding the Funds and the Shares,
thereby promoting market transparency.
Quotation and last sale information for
the Shares will be available via the CTA
high-speed line. Information regarding
the intra-day value of the Shares of the
Fund, which is the PIV as defined in
proposed NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.900(c)(3), will be widely disseminated
every 15 seconds throughout the
Exchange’s Core Trading Session by one
or more major market data vendors. The
Web site for the Funds will include a
form of the prospectus for the Funds
that may be downloaded, and additional
data relating to NAV and other
applicable quantitative information,
updated on a daily basis. Moreover,
prior to the commencement of trading,
the Exchange will inform its ETP
Holders in an Information Bulletin of
the special characteristics and risks
associated with trading the Shares.
Trading in Shares of a Fund will be
halted if the circuit breaker parameters
in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.12 have
been reached or because of market
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17:24 Feb 25, 2014
Jkt 232001
conditions or for reasons that, in the
view of the Exchange, make trading in
the Shares inadvisable. Trading in the
Shares will be subject to NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C), which sets
forth circumstances under which Shares
of the Funds may be halted. In addition,
as noted above, investors will have
ready access to the PIV, and quotation
and last sale information for the Shares.
The Shares will conform to the initial
and continued listing criteria under
proposed Rule 8.900. The Funds will
not invest in options, futures, forwards
or swaps. Each Fund’s investments will
be consistent with its investment
objective and will not be used to
enhance leverage. While a Fund may
invest in inverse ETFs, a Fund will not
invest in leveraged (e.g., 2X, –2X, 3X or
–3X) ETFs. The Funds will not invest in
non-U.S. equity securities.
The proposed rule change is designed
to perfect the mechanism of a free and
open market and, in general, to protect
investors and the public interest in that
it will facilitate the listing and trading
of an additional type of activelymanaged exchange-traded product that
will enhance competition among market
participants, to the benefit of investors
and the marketplace. As noted above,
the Exchange has in place surveillance
procedures relating to trading in the
Shares and may obtain information via
ISG from other exchanges that are
members of ISG or with which the
Exchange has entered into a
comprehensive surveillance sharing
agreement. In addition, as noted above,
investors will have ready access to
information regarding the PIV and
quotation and last sale information for
the Shares.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Burden on Competition
The Exchange does not believe that
the proposed rule change will impose
any burden on competition that is not
necessary or appropriate in furtherance
of the purposes of the Act. The
Exchange believes the proposed rule
change would permit listing and trading
of another type of actively-managed ETF
that has characteristics different from
existing actively-managed and index
ETFs, and would introduce additional
competition among various ETF
products to the benefit of investors.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Comments on the
Proposed Rule Change Received From
Members, Participants, or Others
No written comments were solicited
or received with respect to the proposed
rule change.
PO 00000
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III. Date of Effectiveness of the
Proposed Rule Change and Timing for
Commission Action
Within 45 days of the date of
publication of this notice in the Federal
Register or within such longer period
up to 90 days after publication (i) as the
Commission may designate if it finds
such longer period to be appropriate
and publishes its reasons for so finding
or (ii) as to which the self-regulatory
organization consents, the Commission
will:
(A) By order approve or disapprove
the proposed rule change, or
(B) institute proceedings to determine
whether the proposed rule change
should be disapproved.
IV. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to
submit written data, views, and
arguments concerning the foregoing,
including whether the proposed rule
change is consistent with the Act.
Comments may be submitted by any of
the following methods:
Electronic Comments
• Use the Commission’s Internet
comment form (https://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml); or
• Send an email to rule-comments@
sec.gov. Please include File Number SR–
NYSEArca–2014–10 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
• Send paper comments in triplicate
to Elizabeth M. Murphy, Secretary,
Securities and Exchange Commission,
100 F Street NE., Washington, DC
20549–1090.
All submissions should refer to File
Number SR–NYSEArca–2014–10. This
file number should be included on the
subject line if email is used. To help the
Commission process and review your
comments more efficiently, please use
only one method. The Commission will
post all comments on the Commission’s
Internet Web site (https://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the
submission, all subsequent
amendments, all written statements
with respect to the proposed rule
change that are filed with the
Commission, and all written
communications relating to the
proposed rule change between the
Commission and any person, other than
those that may be withheld from the
public in accordance with the
provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be
available for Web site viewing and
printing in the Commission’s Public
Reference Room, 100 F Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20549, on official
business days between the hours of
E:\FR\FM\26FEN1.SGM
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 38 / Wednesday, February 26, 2014 / Notices
10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the
filing also will be available for
inspection and copying at the principal
office of the Exchange. All comments
received will be posted without change;
the Commission does not edit personal
identifying information from
submissions. You should submit only
information that you wish to make
available publicly. All submissions
should refer to File Number SR–
NYSEArca–2014–10 and should be
submitted on or before March 19, 2014.
For the Commission, by the Division of
Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated
authority.41
Kevin M. O’Neill,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014–04130 Filed 2–25–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[Release No. 34–71586; File No. SR–Topaz2014–06]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; Topaz
Exchange, LLC; Notice of Filing and
Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed
Rule Change Relating to the
Amendment of Topaz Exchange, LLC’s
Constitution, Certificate of Formation,
Limited Liability Company Agreement,
Rules and Schedule of Fees To
Change the Name of the Exchange to
ISE Gemini, LLC
February 20, 2014.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2
notice is hereby given that on February
10, 2014, Topaz Exchange, LLC (the
‘‘Exchange’’) filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (the
‘‘Commission’’) the proposed rule
change as described in Items I and II
below, which items have been prepared
by the self-regulatory organization. The
Commission is publishing this notice to
solicit comments on the proposed rule
change from interested persons.
I. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Terms of Substance of
the Proposed Rule Change
The Exchange proposes to amend its
Constitution, Certificate of Formation,
LLC Agreement, Rules and Schedule of
Fees to change the name of the
Exchange to ISE Gemini, LLC. The
Exchange is also proposing one other
technical change to its LLC Agreement
for clarification purposes. The text of
41 17
CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).
U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
2 17 CFR 240.19b–4.
1 15
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17:24 Feb 25, 2014
Jkt 232001
the proposed rule change is available at
the Commission’s Public Reference
Room and on the Exchange’s Internet
Web site at https://www.ise.com.
II. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Purpose of, and
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule
Change
In its filing with the Commission, the
Exchange included statements
concerning the purpose of, and basis for,
the proposed rule change and discussed
any comments it received on the
proposed rule change. The text of these
statements may be examined at the
places specified in Item IV below. The
self-regulatory organization has
prepared summaries, set forth in
Sections A, B and C below, of the most
significant aspects of such statements.
A. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement of the Purpose of, and the
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule
Change
1. Purpose
The Exchange proposes to amend its
Constitution, Certificate of Formation,
LLC Agreement, Rules and Schedule of
Fees, in each case, to change the name
of the Exchange to ISE Gemini, LLC.
The Exchange is also proposing one
technical revision to the LLC Agreement
to reflect that the LLC Agreement has
been approved.
At the time of formation, the name of
the Exchange was established as ‘‘Topaz
Exchange, LLC.’’ As of the launch date,
the Exchange was doing business as
‘‘ISE Gemini.’’ The Exchange has now
determined that for marketing purposes,
it would be desirable to change the
name of the Exchange to ‘‘ISE Gemini,
LLC.’’
Specifically, the Constitution and
Certificate of Formation 3 would be
amended to remove the reference to
‘‘Topaz Exchange, LLC’’ and replace it
with ‘‘ISE Gemini, LLC.’’
In the LLC Agreement, references to
‘‘Topaz Exchange, LLC’’ and ‘‘Topaz’’
would be replaced with ‘‘ISE Gemini,
LLC’’ and ‘‘ISE Gemini,’’ respectively. In
addition, the following language located
on the signature page of the LLC
Agreement would be deleted in light of
the fact that the LLC Agreement has
been approved:
‘‘To be approved at the first meeting
of the Interim Board of Directors of
Topaz Exchange, LLC which will be
3 Upon
effectiveness of this rule change to change
the name of the Exchange to ISE Gemini, LLC, the
Exchange will officially amend its Certificate of
Formation in the State of Delaware to reflect the
new name, as indicated in Exhibit 5B attached
hereto.
PO 00000
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Fmt 4703
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10861
held after the grant of registration of the
Topaz Form 1 application by the U.S.
Securities Exchange Commission.’’
In the Exchange’s Rules and Schedule
of Fees, references to ‘‘Topaz Exchange,
LLC’’ and ‘‘Topaz,’’ would be replaced
with ‘‘ISE Gemini, LLC’’ and ‘‘ISE
Gemini,’’ respectively.
None of the foregoing changes are
substantive.
2. Statutory Basis
The basis under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘‘Exchange
Act’’) for this proposed rule change is
the requirement under Section 6(b)(5)
that an exchange have rules that are
designed to prevent fraudulent and
manipulative acts and practices, to
promote just and equitable principles of
trade, to remove impediments to and
perfect the mechanism for a free and
open market and a national market
system, and, in general, to protect
investors and the public interest. The
Exchange proposes to change its name
for marketing purposes, and the
proposed rule change is intended to
accurately reflect the name change in
the Exchange’s rules and governing
documents. In addition, as a technical
change, the Exchange is proposing to
delete an outdated explanation on the
signature page of the LLC Agreement to
reflect the current state of affairs, which
is in line with good corporate
governance practices.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Burden on Competition
The proposed rule change does not
impose any burden on competition that
is not necessary or appropriate in
furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
The proposed rule change to change the
name of the Exchange to ISE Gemini,
LLC is technical in nature, and
therefore, does not implicate any
burdens on competition.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization’s
Statement on Comments on the
Proposed Rule Change Received From
Members, Participants or Others
The Exchange has not solicited, and
does not intend to solicit, comments on
this proposed rule change. The
Exchange has not received any
unsolicited written comments from
members or other interested parties.
III. Date of Effectiveness of the
Proposed Rule Change and Timing for
Commission Action
The foregoing rule change has become
effective pursuant to Section 19(b)(3) of
E:\FR\FM\26FEN1.SGM
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10848-10861]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-04130]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-71588; File No. SR-NYSEArca-2014-10]
Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca, Inc.; Notice of Filing
of Proposed Rule Change To Adopt NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900, Which
Permits the Listing and Trading of Managed Portfolio Shares, and To
List and Trade Shares of the ActiveShares\SM\ Large-Cap Fund,
ActiveShares\SM\ Mid-Cap Fund, and ActiveShares\SM\ Multi-Cap Fund
Pursuant to That Rule
February 20, 2014.
Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) \1\ of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 (the ``Act'') \2\ and Rule 19b-4 thereunder,\3\ notice is hereby
given that, on February 7, 2014, NYSE Arca, Inc. (the ``Exchange'' or
``NYSE Arca'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
``Commission'') the proposed rule change as described in Items I and II
below, which Items have been prepared by the self-regulatory
organization. The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit
comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1).
\2\ 15 U.S.C. 78a.
\3\ 17 CFR 240.19b-4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Terms of Substance
of the Proposed Rule Change
The Exchange proposes to adopt new NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 to
permit it to list and trade Managed Portfolio Shares, which are shares
of actively managed exchange-traded funds (``ETFs'') for which the
portfolio is disclosed quarterly. In addition, the Exchange proposes to
list and trade shares of the following under proposed NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900: ActiveShares\SM\ Large-Cap Fund; ActiveShares\SM\
Mid-Cap Fund; and ActiveShares\SM\ Multi-Cap Fund.
The text of the proposed rule change is available on the Exchange's
Web site at www.nyse.com, at the principal office of the Exchange, and
at the Commission's Public Reference Room.
II. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change
In its filing with the Commission, the self-regulatory organization
included statements concerning the purpose of, and basis for, the
proposed rule change and discussed any comments it received on the
proposed rule change. The text of those statements may be examined at
the places specified in Item IV below. The Exchange has prepared
summaries, set forth in sections A, B, and C below, of the most
significant parts of such statements.
A. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement of the Purpose of, and the
Statutory Basis for, the Proposed Rule Change
1. Purpose
The Exchange proposes to add new NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 for
the purpose of permitting the listing and trading, or trading pursuant
to unlisted trading privileges (``UTP''), of Managed Portfolio Shares,
which are securities issued by an actively managed open-end investment
management company.\4\ The Exchange also proposes to amend NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 7.34 (Trading Sessions) to reference securities described
in proposed NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 in Rule 7.34(a)(4)(A)
relating to trading halts for trading pursuant to UTP during the
Exchange's Opening Session.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ A Managed Portfolio Share is a security that represents an
interest in an investment company registered under the Investment
Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-1) (``1940 Act'') organized as an
open-end investment company or similar entity that invests in a
portfolio of securities selected by its investment adviser
consistent with its investment objectives and policies. In contrast,
an open-end investment company that issues Investment Company Units,
listed and traded on the Exchange under NYSE Arca Equities Rule
5.2(j)(3) (``Index ETFs''), seeks to provide investment results that
correspond generally to the price and yield performance of a
specific foreign or domestic stock index, fixed income securities
index or combination thereof.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the above-mentioned proposed rule changes, the
Exchange proposes to list and trade shares (``Shares'') of the
following under proposed NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900:
ActiveShares\SM\ Large-Cap Fund; ActiveShares\SM\ Mid-Cap Fund; and
ActiveShares\SM\ Multi-Cap Fund (each a ``Fund'' and, collectively, the
``Funds'').
Proposed Listing Rules
Proposed Rule 8.900(a) provides that the Corporation will consider
for trading, whether by listing or pursuant to UTP, Managed Portfolio
Shares that meet the criteria of Rule 8.900.
Proposed Rule 8.900(b) provides that Rule 8.900 is applicable only
to Managed Portfolio Shares and that, except to the extent inconsistent
with Rule 8.900, or unless the context otherwise requires, the rules
and procedures of the Corporation's Board of Directors shall be
applicable to the trading on the Corporation of such securities.
Proposed Rule 8.900(b) provides further that Managed Portfolio Shares
are included within the definition of ``security'' or ``securities'' as
such terms are used in the Rules of the Corporation.
Proposed Definitions. Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(1) defines the term
``Managed Portfolio Share'' as a security that (a) is issued by a
registered investment company (``Investment Company'') organized as an
open-end management investment company or similar entity, that invests
in a portfolio of securities selected by the Investment Company's
investment adviser consistent with the Investment Company's investment
objectives and policies; (b) is issued in any size amount for a cash
amount equal to the next determined net asset value (``NAV''); (c) may
be redeemed for cash by any Retail Investor (as defined below) in any
size less than a Redemption Unit (as defined below) for a cash amount
equal to the next determined NAV; and (d) when aggregated in a number
of shares equal to a Redemption Unit or multiples thereof, may be
redeemed at a holder's request, which holder will be paid though a
blind trust established for its benefit a portfolio of securities and/
or cash with a value equal to the next determined NAV.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(2) defines the term ``Retail Investor'' as
(i) a natural person; (ii) a trust established exclusively for the
benefit [sic] a natural person or a group of related family members; or
(iii) a tax deferred retirement plan where investments are selected by
a natural person purchasing for its own account.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(3) defines the term ``Portfolio Indicative
Value'' as the estimated indicative value of an Managed Portfolio Share
based on all of the issuer's holdings as of the close of business on
the prior business day.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(4) defines the term ``Redemption Unit'' as a
specified number of Managed Portfolio Shares used for determining
whether a Retail Investor may redeem for cash.
Proposed Rule 8.900(c)(5) defines the term [sic]Reporting
Authority'' in respect of a particular series of Managed Portfolio
Shares as a reporting service designated by the issuer and acceptable
to the Corporation or by the exchange
[[Page 10849]]
that lists a particular series of Managed Portfolio Shares (if the
Corporation is trading such series pursuant to UTP) as the official
source for calculating and reporting information relating to such
series, including, but not limited to, the Portfolio Indicative Value,
NAV, or other information relating to the issuance, redemption or
trading of Managed Portfolio Shares. A series of Managed Portfolio
Shares may have more than one Reporting Authority, each having
different functions.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d) sets forth initial and continued listing
criteria applicable to Managed Portfolio Shares. Proposed Rule
8.900(d)(1) provides that, for each series of Managed Portfolio Shares,
the Corporation will establish a minimum number of Managed Portfolio
Shares required to be outstanding at the time of commencement of
trading on the Corporation. In addition, the Corporation will obtain a
representation from the issuer of each series of Managed Portfolio
Shares that the NAV per share for the series will be calculated daily
and that the NAV will be made available to all market participants at
the same time.\5\
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\5\ NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a)(5) (``Trading Halts of
Derivative Securities Products Listed on the NYSE Arca
Marketplace)'' provides that, with respect to Derivative Securities
Products listed on the NYSE Arca Marketplace for which a net asset
value is disseminated, if the Exchange becomes aware that the a net
asset value is not being disseminated to all market participants at
the same time, it will halt trading in the affected Derivative
Securities Product on the NYSE Arca Marketplace until such time as
the a net asset value is available to all market participants.
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Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2) provides that each series of Managed
Portfolio Shares will be listed and traded subject to application of
the following continued listing criteria. Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(A)
provides that the Portfolio Indicative Value for Managed Portfolio
Shares will be widely disseminated by one or more major market data
vendors at least every 15 seconds during Core Trading Session.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(B) provides that the Corporation will
consider the suspension of trading in or removal from listing of a
series of Managed Portfolio Shares under any of the following
circumstances: (i) if, following the initial twelve-month period after
commencement of trading on the Exchange of a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares, there are fewer than 50 beneficial holders of the
series of Managed Portfolio Shares for 30 or more consecutive trading
days; (ii) if the value of the Portfolio Indicative Value is no longer
calculated or made available to all market participants at the same
time; (iii) if the Investment Company issuing the Managed Portfolio
Shares has failed to file any filings required by the Commission or if
the Corporation is aware that the Investment Company is not in
compliance with the conditions of any exemptive order or no-action
relief granted by the Commission to the Investment Company with respect
to the series of Managed Portfolio Shares; or (iv) if such other event
shall occur or condition exists which, in the opinion of the
Corporation, makes further dealings on the Corporation inadvisable.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C) provides that, if the Portfolio
Indicative Value of a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is not being
disseminated as required, the Corporation may halt trading during the
day in which the interruption to the dissemination of the Portfolio
Indicative Value occurs. If the interruption to the dissemination of
the Portfolio Indicative Value persists past the trading day in which
it occurred, the Corporation will halt trading no later than the
beginning of the trading day following the interruption. If a series of
Managed Portfolio Shares is trading on the Corporation pursuant to UTP,
the Corporation will halt trading in that series as specified in Rule
7.34(a). In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware that the NAV with
respect to a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is not disseminated to
all market participants at the same time, it will halt trading in such
series until such time as the NAV is available to all market
participants.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(D) provides that, upon termination of an
Investment Company, the Corporation requires that Managed Portfolio
Shares issued in connection with such entity be removed from
Corporation listing.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(E) provides that voting rights shall be
as set forth in the applicable Investment Company prospectus. Proposed
Rule 8.600(e) relates to limitation of Corporation liability.
Proposed Rule 8.900(e), which relates to limitation of corporation
liability, provides that neither the Corporation, the Reporting
Authority, nor any agent of the Corporation shall have any liability
for damages, claims, losses or expenses caused by any errors,
omissions, or delays in calculating or disseminating any current
portfolio value; the current value of the portfolio of securities
required to be deposited to the open-end management investment company
in connection with issuance of Managed Portfolio Shares; the amount of
any dividend equivalent payment or cash distribution to holders of
Managed Portfolio Shares; NAV; or other information relating to the
purchase, redemption, or trading of Managed Portfolio Shares, resulting
from any negligent act or omission by the Corporation, the Reporting
Authority or any agent of the Corporation, or any act, condition, or
cause beyond the reasonable control of the Corporation, its agent, or
the Reporting Authority, including, but not limited to, an act of God;
fire; flood; extraordinary weather conditions; war; insurrection; riot;
strike; accident; action of government; communications or power
failure; equipment or software malfunction; or any error, omission, or
delay in the reports of transactions in one or more underlying
securities.
Proposed Commentary .01 to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides
that the Corporation will file separate proposals under Section 19(b)
of the Act before the listing and trading of Managed Portfolio Shares.
Proposed Commentary .02 to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides that
transactions in Managed Portfolio Shares will occur during the trading
hours specified in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a).
Proposed Commentary .03 to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides
that the Exchange will implement written surveillance procedures for
Managed Portfolio Shares.
Proposed Commentary .04 to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides
that Authorized Participants (as described further below) redeeming
Managed Portfolio Shares will sign an agreement with the applicable
fund requiring the establishment of a blind trust for the benefit of
such Authorized Participant that will receive all consideration from
the issuer in a redemption, which blind trust will be bound not to
disclose the consideration received in a redemption except as required
by law and will liquidate any securities received in a redemption in
accordance with standing instructions for the Authorized Participant.
Proposed Commentary .05 to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900 provides
that, if the investment adviser to the Investment Company issuing
Managed Portfolio Shares is affiliated with a broker-dealer, such
investment adviser shall erect a ``fire wall'' between the investment
adviser and the broker-dealer with respect to access to information
concerning the composition and/or changes to such Investment Company
portfolio. Personnel who make decisions on the Investment Company's
portfolio composition must be subject to procedures designed to prevent
the use and dissemination of material nonpublic information regarding
the applicable Investment Company portfolio.
[[Page 10850]]
Other Rules
The Exchange proposes to amend NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34(a)(4)
to include Managed Portfolio Shares under ``Derivative Securities
Products'' for purposes of Rule 7.34(a)(4) relating to trading halts
for trading pursuant to UTP of Derivative Securities Products on the
Exchange.\6\
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\6\ The Exchange will propose applicable NYSE Arca Equities
listing fees for Managed Portfolio Shares in the NYSE Arca Equities
Schedule of Fees and Charges via a separate proposed rule change.
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Key Features of Managed Portfolio Shares
While funds issuing Managed Portfolio Shares will be actively-
managed and, to that extent, will be similar to Managed Fund Shares,
Managed Portfolio Shares differ from Managed Fund Shares in the
following important respects. First, in contrast to Managed Fund
Shares, which are actively-managed funds listed and traded under NYSE
Arca Equities Rule 8.600 \7\ and for which a ``Disclosed Portfolio'' is
required to be disseminated at least once daily,\8\ the portfolio for
an issue of Managed Portfolio Shares will be disclosed quarterly in
accordance with normal disclosure requirements otherwise applicable to
open-end investment companies registered under the 1940 Act.\9\ Second,
in connection with the redemption of shares in Redemption Unit size,
the delivery of any portfolio securities in kind will generally be
effected through a blind trust for the benefit of the redeeming
Authorized Participant and the blind trust will liquidate the portfolio
securities without disclosing the identity of such securities to the
Authorized Participant. Third, as with traditional open-end investment
companies, retail investors will be able to redeem shares for cash
directly from a fund on any day and in any size less than a Redemption
Unit at the fund's NAV, as described in more detail below. Fourth,
investors will be able to purchase shares for cash directly from a fund
in any amount on any day a fund determines its NAV, as described in
more detail below. Investors may choose to purchase shares directly
from a fund if they want to assure that they will not purchase shares
at a premium.
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\7\ The Commission has previously approved listing and trading
on the Exchange of a number of issues of Managed Fund Shares under
Rule 8.600. See, e.g., Securities Exchange Act Release Nos. 57801
(May 8, 2008), 73 FR 27878 (May 14, 2008) (SR-NYSEArca-2008-31)
(order approving Exchange listing and trading of twelve actively-
managed funds of the WisdomTree Trust); 60460 (August 7, 2009), 74
FR 41468 (August 17, 2009) (SR-NYSEArca-2009-55) (order approving
listing of Dent Tactical ETF); 63076 (October 12, 2010), 75 FR 63874
(October 18, 2010) (SR-NYSEArca-2010-79) (order approving Exchange
listing and trading of Cambria Global Tactical ETF); 63802 (January
31, 2011), 76 FR 6503 (February 4, 2011) (SR-NYSEArca-2010-118)
(order approving Exchange listing and trading of the SiM Dynamic
Allocation Diversified Income ETF and SiM Dynamic Allocation Growth
Income ETF).
\8\ NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.600(c)(2) defines the term
``Disclosed Portfolio'' as the identities and quantities of the
securities and other assets held by the Investment Company that will
form the basis for the Investment Company's calculation of net asset
value at the end of the business day. NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.600(d)(2)(B)(i) requires that the Disclosed Portfolio will be
disseminated at least once daily and will be made available to all
market participants at the same time.
\9\ A mutual fund is required to file with the Commission its
complete portfolio schedules for the second and fourth fiscal
quarters on Form N-SAR under the 1940 Act, and is required to file
its complete portfolio schedules for the first and third fiscal
quarters on Form N-Q under the 1940 Act, within 60 days of the end
of the quarter. Form N-Q requires funds to file the same schedules
of investments that are required in annual and semi-annual reports
to shareholders. These forms are available to the public on the
Commission's Web site at www.sec.gov.
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For each series of Managed Portfolio Shares, an estimated value,
defined in the proposed rules as the ``Portfolio Indicative Value,''
(``PIV'') that reflects an estimated intraday value of a fund's
portfolio will be disseminated. The PIV will be based upon all of a
fund's holdings as of the close of the prior business day and will be
widely disseminated by one or more major market data vendors at least
every 15 seconds during the Exchange's Core Trading Session (normally,
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time). The dissemination of the PIV
will allow investors to determine the estimated intra-day value of the
underlying portfolio of a series of Managed Portfolio Shares on a daily
basis and will provide a close estimate of that value throughout the
trading day. The PIV should not be viewed as a ``real-time'' update of
the NAV per share of each fund because the PIV may not be calculated in
the same manner as the NAV, which will be computed once a day,
generally at the end of the business day. Unlike the PIV, which will be
based on consolidated last sale information, the NAV per share will be
based on the closing price on the primary market for each portfolio
security. If there is no closing price for a particular portfolio
security, such as when it [sic] the subject of a trading halt, a fund
will use fair value pricing. That fair value pricing will be carried
over to the next day's PIV until the first trade in that stock is
reported.
The Exchange, after consulting with various Lead Market Makers that
trade ETFs on the Exchange, believes that market makers will be able to
make efficient and liquid markets priced near the PIV as long as an
accurate PIV is disseminated every 15 seconds and market makers have
knowledge of a fund's means of achieving its investment objective, even
without daily disclosure of a fund's underlying portfolio. The Exchange
believes that market makers will employ risk-management techniques such
as ``statistical arbitrage'', which is currently used throughout the
financial services industry, to make efficient markets in exchange-
traded products.\10\ This ability should permit market makers to make
efficient markets in an issue of Managed Portfolio Shares without
knowledge of a fund's underlying portfolio.
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\10\ Statistical arbitrage enables a trader to construct an
accurate proxy for another instrument, allowing it to hedge the
other instrument or buy or sell the instrument when it is cheap or
expensive in relation to the proxy. Statistical analysis permits
traders to discover correlations based purely on trading data
without regard to other fundamental drivers. These correlations are
a function of differentials, over time, between one instrument or
group of instruments and one or more other instruments. Once the
nature of these price deviations have been quantified, a universe of
securities is searched in an effort to, in the case of a hedging
strategy, minimize the differential. Once a suitable hedging proxy
has been identified, a trader can minimize portfolio risk by
executing the hedging basket. The trader then can monitor the
performance of this hedge throughout the trade period making
correction [sic] where warranted.
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The Exchange understands that traders use statistical analysis to
derive correlations between different sets of instruments to identify
opportunities to buy or sell one set of instruments when it is
mispriced relative to the others. For Managed Portfolio Shares, market
makers will initially use the knowledge of a fund's means of achieving
its investment objective, as described in the applicable fund
registration statement, to construct a hedging proxy for a fund to
manage a market maker's quoting risk in connection with trading fund
shares. Market makers will then conduct statistical arbitrage between
their hedging proxy (for example, the Russell 1000 Index) and shares of
a fund, buying and selling one against the other over the course of the
trading day,[sic] They will evaluate how their proxy performed in
comparison to the price of a fund's shares, and use that analysis as
well as knowledge of risk metrics, such as volatility and turnover, to
enhance their proxy calculation to make it a more efficient hedge.
Market makers have indicated to the Exchange that, after the first
few days of trading, there will be sufficient data to run a statistical
analysis which will lead to spreads being tightened substantially
around the PIV. This is similar to certain other existing exchange
traded products (for example, ETFs that invest
[[Page 10851]]
in foreign securities that do not trade during U. S. trading hours), in
which spreads may be generally wider in the early days of trading and
then narrow as market makers gain more confidence in their real-time
hedges.
Description of the Funds and the Trust
The Shares of each Fund will be issued by Precidian ETFs Trust
(``Trust''), a statutory trust organized under the laws of the State of
Delaware and registered with the Commission as an open-end management
investment company.\11\ The investment adviser to the Trust will be
Precidian Funds LLC (the ''Adviser''). JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (the
``Transfer Agent'', ``Administrator'', or ``Custodian'') will serve as
the Funds' transfer agent, administrator and custodian. Foreside Fund
Services, LLC (``Distributor'') will serve as the distributor of the
Shares.
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\11\ The Trust will be registered under the 1940 Act. On January
22, 2014, the Trust filed a registration statement on Form N-1A
under the Securities Act of 1933 (the ``1933 Act'') (15 U.S.C. 77a),
and under the 1940 Act relating to the Funds (File Nos. 333-171987
and 811-22524) (the ``Registration Statement''). The Trust filed an
Application for an Order under Section 6(c) of the 1940 Act for
exemptions from various provisions of the 1940 Act and rules
thereunder (File No. 812-14116), dated July 18, 2013 (``Exemptive
Application''). The Shares will not be listed on the Exchange until
an order (``Exemptive Order'') under the 1940 Act has been issued by
the Commission with respect to the Exemptive Application.
Investments made by the Funds will comply with the conditions set
forth in the Exemptive Order. The description of the operation of
the Trust and the Funds herein is based, in part, on the
Registration Statement and the Exemptive Application.
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As noted above, proposed Commentary .05 to Rule 8.900 provides
that, if the investment adviser to the investment company issuing
Managed Portfolio Shares is affiliated with a broker-dealer, such
investment adviser shall erect a ``fire wall'' between the investment
adviser and the broker-dealer with respect to access to information
concerning the composition and/or changes to such investment company
portfolio.\12\ In addition, proposed Commentary .05 further requires
that personnel who make decisions on the open-end fund's portfolio
composition must be subject to procedures designed to prevent the use
and dissemination of material nonpublic information regarding the open-
end fund's portfolio. Proposed Commentary .05 to Rule 8.900 is similar
to Commentary .03(a)(i) and (iii) to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 5.2(j)(3);
however, Commentary .05 in connection with the establishment of a
``fire wall'' between the investment adviser and the broker-dealer
reflects the applicable open-end fund's portfolio, not an underlying
benchmark index, as is the case with index-based funds. The Adviser is
not registered as a broker-dealer or affiliated with a broker-dealer.
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\12\ An investment adviser to an open-end fund is required to be
registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the ``Advisers
Act''). As a result, the Adviser and its related personnel will be
subject to the provisions of Rule 204A-1 under the Advisers Act
relating to codes of ethics. This Rule requires investment advisers
to adopt a code of ethics that reflects the fiduciary nature of the
relationship to clients as well as compliance with other applicable
securities laws. Accordingly, procedures designed to prevent the
communication and misuse of non-public information by an investment
adviser must be consistent with Rule 204A-1 under the Advisers Act.
In addition, Rule 206(4)-7 under the Advisers Act makes it unlawful
for an investment adviser to provide investment advice to clients
unless such investment adviser has (i) adopted and implemented
written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent
violations, by the investment adviser and its supervised persons, of
the Advisers Act and the Commission rules adopted thereunder; (ii)
implemented, at a minimum, an annual review regarding the adequacy
of the policies and procedures established pursuant to subparagraph
(i) above and the effectiveness of their implementation; and (iii)
designated an individual (who is a supervised person) responsible
for administering the policies and procedures adopted under
subparagraph (i) above.
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In the event (a) the Adviser or any sub-adviser becomes registered
as a broker-dealer or becomes newly affiliated with a broker-dealer, or
(b) any new adviser or sub-adviser is a registered broker-dealer, or
becomes affiliated with a broker-dealer, it will implement a fire wall
with respect to its relevant personnel or its broker-dealer affiliate
regarding access to information concerning the composition and/or
changes to the portfolio, and will be subject to procedures designed to
prevent the use and dissemination of material non-public information
regarding such portfolio.
The portfolio for each Fund will consist primarily of stocks in the
Russell 3000 Index and shares issued by other exchange-traded funds
(``ETFs'') that invest primarily in shares of issuers in the Russell
3000 Index (which consists of stocks included in the Russell 1000 Index
and the Russell 2000 Index).\13\ All exchange-listed equity securities
in which the Funds will invest will be listed and traded on U.S.
national securities exchanges.
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\13\ For purposes of this filing, ETFs include Investment
Company Units (as described in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 5.2(j)(3));
Portfolio Depositary Receipts (as described in NYSE Arca Equities
Rule 8.100); and Managed Fund Shares (as described in NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.600). All ETFs will be listed and traded on a U.S.
national securities exchange. The Funds will invest in the
securities of ETFs registered under the 1940 Act consistent with the
requirements of Section 12(d)(1) of the 1940 Act, or any rule,
regulation or order of the Commission or interpretation thereof.
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Description of the Funds
The ActiveShares\SM\ Large Cap Fund
According to the Registration Statement, the Fund's investment
objective will be long-term capital appreciation. The Fund will seek to
achieve its objective by taking long and possibly short positions in
equity securities or groups of equities that the Fund's portfolio
managers believe will provide long term capital appreciation. The Fund
normally will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings
for investment purposes) in stocks included in the Russell 1000 Index
and ETFs that primarily invest in stocks in the Russell 1000 Index.
The Fund will target an overall net equity market exposure of
between 70% to 130%. However, at times the portfolio managers may
reduce market exposure to less than 70%.
The Fund will purchase securities that the portfolio managers
believe are undervalued and sell short securities that the portfolio
managers believe are overvalued. Under normal market conditions,\14\
the Fund's net long equity market exposure will not exceed 130% and its
net short equity market exposure will not exceed 30%; however, the
portfolio managers may at times exceed these percentages. The Fund may
hold a substantial portion of its total assets in cash or cash
equivalents when it holds significant short positions.\15\
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\14\ The terms ``normally'' and ``under normal market
conditions'' include, but are not limited to, the absence of extreme
volatility or trading halts in the equity markets or the financial
markets generally; operational issues causing dissemination of
inaccurate market information; or force majeure type events such as
systems failure, natural or man-made disaster, act of God, armed
conflict, act of terrorism, riot or labor disruption or any similar
intervening circumstance.
\15\ According to the Registration Statement, with respect to
each of the Funds, selling securities short will allow a Fund to
more fully exploit insights into securities that a Fund's portfolio
managers expect to underperform. Short sales generally involve the
sale of a security that a Fund does not own in hopes of purchasing
the same security at a later date at a lower price. To make delivery
to the buyer, a Fund may borrow the security. If so, a Fund is
obligated to return the security to the lender, which is
accomplished by a later purchase of the security by a Fund.
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The Fund may use ETFs to manage the Fund's overall equity market
and sector exposures. In particular, the portfolio managers may take
long and short positions in ETFs to increase/decrease equity market/
sector exposures in place of using individual equity securities. The
ETFs in which the Fund will invest are registered investment companies
that seek to track the performance of an underlying index. These
underlying indexes include not only broad-based market indexes but
[[Page 10852]]
more specific indexes as well, including those relating to particular
sectors, markets, regions or industries.
The Fund will use a variety of proprietary and non-proprietary
[sic] analytical methodologies including ``bottom-up'' fundamental
analysis, macro-economic data, technical analysis, and quantitative
analysis to determine the ratio of long to short positions. It also
will use these tools to determine whether a particular stock or group
of stocks is under-valued or over-valued and, therefore, whether to
purchase or sell those securities. In reviewing companies, the Fund
will apply the characteristics identified above on a case-by-case basis
as the order of importance varies depending on the type of business or
industry and the company being reviewed.
The ActiveShares\SM\ Mid-Cap Fund
According to the Registration Statement, the Fund's investment
objective will be long-term capital appreciation. The Fund will seek to
achieve its objective by taking long and possibly short positions in
equity securities or groups of equities that the Fund's portfolio
managers believe will provide long term capital appreciation. The Fund
will invest primarily in securities included in the Russell 3000 Index
and ETFs that primarily invest in stocks in the Russell 3000 Index.
The Fund will target an overall net equity market exposure of
between 70% to 130%. However, at times the Fund's portfolio managers
may reduce market exposure to less than 70%.
The Fund will purchase securities that the portfolio managers
believe are undervalued and sell short securities that the portfolio
managers believe are overvalued. Under normal market conditions, the
Fund's net long equity market exposure will not exceed 130% and its net
short equity market exposure will not exceed 30%; however, the
portfolio managers may at times exceed these percentages. The Fund may
hold a substantial portion of its total assets in cash or cash
equivalents when it holds significant short positions.
The Fund may use ETFs to manage the Fund's overall equity market
and sector exposures. In particular, the Fund's portfolio managers may
take long and short positions in ETFs to increase/decrease equity
market/sector exposures in place of using individual equity securities.
The ETFs in which the Fund will invest are registered investment
companies that seek to track the performance of an underlying index.
These underlying indexes include not only broad-based market indexes
but more specific indexes as well, including those relating to
particular sectors, markets, regions or industries.
The Fund will use a variety of proprietary and non-propriety [sic]
analytical methodologies including ``bottom-up'' fundamental analysis,
macro-economic data, technical analysis, and quantitative analysis to
determine the ratio of long to short positions. It also will use these
tools to determine whether a particular stock or group of stocks is
under-valued or over-valued and, therefore, whether to purchase or sell
those securities. In reviewing companies, the Fund will apply the
characteristics identified above on a case-by-case basis as the order
of importance varies depending on the type of business or industry and
the company being reviewed.
Other Investments
While each Fund, under normal market conditions, will invest
primarily in stocks included in the Russell 3000 Index and ETFs, as
described above, each Fund may invest its remaining assets in other
securities and financial instruments, as described below.
According to the Registration Statement, each Fund may enter into
repurchase agreements. A repurchase agreement is an instrument under
which the purchaser (i.e., a Fund) acquires the security and the seller
agrees, at the time of the sale, to repurchase the security at a
mutually agreed upon time and price, thereby determining the yield
during the purchaser's holding period. Repurchase agreements may be
construed to be collateralized loans by the purchaser to the seller
secured by the securities transferred to the purchaser.
Each Fund may enter into reverse repurchase agreements, which
involve the sale of securities with an agreement to repurchase the
securities at an agreed-upon price, date and interest payment and have
the characteristics of borrowing. Generally the effect of such
transactions is that the Fund can recover all or most of the cash
invested in the portfolio securities involved during the term of the
reverse repurchase agreement, while in many cases the Fund is able to
keep some of the interest income associated with those securities.
Each Fund may invest a portion of its assets in high-quality money
market instruments on an ongoing basis rather than in other
investments, when it would be more efficient or less expensive for the
Fund to do so, or as cover for other financial instruments held by a
Fund, for liquidity purposes, or to earn interest. Money market
instruments in which a Fund may invest include: (1) Short-term
obligations issued by the U.S. government; (2) negotiable certificates
of deposit (``CDs''), fixed time deposits and bankers' acceptances of
U.S. and foreign banks and similar institutions; (3) commercial paper
rated at the date of purchase ``Prime-1'' by Moody's Investors Service,
Inc. or ``A-1+'' or ``A-1'' by Standard & Poor's Ratings Group, Inc., a
division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., or, if unrated, of
comparable quality as determined by the Adviser; \16\ and (4) money
market mutual funds.
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\16\ In determining whether a security is of ``comparable
quality,'' the Adviser will consider, for example, whether the
issuer of the security has issued other rated securities; whether
the obligations under the security are guaranteed by another entity
and the rating of such guarantor (if any); whether and (if
applicable) how the security is collateralized; other forms of
credit enhancement (if any); the security's maturity date; liquidity
features (if any); relevant cash flow(s); valuation features; other
structural analysis; macroeconomic analysis; and sector or industry
analysis.
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Each Fund may invest in the securities of other investment
companies (including money market funds) to the extent allowed by law.
Investment Restrictions
A Fund may not, with respect to 75% of its total assets, purchase
securities of any issuer (except securities issued or guaranteed by the
U.S. government, its agencies or instrumentalities or shares of
investment companies) if, as a result, more than 5% of its total assets
would be invested in the securities of such issuer; or (ii) acquire
more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of any one issuer
(and for purposes of this policy, the issuer of the underlying security
will be deemed to be the issuer of any respective depositary receipt.)
\17\
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\17\ The diversification standard is set forth in Section
5(b)(1) of the 1940 Act.
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A Fund may not invest 25% or more of its total assets in the
securities of one or more issuers conducting their principal business
activities in the same industry or group of industries. This limitation
does not apply to investments in securities issued or guaranteed by the
U.S. government, its agencies or instrumentalities, or shares of
investment companies. A Fund will not invest 25% or more of its total
assets in any investment company that so concentrates.\18\
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\18\ See Form N-1A, Item 9. The Commission has taken the
position that a fund is concentrated if it invests more than 25% of
the value of its total assets in any one industry. See, e.g.,
Investment Company Act Release No. 9011 (October 30, 1975), 40 FR
54241 (November 21, 1975).
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Each Fund may invest up to an aggregate amount of 15% of its net
assets in illiquid assets (calculated at
[[Page 10853]]
the time of investment),\19\ consistent with Commission guidance. Each
Fund will monitor its portfolio liquidity on an ongoing basis to
determine whether, in light of current circumstances, an adequate level
of liquidity is being maintained, and will consider taking appropriate
steps in order to maintain adequate liquidity if, through a change in
values, net assets, or other circumstances, more than 15% of a Fund's
net assets are invested in illiquid assets. Illiquid assets include
securities subject to contractual or other restrictions on resale and
other instruments that lack readily available markets as determined in
accordance with Commission staff guidance.\20\
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\19\ In reaching liquidity decisions, the Adviser may consider
the following factors: the frequency of trades and quotes for the
security; the number of dealers wishing to purchase or sell the
security and the number of other potential purchasers; dealer
undertakings to make a market in the security; and the nature of the
security and the nature of the marketplace in which it trades (e.g.,
the time needed to dispose of the security, the method of soliciting
offers and the mechanics of transfer).
\20\ The Commission has stated that long-standing Commission
guidelines have required open-end funds to hold no more than 15% of
their net assets in illiquid securities and other illiquid assets.
See Investment Company Act Release No. 28193 (March 11, 2008), 73 FR
14618 (March 18, 2008), footnote 34. See also, Investment Company
Act Release No. 5847 (October 21, 1969), 35 FR 19989 (December 31,
1970) (Statement Regarding ``Restricted Securities''); Investment
Company Act Release No. 18612 (March 12, 1992), 57 FR 9828 (March
20, 1992) (Revisions of Guidelines to Form N-1A). A fund's portfolio
security is illiquid if it cannot be disposed of in the ordinary
course of business within seven days at approximately the value
ascribed to it by the fund. See Investment Company Act Release No.
14983 (March 12, 1986), 51 FR 9773 (March 21, 1986) (adopting
amendments to Rule 2a-7 under the 1940 Act); Investment Company Act
Release No. 17452 (April 23, 1990), 55 FR 17933 (April 30, 1990)
(adopting Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933).
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According to the Registration Statement, each Fund will seek to
qualify for treatment as a Regulated Investment Company (``RIC'') under
the Internal Revenue Code.\21\
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\21\ 26 U.S.C. 851.
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The Shares of each Fund will conform to the initial and continued
listing criteria under proposed Rule 8.900. The Funds will not invest
in options, futures, forwards or swaps.
Each Fund's investments will be consistent with its investment
objective and will not be used to enhance leverage. While a Fund may
invest in inverse ETFs, a Fund will not invest in leveraged (e.g., 2X,
-2X, 3X or -3X) ETFs. The Funds will not invest in non-U.S. equity
securities.
Creations and Redemptions
Placement of Purchase Orders
Each Fund will issue Shares through the Distributor on a continuous
basis at NAV. The Exchange represents that the issuance of Shares will
operate in a manner substantially similar to that of other ETFs and, in
particular, certain fixed-income ETFs that issue shares solely for
settlement in cash. However, Shares may be issued in any amount rather
than only in a specified block size.
Each Fund will issue Shares only at the NAV per Share next
determined after an order in proper form is received. The Trust will
sell and redeem Shares on each such day and will not suspend the right
of redemption or postpone the date of payment or satisfaction upon
redemption for more than seven days, other than as provided by Section
22(d) of the 1940 Act (each such day, a ``Business Day'').
Shares may be purchased from a Fund by any Depository Trust Company
(``DTC'') Participant for its own account or for the account of a
customer. Purchase orders will not be limited to any specified size but
may be in any whole share amount. Since Shares will be paid for in
cash, settlement will be through the normal continuous net settlement
process. The Distributor will furnish acknowledgements to those placing
such orders that the orders have been accepted, but the Distributor may
reject any order which is not submitted in proper form, as described in
a Fund's prospectus or Statement of Additional Information (``SAI'').
Purchases of Shares will be settled in cash for an amount equal to the
applicable NAV per Share purchased plus applicable transaction fees, as
discussed below.
The NAV of each Fund is expected to be determined once each
Business Day at a time determined by the Trust's Board of Directors
(``Board''), currently anticipated to be as of the close of the regular
trading session on the New York Stock Exchange (``NYSE'') (ordinarily
4:00 p.m. Eastern time) (the ``Valuation Time''). Each Fund will
establish a cut-off time (``Order Cut-Off Time'') for purchase orders
in proper form. To initiate a purchase of Shares, a DTC participant
must submit to the Distributor an irrevocable order to purchase such
Shares after the most recent prior Valuation Time but not later than
the Order Cut-Off Time. The Order Cut-Off Time for a Fund may be its
Valuation Time, or may be prior to the Valuation Time if the Board
determines that an earlier Order Cut-Off Time for purchase of Shares is
necessary and is in the best interests of Fund shareholders. It is
anticipated that the Funds may adopt Order Cut-Off Times prior to their
Valuation Time in order to make arrangements for any securities
borrowing transactions consistent with a Fund's investment strategy
that may be necessary in light of creation of Shares and in a manner
consistent with orderly portfolio management. An early Order Cut-Off
Time will allow the Adviser to net creations and redemptions and
facilitate borrowing securities in an efficient manner.
Transaction Fees
The Trust may impose purchase or redemption transaction fees
(``Transaction Fees'') in connection with the purchase or redemption of
Shares from the Funds. The exact amounts of any such Transaction Fees
will be determined by the Adviser but will not exceed 2%. The purpose
of the Transaction Fees is to protect the continuing shareholders
against possible dilutive transactional expenses, including operational
processing and brokerage costs, associated with establishing and
liquidating portfolio positions, including short positions, in
connection with the purchase and redemption of Shares. The Adviser
believes that imposing Transaction Fees will best respond to market
needs and help to defray certain costs that would otherwise be borne by
the Trust, such as custodian transaction fees and various other Fund
overhead costs and fund accounting costs.
From time to time and for such periods as the Adviser in its sole
discretion may determine, the Transaction Fees for the purchase or
redemption of Shares may be increased, decreased or otherwise modified.
Such Transaction Fees will be limited to amounts that will have been
determined by the Adviser to be appropriate and will take into account
transaction and operational processing costs associated with the recent
purchases and sales of the equity securities held by the Trust. In all
cases, such Transaction Fees will be limited in accordance with then-
existing requirements of the Commission applicable to management
investment companies offering redeemable securities.
Purchases of Shares--Secondary Market
Only DTC Participants and their customers will be able to acquire
Shares at NAV directly from a Fund through the Distributor. The entire
required cash payment must be transferred in the manner set forth in a
Fund's SAI by the specified time on the third DTC settlement day
following the day it is transmitted (the ``Transmittal Date''). These
investors and others will also be able to purchase Shares in secondary
market transactions at prevailing market prices. Each Fund will reserve
the right to reject any purchase order at any time.
[[Page 10854]]
Redemption
Beneficial Owners may sell their Shares in the secondary market.
Alternatively, investors that own enough Shares to constitute a
Redemption Unit (currently, 50,000 Shares) or multiples thereof may
redeem those Shares through the Distributor, which will act as the
Trust's agent for redemption. The size of a Redemption Unit will be
subject to change. Redemption orders for Redemption Units or multiples
thereof must be placed by or through an Authorized Participant. A
Beneficial Owner that is an individual, a trust exclusively for the
benefit of an individual or group of related family members or a tax
deferred retirement plan directed by an individual would be treated as
a ``Retail Owner''. Any entity other than a trust or retirement plan
exclusively for the benefit of individuals would be treated as an
institutional investor. Retail Investors that wish to redeem Shares in
less than Redemption Unit size may redeem those Shares directly from
the Fund as described below under ``Retail Redemption Facility.''
Authorized Participant Redemption
The Shares may be redeemed to a Fund in Redemption Unit size or
multiples thereof as described below. Redemption orders of Redemption
Units must be placed by or through an Authorized Participant (``AP
Redemption Order''). Each Fund will establish an Order Cut-Off Time for
redemption orders of Redemption Units in proper form. Redemption Units
of the Fund will be redeemable at their NAV per Share next determined
after receipt of a request for redemption by the Trust in the manner
specified below before the Order Cut-Off Time. To initiate an AP
Redemption Order, an Authorized Participant must submit to the
Distributor an irrevocable order to redeem such Redemption Unit after
the most recent prior Valuation Time but not later than the Order Cut-
Off Time. The Order Cut-Off Time for a Fund may be its Valuation Time,
or may be prior to the Valuation Time if the Board determines that an
earlier Order Cut-Off Time for redemption of Redemption Units is
necessary and is in the best interests of Fund shareholders. An earlier
Order Cut-Off Time is primarily necessary because of the redemption
process for the Funds. It is contemplated that Authorized Participants
will instruct the trustee of its blind trust to liquidate redemption
securities in market on close orders on the date of redemption so that
Authorized Participants can realize redemption proceeds as close to the
Fund's NAV on the redemption date as possible. In order to allow the
Adviser sufficient time to identify the redemption securities, transfer
the redemption basket of portfolio securities to the blind trusts and
permit the trustee adequate time to process liquidation transactions in
accordance with the Authorized Participant's instructions, it will
likely be necessary to employ an Order Cut-Off Time prior to that time
to allow such actions to take place. It is anticipated that all Funds
will adopt Order Cut-Off Times for redemptions prior to their Valuation
Time in order to facilitate the timely identification and notice to the
trustee of the blind trusts (as described below) of securities to be
redeemed in-kind.
Consistent with the provisions of Section 22(e) of the 1940 Act and
Rule 22e-2 thereunder, the right to redeem will not be suspended, nor
payment upon redemption delayed, except for: (1) Any period during
which the NYSE is closed other than customary weekend and holiday
closings, (2) any period during which trading on the NYSE is
restricted, (3) any period during which an emergency exists as a result
of which disposal by a Fund of securities owned by it is not reasonably
practicable or it is not reasonably practicable for a Fund to determine
its NAV, and (4) for such other periods as the Commission may by order
permit for the protection of shareholders.
Redemptions other than Retail Redemptions will occur primarily in-
kind, although redemption payments may also be made partly or wholly in
cash.\22\ The Participant Agreement signed by each Authorized
Participant will require establishment of a blind trust to receive
distributions of securities in-kind upon redemption.\23\ Each
Authorized Participant will be required to appoint the Custodian as
trustee of its blind trust in order to facilitate orderly processing of
redemptions. While the Fund will generally distribute securities in-
kind, the Adviser may determine from time to time that it is not in the
Fund's best interests to distribute securities in-kind, but rather to
sell securities and/or distribute cash. For example, the Adviser may
distribute cash to facilitate orderly portfolio management in
connection with rebalancing or transitioning a portfolio in line with
its investment objective, or if there is substantially more creation
than redemption activity during the period immediately preceding a
redemption request, or as necessary or appropriate in accordance with
applicable laws and regulations. In this manner, the Fund can use in-
kind redemptions to reduce the unrealized capital gains that may, at
times, exist in a Fund by distributing low cost lots of each security
that a Fund needs to dispose of to maintain its desired portfolio
exposures. Shareholders of a Fund would benefit from the in-kind
redemptions through the reduction of the unrealized capital gains in a
Fund that would otherwise have to be realized and, eventually,
distributed to shareholders.
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\22\ It is anticipated that any portion of a Fund's NAV
attributable to appreciated short positions will be paid in cash, as
securities sold short are not susceptible to in-kind settlement. The
value of other positions not susceptible to in-kind settlement may
also be paid in cash.
\23\ The terms of each blind trust will be set forth as an
exhibit to the applicable Participant Agreement, which will be
signed by each Authorized Participant. The terms of the blind trust
will provide that the trust be formed under either New York or
Massachusetts State law; the Custodian will act as trustee of the
blind trusts; and the trustee will be paid by the Authorized
Participant a fee negotiated by the Adviser on behalf of Authorized
Participants.
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The redemption basket will consist of the same securities for all
Authorized Participants on any given day subject to the Adviser's
ability to make minor adjustments to address odd lots, fractional
shares, tradeable sizes or other situations.
After receipt of an AP Redemption Order, the Custodian will
typically deliver securities to the blind trust (which securities are
determined by the Adviser) with a value approximately equal to the
value of the Shares \24\ tendered for redemption at the Cut-Off time.
The Custodian will make delivery of the securities by appropriate
entries on its books and records transferring ownership of the
securities to the blind trust, subject to delivery of the Shares
redeemed. The trustee of the blind trust will in turn liquidate, hedge
or otherwise manage the securities based on instructions from the
Authorized Participant.\25\ If the trustee is instructed
[[Page 10855]]
to sell all securities received at the close on the redemption date,
the trustee will pay the liquidation proceeds net of expenses plus or
minus any cash balancing amount to the Authorized Participant through
DTC.\26\ The redemption securities that the blind trust receives may
mirror the portfolio holdings of a Fund pro rata or, if the Adviser
determines to reduce one or more portfolio exposures through an in-kind
distribution, may constitute only a portion of the holdings that would
not be proportionate to the overall portfolio holdings of a Fund. To
the extent a Fund distributes portfolio securities through an in-kind
distribution to more than one blind trust for the benefit of that
trust's Authorized Participant, each Fund expects to distribute a pro
rata portion of the portfolio securities selected for distribution to
each redeeming Authorized Participant.
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\24\ If the NAV of the Shares redeemed differs from the value of
the securities delivered to the applicable blind trust, the Fund or
the blind trust will pay a cash balancing amount to compensate for
the difference between the value of the securities delivered and the
NAV.
\25\ Because an Authorized Participant would not know the
holdings of its blind trust, it is anticipated that such
instructions would be generic standing instructions to the trustee.
Although an Authorized Participant could, in its sole discretion,
provide different standing instructions, it is expected that, in
order to realize proceeds from a redemption at a value as close as
possible to the redemption's NAV, all Authorized Participants will
likely instruct the trustee of the blind trust to sell all
securities received in kind as redemption proceeds at the close of
the market on the date of redemption. For this reason, an Order Cut-
Off Time for redemptions will be necessary so that the Adviser is
able to identify securities to be redeemed in-kind to the Custodian
prior to the close of the market on the redemption date.
\26\ Under applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code,
the Authorized Participant is expected to be deemed a ``substantial
owner'' of the blind trust because it receives distributions from
the blind trust. As a result, all income, gain or loss realized by
the blind trust will be directly attributed to the Authorized
Participant. In a redemption, the Authorized Participant will have a
basis in the distributed securities equal to the fair market value
at the time of the distribution and any gain or loss realized on the
sale of those Shares will be taxable income to the Authorized
Participant.
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The Adviser would be free to select redemption securities that do
not represent an exact slice of a Fund's portfolio on any given day, so
long as each Authorized Participant redeeming on a given day receives
the same set of redemption securities on such day. Authorized
Participants will advise the Fund of any securities they are restricted
from receiving. If the Authorized Participant would receive a security
that it is restricted from receiving, the Fund will deliver cash equal
to the value of that security.
The Adviser might choose to select redemption securities that do
not represent an exact slice of a Fund's portfolio in order to
effectively implement changes to a Fund's portfolio composition, take
advantage of tax strategies or address corporate actions. The Adviser
represents that this freedom will benefit Beneficial Owners because the
Adviser can use redemption events to liquidate unwanted positions
without incurring brokerage charges or taxable gains. To address odd
lots, fractional shares, tradeable sizes or other situations where
dividing securities is not practical or possible, the Adviser may make
minor adjustments to the pro rata portion of portfolio securities
selected for distribution to each redeeming Authorized Participant on
such Business Day.
The Trust will accept an AP Redemption Order in proper form. An AP
Redemption Order is subject to acceptance by the Trust and must be
preceded or accompanied by an irrevocable commitment to deliver the
requisite number of Shares. At the time of settlement, an Authorized
Participant will initiate a delivery of the Shares versus subsequent
payment against the proceeds, if any, of the sale of portfolio
securities distributed to the applicable blind trust plus or minus any
cash balancing amounts, and less the expenses of liquidation. The
Trust, on behalf of a Fund, will maintain a security interest in the
assets of a blind trust and, under applicable documentation, will be
entitled to such assets in the event an Authorized Participant fails to
make timely delivery of redeemed Shares.
Retail Redemption Facility
Retail Investors may submit orders to redeem Shares at NAV directly
with a Fund as described below (``Retail Redemption Facility''). Retail
Investors will be able to place orders to redeem Shares in less than
Redemption Unit size by instructing their broker to submit an order to
redeem Shares directly from the Fund (``Retail Redemption Order''). The
Retail Redemption Order will be submitted to the ``Redemption Agent''
by the Retail Investor's broker if the broker is a DTC Participant or
by its clearing firm if it is not a DTC Participant. Redemption
proceeds in connection with any Retail Redemption Order will be
distributed in cash. Retail Investors may decide to redeem their Shares
for cash if they want to make sure they receive the NAV and do not want
to risk selling their Shares in the secondary market at a discount.
Investors that are not Retail Investors can only redeem with the Fund
in Redemption Unit size or larger.
On each Business Day, a Fund will process all Retail Redemption
Orders received at the NAV of the Fund next calculated following
submission of the Retail Redemption Order in proper form. The date the
Retail Redemption Order is received in proper form will be the
redemption date with respect to those Shares (the ``Redemption Date'').
Each Fund will establish a cut-off time for Retail Redemption Orders in
proper form, which may be earlier than the time of calculation of the
NAV in order to facilitate the timely submission of such orders to the
Redemption Agent for processing the order at NAV on each applicable
Redemption Date. All instructions from Retail Investors to their broker
to submit a Retail Redemption Order in proper form will be processed by
the Redemption Agent and submitted through DTC as long as it is
received prior to the cut-off time, resulting in an aggregated
redemption order received by the Transfer Agent from DTC on that
Business Day. Any redemption instructions submitted by a DTC
Participant on behalf of Retail Investors and received in proper form
by the Transfer Agent/Redemption Agent shall be irrevocable. Only
Retail Redemption Orders for an amount of Shares smaller than a
Redemption Unit will be considered in proper form.
The date of payment upon redemption will not exceed seven days
after the Redemption Date, other than as provided by Section 22(d) of
the 1940 Act. The cash proceeds from any Retail Redemption Order
received are generally expected to be delivered through DTC to the
applicable DTC Participant's account at DTC. The DTC Participant will
in turn deposit the proceeds in the Beneficial Owner's account or the
account of the financial institution carrying the account of the
Beneficial Owner.
Net Asset Value
The NAV per Share of a Fund will be computed by dividing the value
of the net assets of a Fund (i.e., the value of its total assets less
total liabilities) by the total number of Shares of a Fund outstanding,
rounded to the nearest cent. Expenses and fees, including, without
limitation, the management, administration and distribution fees, will
be accrued daily and taken into account for purposes of determining
NAV. Interest and investment income on the Trust's assets accrue daily
and will be included in the Fund's total assets. The NAV per Share for
a Fund will be calculated by the Administrator and determined as of the
close of the regular trading session on the New York Stock Exchange
(``NYSE'') (ordinarily 4:00 p.m., E.T.) on each day that the NYSE is
open. The NAV that is published will be rounded to the nearest cent;
however, for purposes of determining the price of Shares in creations
and redemption, the NAV will be calculated to five decimal places. The
Shares of the Funds will not be priced on days on which the NYSE is
closed for trading.
Shares of exchange-listed equity securities will be valued at
market value, which will generally be determined using the last
reported official closing or last trading price on the exchange or
market on which the securities are primarily traded at the
[[Page 10856]]
time of valuation. Repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements will be
valued based on price quotations or other equivalent indications of
value provided by a third-party pricing service. Money market
instruments (as described above) will be valued based on price
quotations or other equivalent indications of value provided by a
third-party pricing service.
When last sale prices and market quotations are not readily
available, are deemed unreliable or do not reflect material events
occurring between the close of local markets and the time of valuation,
investments will be valued using fair value pricing as determined in
good faith by the Adviser under procedures established by and under the
general supervision and responsibility of the Trust's Board of
Trustees. Investments that may be valued using fair value pricing
include, but are not limited to: (1) Securities that are not actively
traded; (2) securities of an issuer that becomes bankrupt or enters
into a restructuring; and (3) securities whose trading has been halted
or suspended.
The frequency with which each Fund's investments will be valued
using fair value pricing will primarily be a function of the types of
securities and other assets in which the respective Fund will invest
pursuant to its investment objective, strategies and limitations. If
the Funds invest in open-end management investment companies registered
under the 1940 Act (other than ETFs), they may rely on the NAVs of
those companies to value the shares they hold of them. Those companies
may also use fair value pricing under some circumstances.
Valuing the Funds' investments using fair value pricing involves
the consideration of a number of subjective factors and thus the prices
for those investments may differ from current market valuations.
Accordingly, fair value pricing could result in a difference between
the prices used to calculate NAV and the prices used to determine a
Fund's Portfolio Indicative Value (``PIV''), as described below, which
could result in the market prices for Shares deviating from NAV.
Availability of Information
The Funds' Web site (www.precidianfunds.com), which will be
publicly available prior to the public offering of Shares, will include
a form of the prospectus for each Fund that may be downloaded. The
Funds' Web site will include additional quantitative information
updated on a daily basis, including, for each Fund, (1) daily trading
volume, the prior Business Day's reported closing price, NAV and mid-
point of the bid/ask spread at the time of calculation of such NAV (the
``Bid/Ask Price''),\27\ and a calculation of the premium and discount
of the Bid/Ask Price against the NAV, and (2) data in chart format
displaying the frequency distribution of discounts and premiums of the
daily Bid/Ask Price against the NAV, within appropriate ranges, for
each of the four previous calendar quarters.
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\27\ The Bid/Ask Price of a Fund will be determined using the
mid-point of the highest bid and the lowest offer on the Exchange as
of the time of calculation of a Fund's NAV. The records relating to
Bid/Ask Prices will be retained by each Fund and its service
providers.
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As noted above, a mutual fund is required to file with the
Commission its complete portfolio schedules for the second and fourth
fiscal quarters on Form N-SAR under the 1940 Act, and is required to
file its complete portfolio schedules for the first and third fiscal
quarters on Form N-Q under the 1940 Act, within 60 days of the end of
the quarter. Form N-Q requires funds to file the same schedules of
investments that are required in annual and semi-annual reports to
shareholders. The Trust's SAI and each Fund's shareholder reports will
be available free upon request from the Trust. These documents and
forms may be viewed on-screen or downloaded from the Commission's Web
site at www.sec.gov.
Information regarding market price and trading volume of the Shares
will be continually available on a real-time basis throughout the day
on brokers' computer screens and other electronic services. Information
regarding the previous day's closing price and trading volume
information for the Shares will be published daily in the financial
section of newspapers. Updated price information for the securities
included in the Russell 1000, Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 Indexes,
and for other U.S. exchange-listed equity securities is available
through major market data vendors or securities exchanges trading such
securities. Information relating to Russell 1000, Russell 2000 and
Russell 3000 Index components is available at www.russell.com. The
intraday, closing and settlement prices of money market instruments (as
described above), repurchase agreements and reverse repurchase
agreements will be readily available from published or other public
sources, or major market data vendors such as Bloomberg and Thomson
Reuters. The NAV of any investment company security investment will be
readily available on the Web site of the relevant investment company
and from major market data vendors. Quotation and last sale information
for the Shares will be available via the Consolidated Tape Association
(``CTA'') high-speed line. In addition, the Portfolio Indicative Value
(``PIV''), as defined in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900(c)(3) and as
described further below, will be widely disseminated by one or more
major market data vendors at least every 15 seconds during the
Exchange's Core Trading Session.
Dissemination of the Portfolio Indicative Value
The PIV, which is approximate [sic] value of each Fund's
investments on a per Share basis, will be disseminated every 15 seconds
during the Exchange's Core Trading Session. The PIV should not be
viewed as a ``real-time'' update of NAV because the PIV may not be
calculated in the same manner as NAV, which is computed once per day.
An independent third party calculator will calculate the PIV for
each Fund during the Exchange's Core Trading Session by dividing the
``Estimated Fund Value'' (as described below) as of the time of the
calculation by the total number of outstanding Shares of that Fund.
``Estimated Fund Value'' is the sum of the estimated amount of cash
held in a Fund's portfolio, the estimated amount of accrued interest
owed to a Fund and the estimated value of the securities held in the
Fund's portfolio, minus the estimated amount of a Fund's liabilities.
The Funds will provide the independent third party calculator with
information to calculate the PIV, but the Funds will not be involved in
the actual calculation of the PIV.\28\
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\28\ Currently, it is the Exchange's understanding that several
major market data vendors display and/or make widely available PIVs
published on CTA or other data feeds. Dissemination of the PIV will
allow investors to determine the value of the underlying portfolio
of a Fund throughout the trading day.
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Additional information regarding the Trust and the Shares,
including investment strategies, risks, creation and redemption
procedures, fees, portfolio holdings disclosure policies, distributions
and taxes will be included in the Registration Statement. All terms
relating to the Funds that are referred to, but not defined in, this
proposed rule change are defined in the Registration Statement.
Trading Halts
With respect to trading halts, the Exchange may consider all
relevant factors in exercising its discretion to halt or suspend
trading in the Shares of the Funds.\29\ Trading in Shares of the
[[Page 10857]]
Funds will be halted if the circuit breaker parameters in NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 7.12 have been reached. Trading also may be halted
because of market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the
Exchange, make trading in the Shares inadvisable. These may include:
(1) If the PIV applicable to a Fund's Shares is not being disseminated
as required; (2) the extent to which trading is not occurring in the
securities and/or the financial instruments comprising the holdings of
a Fund; or (3) whether other unusual conditions or circumstances
detrimental to the maintenance of a fair and orderly market are
present. Trading in the Shares will be subject to NYSE Arca Equities
Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C), which sets forth circumstances under which Shares
of the Funds may be halted.
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\29\ See NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.12.
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Trading Rules
The Exchange deems the Shares to be equity securities, thus
rendering trading in the Shares subject to the Exchange's existing
rules governing the trading of equity securities. Shares will trade on
the NYSE Arca Marketplace from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m., E.T. in accordance
with NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.34 (Opening, Core, and Late Trading
Sessions). The Exchange has appropriate rules to facilitate
transactions in the Shares during all trading sessions. As provided in
NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.6, Commentary .03, the minimum price
variation (``MPV'') for quoting and entry of orders in equity
securities traded on the NYSE Arca Marketplace is $0.01, with the
exception of securities that are priced less than $1.00 for which the
MPV for order entry is $0.0001.
The Shares will conform to the initial and continued listing
criteria under NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900. The Exchange represents
that, for initial and/or continued listing, each Fund will be in
compliance with Rule 10A-3 under the Act,\30\ as provided by NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 5.3. A minimum of 100,000 Shares of each Fund will be
outstanding at the commencement of trading on the Exchange. The
Exchange will obtain a representation from the issuer of the Shares of
each Fund that the NAV per Share of each Fund will be calculated daily
and will be made available to all market participants at the same time.
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\30\ See 17 CFR 240.10A-3.
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Surveillance
The Exchange represents that trading in the Shares will be subject
to the existing trading surveillances, administered by the Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority (``FINRA'') on behalf of the Exchange,
which are designed to detect violations of Exchange rules and
applicable federal securities laws.\31\ The Exchange represents that
these procedures are adequate to properly monitor Exchange trading of
the Shares in all trading sessions and to deter and detect violations
of Exchange rules and federal securities laws applicable to trading on
the Exchange.
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\31\ FINRA surveils trading on the Exchange pursuant to a
regulatory services agreement. The Exchange is responsible for
FINRA's performance under this regulatory services agreement.
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The surveillances referred to above generally focus on detecting
securities trading outside their normal patterns, which could be
indicative of manipulative or other violative activity. When such
situations are detected, surveillance analysis follows and
investigations are opened, where appropriate, to review the behavior of
all relevant parties for all relevant trading violations.
FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, will communicate as needed
regarding trading in the Shares, underlying stocks and ETFs with other
markets and other entities that are members of the Intermarket
Surveillance Group (``ISG''), and FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, may
obtain trading information regarding trading such securities from such
markets and other entities. In addition, the Exchange may obtain
information regarding trading in the Shares, underlying stocks and ETFs
from markets and other entities that are members of ISG or with which
the Exchange has in place a comprehensive surveillance sharing
agreement.\32\
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\32\ For a list of the current members of ISG, see
www.isgportal.org.
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The Funds' Adviser will make available to FINRA and the Exchange
the portfolio holdings of each Fund in order to facilitate the
performance of the surveillances referred to above.
In addition, the Exchange also has a general policy prohibiting the
distribution of material, non-public information by its employees.
Information Bulletin
Prior to the commencement of trading, the Exchange will inform its
Equity Trading Permit (``ETP'') Holders in an Information Bulletin
(``Bulletin'') of the special characteristics and risks associated with
trading the Shares. Specifically, the Bulletin will discuss the
following: (1) The procedures for purchases and redemptions of Shares
and the differing rights of Retail Investors and others to redeem
shares; (2) NYSE Arca Equities Rule 9.2(a), which imposes a duty of due
diligence on its ETP Holders to learn the essential facts relating to
every customer prior to trading the Shares; (3) the risks involved in
trading the Shares during the Opening and Late Trading Sessions when an
updated PIV will not be calculated or publicly disseminated; (4) how
information regarding the PIV is disseminated; (5) the requirement that
ETP Holders deliver a prospectus to investors purchasing newly issued
Shares prior to or concurrently with the confirmation of a transaction;
and (6) trading information.
In addition, the Bulletin will reference that the Funds are subject
to various fees and expenses described in the Registration Statement.
The Bulletin will discuss any exemptive, no-action, and interpretive
relief granted by the Commission from any rules under the Act. The
Bulletin will also disclose that the NAV for the Shares will be
calculated after 4:00 p.m., E.T. each trading day.
2. Statutory Basis
The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is consistent
with Section 6(b) of the Act,\33\ in general, and furthers the
objectives of Section 6(b)(5) of the Act,\34\ in particular, in that it
is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices,
to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to remove
impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and
a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the
public interest.
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\33\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b).
\34\ 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(5).
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The Exchange believes that proposed Rule 8.900 is designed to
prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in that the
proposed rules relating to listing and trading of Managed Portfolio
Shares provide specific initial and continued listing criteria required
to be met by such securities. Proposed Rule 8.900(d) sets forth initial
and continued listing criteria applicable to Managed Portfolio Shares.
Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(1) provides that, for each series of Managed
Portfolio Shares, the Corporation will establish a minimum number of
Managed Portfolio Shares required to be outstanding at the time of
commencement of trading. In addition, the Corporation will obtain a
representation from the issuer of each series of Managed Portfolio
Shares that the NAV per share for the series will be calculated daily
and that the NAV will be made available to all market participants at
the same time. Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2) provides that each
[[Page 10858]]
series of Managed Portfolio Shares will be listed and traded subject to
application of the specified continued listing criteria, as described
above. Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(A) provides that the PIV for Managed
Portfolio Shares will be widely disseminated by one or more major
market data vendors at least every 15 seconds during the Exchange's
Core Trading Session. Proposed Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C) provides that, if
the PIV of a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is not being
disseminated as required, the Corporation may halt trading during the
day in which the interruption to the dissemination of the PIV occurs.
If the interruption to the dissemination of the PIV persists past the
trading day in which it occurred, the Corporation will halt trading no
later than the beginning of the trading day following the interruption.
If a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is trading on the Corporation
pursuant to UTP, the Corporation will halt trading in that series as
specified in Rule 7.34(a). In addition, if the Exchange becomes aware
that the NAV with respect to a series of Managed Portfolio Shares is
not disseminated to all market participants at the same time, it will
halt trading in such securities until such time as the NAV is available
to all market participants. Proposed Commentary .05 to NYSE Arca
Equities Rule 8.900 provides that, if the investment adviser to the
Investment Company issuing Managed Portfolio Shares is affiliated with
a broker-dealer, such investment adviser shall erect a ``fire wall''
between the investment adviser and the broker-dealer with respect to
access to information concerning the composition and/or changes to such
Investment Company portfolio. Personnel who make decisions on the
Investment Company's portfolio composition must be subject to
procedures designed to prevent the use and dissemination of material
nonpublic information regarding the applicable Investment Company
portfolio.
With respect to the proposed listing and trading of Shares of the
Funds, the Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is designed
to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in that the
Shares will be listed and traded on the Exchange pursuant to the
initial and continued listing criteria in NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.900. Price information for the exchange-listed equity securities held
by the Funds will be available through major market data vendors or
securities exchanges listing and trading such securities. All exchange-
listed equity securities held by the Funds will be listed on national
securities exchanges. The listing and trading of such securities is
subject to rules of the exchanges on which they are listed and traded,
as approved by the Commission. The Funds will primarily hold securities
in the Russell 3000 Index or ETFs that invest primarily in the Russell
3000 Index. Further, the Funds will not invest in options, futures or
swaps. A Fund's investments will be consistent with its respective
investment objective and will not be used to enhance leverage. The
Funds will not invest in non-U.S. issues. FINRA, on behalf of the
Exchange, will communicate as needed regarding trading in the Shares
and underlying stocks and ETFs with other markets and other entities
that are members of the ISG, and FINRA, on behalf of the Exchange, may
obtain trading information regarding trading such securities from such
markets and other entities. In addition, the Exchange may obtain
information regarding trading in the Shares, underlying stocks and ETFs
from markets and other entities that are members of ISG or with which
the Exchange has in place a comprehensive surveillance sharing
agreement.
The Exchange, after consulting with various Lead Market Makers that
trade ETFs on the Exchange, believes that market makers will be able to
make efficient and liquid markets priced near the PIV as long as an
accurate PIV is disseminated every 15 seconds and market makers have
knowledge of a fund's means of achieving its investment objective, even
without daily disclosure of a fund's underlying portfolio. The Exchange
believes that market makers will employ risk-management techniques such
as ``statistical arbitrage'', which is currently used throughout the
financial services industry, to make efficient markets in exchange
traded products.\35\ This ability should permit market makers to make
efficient markets in Fund Shares without knowledge of a fund's
underlying portfolio.
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\35\ See note 10, supra.
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The Exchange understands that traders use statistical analysis to
derive correlations between different sets of instruments to identify
opportunities to buy or sell one set of instruments when it is
mispriced relative to the others. For Managed Portfolio Shares, market
makers will initially use the knowledge of a fund's means of achieving
its investment objective, as described in the applicable fund
registration statement, to construct a hedging proxy for a fund to
manage a market maker's quoting risk in connection with trading fund
shares. Market makers will then conduct statistical arbitrage between
their hedging proxy (for example, the Russell 1000 Index) and shares of
a fund, buying and selling one against the other over the course of the
trading day. Eventually, at the end of each day, they will evaluate how
their proxy performed in comparison to the price of a fund's shares,
and use that analysis as well as knowledge of risk metrics, such as
volatility and turnover, to enhance their proxy calculation to make it
a more efficient hedge.
Market makers have indicated to the Exchange that, after the first
few days of trading, there will be sufficient data to run a statistical
analysis which will lead to spreads being tightened substantially
around PIV. This is similar to certain other existing exchange traded
products (for example, ETFs that invest in foreign securities that do
not trade during U.S. trading hours), in which spreads may be generally
wider in the early days of trading and then narrow as market makers
gain more confidence in their real-time hedges.
The Lead Market Makers also indicated that, as with some other new
exchange-traded products, spreads may be generally wider in the early
days of trading and would tend to narrow as market makers gain more
confidence in the accuracy of their hedges and their ability to adjust
these hedges in real-time relative to the published PIV and gain an
understanding of the applicable market risk metrics such as volatility
and turnover, and as natural buyers and sellers enter the market. Other
relevant factors cited by Lead Market Makers were that a fund's
investment objectives are clearly disclosed in the applicable
prospectus, the existence of quarterly portfolio disclosure, and the
ability to create shares in any size.
The Commission's concept release regarding ``Actively Managed
Exchange-Traded Funds'' highlighted several issues that could impact
the Commission's willingness to authorize the operation of an actively-
managed ETF, including whether effective arbitrage of the ETF shares
exists.\36\ The Concept Release identifies the transparency of a fund's
portfolio and the liquidity of the securities in a fund's portfolio as
central to effective arbitrage. However, certain existing ETFs with
portfolios of foreign securities have shown their ability to trade
efficiently in the secondary market at approximately their NAV even
though they do not provide opportunities for riskless
[[Page 10859]]
arbitrage transactions during much of the trading day.\37\ Such ETFs
have been shown to have pricing characteristics very similar to ETFs
that can be arbitraged in this manner. For example, index-based ETFs
containing securities that trade during different trading hours than
the ETF, such as ETFs that hold Asian stocks, have demonstrated
efficient pricing characteristics notwithstanding the inability of
market professionals to engage in ``riskless arbitrage'' with respect
to the underlying portfolio for most, or even all, of the U.S. trading
day when Asian markets are closed. Pricing for shares of such ETFs is
efficient because market professionals are still able to hedge their
positions with offsetting, correlated positions in derivative
instruments during the entire trading day.
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\36\ See Investment Company Act Release No. 25258 (November 8,
2001) (the ``Concept Release'').
\37\ The Adviser represents that the mechanics of arbitrage and
hedging differ. Prior Rule 10a-1 and Regulation T under the Act both
describe arbitrage as either buying and selling the same security in
two different markets or buying and selling two different
securities, one of which is convertible into the other. This is also
known as a ``riskless arbitrage'' transaction in that the
transaction is risk free since it generally consists of buying an
asset at one price and simultaneously selling that same asset at a
higher price, thereby generating a profit on the difference.
Hedging, on the other hand, involves managing risk by purchasing or
selling a security or instrument that will track or offset the value
of another security or instrument. Arbitrage and hedging are both
used to manage risk; however, they involve different trading
strategies.
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The real-time dissemination of a fund's PIV, together with the
right of Authorized Participants to create and redeem each day at the
NAV, will be sufficient for market participants to value and trade
shares in a manner that will not lead to significant deviations between
the shares' Bid/Ask Price and NAV. In addition, with respect to Shares
of the Funds, the Retail Redemption Facility will permit retail
shareholders holding amounts smaller than a Redemption Unit to redeem
at NAV on any day the Exchange is open in the event there is any
negative variance between the NAV of a Fund's Shares and the secondary
market price of Shares at the Valuation Time.
The pricing efficiency with respect to trading a series of Managed
Portfolio Shares will not generally rest on the ability of market
participants to arbitrage between the shares and a fund's portfolio,
but rather on the ability of market participants to assess a fund's
underlying value accurately enough throughout the trading day in order
to hedge positions in shares effectively. Professional traders will buy
shares that they perceive to be trading at a price less than that which
will be available at a subsequent time, and sell shares they perceive
to be trading at a price higher than that which will be available at a
subsequent time. It is expected that, as part of their normal day-to-
day trading activity, market makers assigned to shares by the Exchange,
off-exchange market makers, firms that specialize in electronic
trading, hedge funds and other professionals specializing in short-
term, non-fundamental trading strategies will assume the risk of being
``long'' or ``short'' shares through such trading and will hedge such
risk wholly or partly by simultaneously taking positions in correlated
assets \38\ or by netting the exposure against other, offsetting
trading positions--much as such firms do with existing ETFs and other
equities. Disclosure of a fund's investment objective and principal
investment strategies in its prospectus and SAI, along with the
dissemination of the PIV every 15 seconds, should permit professional
investors to engage easily in this type of hedging activity.\39\
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\38\ Price correlation trading is used throughout the financial
industry. It is used to discover both trading opportunities to be
exploited, such as currency pairs and statistical arbitrage, as well
as for risk mitigation such as dispersion trading and beta hedging.
These correlations are a function of differentials, over time,
between one or multiple securities pricing. Once the nature of these
price deviations have been quantified, a universe of securities is
searched in an effort to, in the case of a hedging strategy,
minimize the differential. Once a suitable hedging basket has been
identified, a trader can minimize portfolio risk by executing the
hedging basket. The trader then can monitor the performance of this
hedge throughout the trade period, making corrections where
warranted.
\39\ With respect to trading in Shares of the Funds, market
participants manage risk in a variety of ways. It is expected that
market participants will be able to determine how to trade Shares at
levels approximating the PIV without taking undue risk by gaining
experience with how various market factors (e.g., general market
movements, sensitivity of the PIV to intraday movements in interest
rates or commodity prices, etc.) affect PIV, and by finding hedges
for their long or short positions in Shares using instruments
correlated with such factors. The Adviser expects that market
participants will initially determine the PIV's correlation to a
major large capitalization equity benchmark with active derivative
contracts, such as the Russell 1000 Index, and the degree of
sensitivity of the PIV to changes in that benchmark. For example,
using hypothetical numbers for illustrative purposes, market
participants should be able to determine quickly that price
movements in the Russell 1000 Index predict movements in a Fund's
PIV 95% of the time (an acceptably high correlation) but that the
PIV generally moves approximately half as much as the Russell 1000
Index with each price movement. This information is sufficient for
market participants to construct a reasonable hedge--buy or sell an
amount of futures, swaps or ETFs that track the Russell 1000 equal
to half the opposite exposure taken with respect to Shares. Market
participants will also continuously compare the intraday performance
of their hedge to a Fund's PIV. If the intraday performance of the
hedge is correlated with the PIV to the expected degree, market
participants will feel comfortable they are appropriately hedged and
can rely on the PIV as appropriately indicative of a Fund's
performance.
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With respect to trading of Shares of the Funds, the ability of
market participants to buy and sell Shares at prices near the PIV is
dependent upon their assessment that the PIV is a reliable, indicative
real-time value for a Fund's underlying holdings. Market participants
are expected to accept the PIV as a reliable, indicative real-time
value because (1) the PIV will be calculated and disseminated based on
a Fund's actual portfolio holdings (rather than a proxy portfolio), (2)
the securities in which the Funds plan to invest are generally highly
liquid and actively traded and therefore generally have accurate real
time pricing available, and (3) market participants will have a daily
opportunity to evaluate whether the PIV at or near the close of trading
is indeed predictive of the actual NAV. Because there is less risk of
variability between the current PIV and the NAV nearer to the Valuation
Time, it is expected that the bid/ask spread for Shares will initially
tend to be less as the market approaches the close and market
participants have a very high degree of certainty that they can trade
at a level that reflects the current value of a Fund's holdings. It is
also expected, however, that market participants will quickly be able
to determine, after gaining experience with how various market factors
(e.g., general market movements, sensitivity or correlations of the PIV
to intraday movements in interest rates or commodity prices, other
benchmarks, etc.) affect PIV, how best to hedge long or short positions
taken in Shares in a manner that will permit them to provide a Bid/Ask
Price for Shares that is near to the PIV throughout the day. The
ability of market participants to accurately hedge their positions
should serve to minimize any divergence between the secondary market
price of the Shares and the PIV, as well as create liquidity in the
Shares.
The real-time dissemination of a Fund's PIV, together with the
ability of Authorized Participants to create and redeem each day at the
NAV, will be crucial for market participants to value and trade Shares
in a manner that will not lead to significant deviations between the
Shares' Bid/Ask Price and NAV.\40\ In addition, the Retail Redemption
Facility will permit retail shareholders holding amounts smaller than a
Redemption Unit to redeem at NAV on any day the Exchange is open in the
event there is any negative variance between NAV of a Fund's
[[Page 10860]]
Shares and the secondary market price of Shares at the Valuation Time.
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\40\ The statements in the Statutory Basis section of this
filing relating to pricing efficiency, arbitrage, and activities of
market participants, including market makers and Authorized
Participants, are based on representations by the Adviser and review
by the Exchange.
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In a typical index-based ETF, it is necessary for Authorized
Participants to know what securities must be delivered in a creation or
will be received in a redemption. For Managed Portfolio Shares,
however, Authorized Participants do not need to know the securities
comprising the portfolio of a Fund since creations are for cash and
redemptions are handled through the blind trust mechanism. The use of
cash for creations, and in-kind redemption through a blind trust, will
preserve the integrity of the active investment strategy and eliminate
the potential for ``free riding'', while still providing investors with
the advantages of the ETF structure.
The proposed rule change is designed to promote just and equitable
principles of trade and to protect investors and the public interest in
that the Exchange will obtain a representation from the issuer of an
issue of Managed Portfolio Shares that the NAV per share of a fund will
be calculated daily and that the NAV and will be made available to all
market participants at the same time. Investors can also obtain a
fund's SAI, shareholder reports, and its Form N-CSR and Form N-SAR. A
fund's SAI and shareholder reports will be available free upon request
from the applicable fund, and those documents and the Form N-CSR and
Form N-SAR may be viewed on-screen or downloaded from the Commission's
Web site. In addition, with respect to the Funds, a large amount of
information will be publicly available regarding the Funds and the
Shares, thereby promoting market transparency. Quotation and last sale
information for the Shares will be available via the CTA high-speed
line. Information regarding the intra-day value of the Shares of the
Fund, which is the PIV as defined in proposed NYSE Arca Equities Rule
8.900(c)(3), will be widely disseminated every 15 seconds throughout
the Exchange's Core Trading Session by one or more major market data
vendors. The Web site for the Funds will include a form of the
prospectus for the Funds that may be downloaded, and additional data
relating to NAV and other applicable quantitative information, updated
on a daily basis. Moreover, prior to the commencement of trading, the
Exchange will inform its ETP Holders in an Information Bulletin of the
special characteristics and risks associated with trading the Shares.
Trading in Shares of a Fund will be halted if the circuit breaker
parameters in NYSE Arca Equities Rule 7.12 have been reached or because
of market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange,
make trading in the Shares inadvisable. Trading in the Shares will be
subject to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.900(d)(2)(C), which sets forth
circumstances under which Shares of the Funds may be halted. In
addition, as noted above, investors will have ready access to the PIV,
and quotation and last sale information for the Shares. The Shares will
conform to the initial and continued listing criteria under proposed
Rule 8.900. The Funds will not invest in options, futures, forwards or
swaps. Each Fund's investments will be consistent with its investment
objective and will not be used to enhance leverage. While a Fund may
invest in inverse ETFs, a Fund will not invest in leveraged (e.g., 2X,
-2X, 3X or -3X) ETFs. The Funds will not invest in non-U.S. equity
securities.
The proposed rule change is designed to perfect the mechanism of a
free and open market and, in general, to protect investors and the
public interest in that it will facilitate the listing and trading of
an additional type of actively-managed exchange-traded product that
will enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of
investors and the marketplace. As noted above, the Exchange has in
place surveillance procedures relating to trading in the Shares and may
obtain information via ISG from other exchanges that are members of ISG
or with which the Exchange has entered into a comprehensive
surveillance sharing agreement. In addition, as noted above, investors
will have ready access to information regarding the PIV and quotation
and last sale information for the Shares.
B. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Burden on Competition
The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will
impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate
in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The Exchange believes the
proposed rule change would permit listing and trading of another type
of actively-managed ETF that has characteristics different from
existing actively-managed and index ETFs, and would introduce
additional competition among various ETF products to the benefit of
investors.
C. Self-Regulatory Organization's Statement on Comments on the Proposed
Rule Change Received From Members, Participants, or Others
No written comments were solicited or received with respect to the
proposed rule change.
III. Date of Effectiveness of the Proposed Rule Change and Timing for
Commission Action
Within 45 days of the date of publication of this notice in the
Federal Register or within such longer period up to 90 days after
publication (i) as the Commission may designate if it finds such longer
period to be appropriate and publishes its reasons for so finding or
(ii) as to which the self-regulatory organization consents, the
Commission will:
(A) By order approve or disapprove the proposed rule change, or
(B) institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule
change should be disapproved.
IV. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed rule
change is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by any of
the following methods:
Electronic Comments
Use the Commission's Internet comment form (https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
Send an email to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please
include File Number SR-NYSEArca-2014-10 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
Send paper comments in triplicate to Elizabeth M. Murphy,
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSEArca-2014-10. This
file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently,
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on
the Commission's Internet Web site (https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all
written statements with respect to the proposed rule change that are
filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to
the proposed rule change between the Commission and any person, other
than those that may be withheld from the public in accordance with the
provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for Web site viewing and
printing in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours of
[[Page 10861]]
10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the filing also will be available
for inspection and copying at the principal office of the Exchange. All
comments received will be posted without change; the Commission does
not edit personal identifying information from submissions. You should
submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. All
submissions should refer to File Number SR-NYSEArca-2014-10 and should
be submitted on or before March 19, 2014.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\41\
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\41\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(12).
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Kevin M. O'Neill,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-04130 Filed 2-25-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P