Credit: Shutterstock photoFocusShares, the exchange-traded fund company that shuttered its lineup of niche funds in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, came roaring back to life today by launching 15 ETFs focused on various sectors and styles in the U.S. equity universe, some that are the cheapest on the market.
The Montvale, N.J.-based company's Focus Morningstar US Market Index ETF (NYSEArca:FMU) has an annual expense ratio of 0.05 percent, 0.01 percent cheaper than the Schwab U.S. Broad Market Equity ETF (NYSEArca:SCHB). Moreover, its Focus Morningstar Large Cap Index ETF (NYSEArca FLG)-also priced at 0.05 percent, is 1 basis point cheaper than the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca:VOO).
The company's splashy return to the vibrant and highly competitive world of ETFs is predicated on it being acquired in June 2010 by Scottrade, the St. Louis-based online discount brokerage. The transaction was completed stealthily, without press releases, in part because Scottrade is privately held. Word of the deal percolated through the ETF industry rumor mill, as did talk the new ETFs would be available commission free to Scottrade clients.
Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed, but on Wednesday a Scottrade official confirmed that trading of the new ETFs will be commission free to Scottrade's 2 million clients as well as 800 financial advisors who are part of its Scottrade Advisor Services. The launch of cheapest-in-class ETFs and free trading sends a clear signal that together, FocusShares and Scottrade are dead serious about getting traction in an ETF world that increasingly is defined by low prices.
"These are the first proprietary products that Scottrade has ever had," Kelly Doria, the top public relations officer at Scottrade, said in a telephone interview on March 30. "We think these 15 domestic equity ETFs are a good foundation, and we'll be looking to expand that at some point in the future, and time will tell what specific products will be."
The 15 ETFs, their trading symbols and their expense ratios are:
- Focus Morningstar US Market Index ETF:(NYSEArca:FMU), 0.05 percent. That's cheaper than both the 0.06 percent cost of Schwab's "SCHB" and the 0.07 percent cost of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEArca:VTI).
- Focus Morningstar Large Cap Index ETF:(NYSEArca:FLG):0.05 percent. That's less expensive than VOO's 0.06 percent expense ratio and the 0.08 percent cost of the Schwab U.S. Large Cap ETF (NYSEArca:SCHX)
- Focus Morningstar Mid Cap Index ETF (NYSEArca:FMM), 0.12 percent
- Focus Morningstar Small Cap Index ETF (NYSEArca:FOS), 0.12 percent
- Focus Morningstar Basic Materials Index ETF (NYSEArca:FBM), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Communications Services Index ETF (NYSEArca:FCQ), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Consumer Cyclical Index ETF (NYSEArca:FCL), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Consumer Defensive Index ETF (NYSEArca:FCD), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Energy Index ETF, (NYSEArca FEG), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Financial Services Index ETF (NYSEArca:FFL), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Health Care Index ETF (NYSEArca:FHC), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Industrials Index ETF (NYSEArca:FIL), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Real Estate Index ETF (NYSEArca:FRL), 0.12 percent
- Focus Morningstar Technology Index ETF (NYSEArca:FTQ), 0.19 percent
- Focus Morningstar Utilities Index ETF (NYSEArca:FUI), 0.19 percent
Doria stressed that the free trading piece of the product offering had no limits, meaning everyone from frenzied day traders jumping in and out of positions to buy-and-hold investors who needed to rebalance or tweak their asset allocation would all have commission-free trades no matter how often or seldom they executed.
"These ETFs really can be for an investor, for a trader, for an advisor, for the institutional market-they're completely flexible for whoever wants to trade and for whatever they want to trade them for," Doria said.
Partnering with Morningstar was an important piece of the strategic vision for both FocusShares and Scottrade, Doria said. The world of exchange-traded funds doesn't yet have many ETFs with the Chicago-based financial information firm as index provider, which is likely to give FocusShares and Scottrade another arrow in their marketing quill, she added.
Throw Out The Old
FocusShares abandoned its tactical suite of products after the 2008 market crash, but suggested at the time it wasn't prepared to shutter its doors completely. In an October 2008 interview with IndexUniverse.com, FocusShares Chief Executive Officer Erik Liik said the market environment was no longer hospitable to niche the company's strategy, and that FocusShares aimed to retool itself as a purveyor of broad investment solutions.
"There's just no economy to support those [tactical] products now, so investing in the long-term future is a better approach for us," Liik said in the 2008 interview.
FocusShares unveiled the new broad-based asset allocation strategy in a filing in December with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Liik remains the top executive at FocusShares and will have broad discretion in formulating the company's strategic vision going forward, Doria said.
Bring In The New
Doria said part of the thinking behind the acquisition of FocusShares was that the ETF firm already had the so-called exemptive relief from the SEC that gives a money management firm the regulatory permission to market ETFs.
Doria also suggested that Scottrade, a 31-year-old privately held company, has hewed closely to the sensibilities of its founder and chief executive officer, Rodger Riney, essentially without the pressures public companies face in terms of meeting market notions of shareholder value.
She noted:"We are a company that has had the philosophy of growing our business, over time, independent of what is happening around us. We've never had a layoff in our history; we've grown organically; and we've not had mergers with other brokerage firms as a means of growing our account base. So I would say that this acquisition is consistent.
"There are two ways to get to market:You could offer someone else's ETFs or you could have your own. In order to get to market quicker, it made sense for us to acquire an advisory firm that already had the exemptive relief from the SEC so that we could make products available to our customers and for the marketplace that would be attractive and benefit investors overall."
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
