Retail Investors Prepare as Institutions Embrace Credit ETFs

机构可以使用交换交易资金以较低的成本管理信贷风险 - 以新的方式影响ETF市场，这可能证明零售投资者的挑战。

Products like BlackRock’s $13.4 billion iShares $ iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) and the $12.06 billion SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) have seen record moves during the first half of this year, thanks to institutional and retail investors alike putting on tactical positions or seeking lower costs than they would get by investing with a high-yield fund.

For the week ended June 10, U.S. fixed-income offerings, including HYG and JNK, saw asset flows of $2.84 billion,根据etf.com的数据是一个跟踪ETF的网站。一个基金可以在一天中看到数十亿美元的活动;例如，HYG定期领导联盟表以获得固定收入类别。

“能够在一分钱投标展会上贸易信贷，相比必须债券和等待市场交易，是信贷ETF的巨大优势，”波士顿的董事总经理和投资组合经理Justin Sibears表示，5亿美元的ETF提供商NewFound Research。

But all of this activity raises questions about liquidity risk and dislocations in the underlying credit markets, which don’t typically trade at the same rate as ETFs. Provisions in some of these products also allow for in-kind redemptions, so certain authorized participants could come away with the underlying securities instead of ETF shares. When that happens, the authorized participant can go back to the institutions that invested in the ETF and offer to give them the securities or sell them back into the open market.

一些高产ETF的波动迹象表明，精明的交易员正在使用实物分布，以比他们在交易所范围内更便宜地运行债券企业。这些ETF为投资者提供了按需获得债券，让他们避免购买和持有可能失去价值的资产，这是传统信贷市场的做法。为这些产品分配也允许投资者对高收益市场进行更多的动态观点，因为它们可以随着条件的变化进出 - 有时在同一天。

Last month it became obvious that institutional investors are using credit ETFs in this way. Both HYG and JNK saw billions of dollars in redemptions during the first four days of May, even though the broader markets were relatively calm and trending upward. Redemptions from HYG topped almost $3 billion before investors put $1 billion back in over the rest of the month.

当时，Deutsche Bank etf策略师Sebastian Mercado建议在研究笔记中机构的行动结果的人aging tactical allocations, rather than any kind of stress in the overall high-yield bond market. ETFs represent only a small slice of the $1 trillion U.S. high-yield business, but episodic moves in the billions of dollars are still notable. What happens if institutions opt to make tactical decisions during market turbulence? And could such moves potentially hurt retail investors who may have exposure to the same products?

这些担忧是超越的，Richard Powers，Philadelphia地区的ETF产品管理负责人在Vanguard Group。“ETF的绝大多数交易发生在二级市场上，只涉及ETF的股票，而不是潜在的证券，”权力表示，其公司在ETF中管理约4330亿美元。“即使证券改变双手，市场制造商往往将它们保留在资产负债表上，对冲风险并将现金或股票返回投资者。”

权力指出了最近的市场压力实例，例如去年8月24日发生的，当时ETF在一个主要抛售期间看到定价位错，而去年12月，当高收益市场中的压力也受到影响。他说，在这两种情况下，波动性是大量的市场中断的结果，这影响了所有类型的参与者，而不仅仅是ETF。两次，ETF都能够管理流动性。

Greg Friedman, a Denver-based senior vice president at Fidelity Investments who heads product and strategy for SelectCo, the firm’s ETF division, agrees. “When events like last August happen, people want to blame ETFs, but ETFs only accounted for 33 percent of market volume on that day,” Friedman says. “Where people saw pricing problems had more to do with the order types than liquidity risk.”

Often investors place market orders to buy or sell at any price. Friedman, whose firm’s ETF assets total roughly $3.8 billion, says it may be better to consider a limit order, which has more pricing protection because investors can set bounds around the prices at which they’ll buy or sell. Fidelity and Vanguard are starting to publish more-educational pieces on order types for investors who may not know or who may be working with advisers and brokerages that only allow market orders.

所有权力和弗里德曼都争辩说，更大使用限价订单将在八月抛售期间夯实一些波动。“你看到的东西有一些人放在市场秩序中，它填充了20％到30％的违规[净资产价值]，因为他们没有设定限制，”鲍尔斯说。“当定价因市场秩序中断时，你可能是击中地板的人。”

大卫法比安，管理合伙人和FMD Capital Management的首席行动官，1100万美元，加利福尼亚州的注册投资顾问公司几乎完全关注ETF的公司，除了放置正确的订单类型，投资者需要看看产品的方式建造。Fabian Notes的较小ETF的流动性与潜在证券的流动性变得更加关注较小的ETF。他说，当涉及那些较小的更疏远的产品时，他说，较卑鄙的投资者可能会使他们留给机构和对冲基金。

“If you’re unsure about what you’re getting into, one of the better ways to avoid making a mistake is by following the money,” Fabian says. “The biggest products are big for a reason. You’re also more insulated from liquidity concerns in a product that is trading millions of shares per day, because the secondary market volume will manage itself.”

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