• Dorsey Wright Technical Leaders Index (DWTL)
• Dorsey Wright Focus Five Index (DWANQFF)
• Dorsey Wright International Focus Five Total Return (DWANQIFF)
• DWA International Developed Markets Technical Leaders Index (DWADM) 
• DWA International Emerging Markets Technical Leaders Index (DWAEM)
• DWA Technical Leaders Small Cap Index (DWTLSC)

Smart Beta investment strategies have seen a 24% compounded annual growth rate since 2010*. With investors clamoring for better performance, lower risk investments, ways to mitigate volatility, all while demanding reduced fees, how do you determine which strategies are right for your investments? The answer lies in selecting rules-based, transparent approaches that combine different smart beta factors.

In our latest web seminar, hosted by ETF.com, Dave Gedeon of Nasdaq and Jay Gregnani of Dorsey, Wright & Associates, which was acquired by Nasdaq earlier this year, join together to discuss “H20 Investing: Combining the Best Elements Within Smart Beta.” Both hydrogen and oxygen are famously combustible in many scenarios, but when combined appropriately, they create the most important compound for sustaining life as we know it. Gregnani will explain how combining some of the powerful return factors now available within the ETF space become even more useful when combined with the right complementary elements in the ETF world.

Click here to watch and/or download the webinar.
 

In 1985, Nasdaq launched the Nasdaq-100 Index^® (NDX^®) to track the 100 largest, non-financial companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market. In addition to being a barometer for the investment community on how major sectors of the market are performing, the Index also plays an important role as the basis for investible products. Today, the NDX is one of the world’s most widely followed stock indexes, with more than $50 billion in exchange-traded products tied to the Index, including the well-known PowerShares QQQ Trust® ETF (QQQ) or, simply, “the Q’s.”
At the time of launch, Nasdaq was still in its infancy (just 14 years old) and indexing was completely new territory. Since launch, the market cap of Nasdaq-100 companies has grown from $58 billion to more than $4.7 trillion today. Now, hundreds of products, including ETFs, Mutual Funds, Futures, Options and other derivatives, are tied to the index in 29 countries. While always solidly tilted to the technology sector, the NDX has evolved to include some of the top names in biotech, retail, media and industrials and is cited as a benchmark for large-cap growth performance.

In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the Nasdaq-100 Index, Nasdaq Global Indexes will be publishing a white paper, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the index. The research piece details the lifespan of NDX including those companies that have been in since inception; the nuances of the index vs. its competitors; reasoning behind rebalances and more. We’ll send out an update when the paper is available for download.

In addition, join us for the Web Seminar: The Nasdaq-100 Turns 30: Tracking Innovation in Large Cap Growth on Tuesday, February 10th at 10 am EST.

Special Note: Bloomberg will be recording their ‘Taking Stock’ radio show live from the Nasdaq MarketSite on February 9th to cover this milestone. The line-up of guest speakers includes Q’s pioneers John Jacobs, Ben Fulton and Eric Noll; along with present-day managers Rob Hughes, Vice President Nasdaq Global Indexes, and Dan Draper, Managing Director, Invesco PowerShares. They will also be joined by Debbie Fuhr, respected founder of ETFGI, an independent research and consultancy firm.

Listen live on Monday, February 9th from 2pm -5pm Eastern Time.

We are thrilled that Dorsey, Wright & Associates (DWA) is now part of the Nasdaq family and our ever-expanding suite of innovative indexes and data solutions.

DWA is a registered investment advisory firm that provides comprehensive investment research and analysis through its proprietary Global Technical Research Platform and Investment Products. DWA is a respected industry leader known for applying its expertise in Relative Strength to support the investment decision-making process through leading research and technical analysis. DWA’s investment analytics are used by thousands of investment advisors and power individual stock research, model portfolios, strategies and indexes. The latter of which are used as the basis of exchange-traded funds, managed accounts, and mutual funds. DWA currently has over 130 model portfolios with an estimated $10 billion tracking the models and 17 licensed ETFs, representing approximately $5 billion in assets under management.

The acquisition brings DWA’s industry-leading smart beta indexes to the Nasdaq Index family. This transaction, along with Nasdaq’s existing suite of alternative index solutions, makes us one of the largest global providers of smart beta solutions.

Visit www.dorseywright.com to find out more about the company and their offerings. We will continue to share information on how our combined business can further help our clients’ strategies. We welcome your questions at any time at GISCustomerService@nasdaq.com.
 

We are pleased to announce that Nasdaq will acquire Dorsey, Wright & Associates, LLC (DWA), a market leader in data analytics, passive indexing and smart beta strategies. DWA will add to Nasdaq’s robust index portfolio, bringing model-based strategies and analysis to support the financial advisor community, and further strengthening Nasdaq’s position as a leading smart beta index provider in the U.S. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

DWA will increase Nasdaq’s capacity for growth in the index business across asset classes and geographies, with substantial opportunities in index licensing. The combined group will bring together DWA’s 17 ETFs and Nasdaq’s 69 licensed smart-beta ETFs focused primarily on dividend and income strategies. As a result, Nasdaq Global Indexes will become one of the largest providers of smart beta indexes with nearly $45 billion in assets benchmarked to its family of Smart Beta indexes and more than $105 billion benchmarked to all Nasdaq Indexes.

"Our index business has been a strong growth area for Nasdaq over the last decade, and the acquisition of Dorsey Wright & Associates will further cement our position as a major player and industry innovator," said Adena Friedman, President of Nasdaq. “We are always looking for opportunities to expand Nasdaq’s index offering with quality products that deepen our relationships with the investing community. DWA provides a natural complement to our business and growth strategy.”

Subject to customary conditions and approvals, Nasdaq will acquire DWA for $225 million funded through a mix of debt and cash on hand. Nasdaq expects the acquisition will be accretive to the company’s earnings at closing, excluding transaction-related costs, and does not expect a material impact on Nasdaq’s financial leverage or capital return strategy. The acquisition will further support the company's efforts to deliver consistent and stable returns to shareholders.

"Smart Beta represents one of the fastest growing sectors within the ETF market," said Tom Dorsey, President, Dorsey Wright & Associates. “This deal will allow us to grow significantly, while continuing to create products and strategies that meet the needs of our clients.”

Nasdaq intends to fuel DWA’s growth strategy by accelerating product development, raising awareness of the DWA indexes and increasing the base of potential market participants through its global distribution network. Nasdaq’s ability to create innovative indexes, its long-term relationships with ETF providers, and DWA’s analytical capabilities and smart-beta models are expected to lead to new products in more asset classes, including fixed income, currencies and commodities, and facilitate international expansion of the DWA offerings, beginning in Canada and Europe.

Additionally, there are opportunities for Nasdaq technology to enhance DWA’s web-based advisor tools used to deliver DWA’s methodology into tactical asset allocation models. The enhancements will create more opportunities for financial advisors as the market continues to move toward model-based investing.

Historically, Nasdaq has a proven ability to bolster acquired companies’ index businesses by leveraging its distribution, technology and product generation capabilities. This is best exemplified by the acquisition of the index business of Mergent in 2012. In the two years since the deal was completed, the index business of Mergent has over-achieved its business targets and returns, resulting in licensed asset growth of 100 percent.

Friedman concluded, “We intend to integrate the DWA team with our broader Nasdaq organization, leveraging DWA’s research expertise and deep relationships with the financial advisor community, and we expect to generate revenue synergies by deepening DWA’s licensing relationships with the ETF sponsor community globally.”

For more information, please contact Rob Hughes, Nasdaq Vice President/Head of Index and Advisor Solutions.
 

The NASDAQ Global Risk Managed Income Index is a rules-based, quantitatively enabled index designed to provide risk managed, globally diversified exposure to income-generating asset classes to produce a high yield for the risk taken. The Index consists of liquid, income-bearing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other exchange traded products across various asset classes to gain the diversified, risk managed exposure.

The First Trust ETF seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Index net of expenses. The investment strategy of the First Trust ETF is to invest in and hold constituent securities of the Index in the same proportion as they are reflected in the Index or securities intended to replicate the performance of the Index.

“NASDAQ’s suite of Dividend and Income indexes have long been standard benchmarks, and we are proud First Trust has launched a product on one of the most innovative income indexes in the market,” said Dave Gedeon, Managing Director, NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes. “NASDAQ’s partnership with Newfound Research has resulted in an expansion of income investing from the traditional to the technical.”

“We are pleased to partner with NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes and Newfound on a strategy that we believe provides a compelling income solution for Canadian investors,” said Fraser Howell, chief executive officer of FT Portfolios Canada Co. “In the current low yield environment where many investors and advisors actively hunt for the dual goals of income generation and risk mitigation, we feel our new First Trust ETF (TSX:ETP) may provide the flexibility to potentially achieve both objectives.”

For more information, contact:

Rob Hughes
Vice President, Sales and Business Development
NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes
Direct: +1 212 401 8987
Robert.Hughes@nasdaqomx.com

The appetite for fixed-income investments remains strong among Canadian investors despite a prolonged period of record-low yields. When interest rates eventually rise, many Canadian fixed-income investors may be surprised by the negative effect on their portfolios.

Historically, a laddered bond strategy has helped reduce the risks associated with rising interest rates, but managing a fixed-income portfolio requires expertise.

PowerShares Canada today announced the listing of two new smart beta exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) that aim to help investors interested in fixed income strategies.

One of them, the PowerShares LadderRite U.S. 0-5 Year Corporate Bond Index ETF, is based on the new NASDAQ LadderRite 0-5 Year USD Corporate Bond Index . The index is designed to give investors exposure to a laddered basket of U.S.-dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds. USB has a low management fee of 0.25%. The ticker symbol "USB" represents Canadian-dollar-denominated units, while "USB.U" represents U.S.-dollar-denominated units.

For more information, please contact:

Rob Hughes
Vice President, Sales and Business Development
NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes
Direct: +1 212 401 8987
Robert.Hughes@nasdaqomx.com

NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes has partnered with ETRE Financial to create The NASDAQ ETRE REIT Index family, a unique way to provide smart-beta exposure to the U.S. real estate market through the usage of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) security types. The Indexes include five REIT sector specific Indexes plus a composite index.

The 12 new indexes available today are:

Index: Symbol

NASDAQ ETRE Composite REIT Index: NQETRE
NASDAQ ETRE Composite REIT Total Return Index: NQETRET
NASDAQ ETRE Healthcare REIT Index: NQETHC
NASDAQ ETRE Healthcare REIT Total Return Index: NQETHCT
NASDAQ ETRE Hospitality REIT Index: NQETH
NASDAQ ETRE Hospitality REIT Total Return Index: NQETHT
NASDAQ ETRE Office REIT Index: NQETO
NASDAQ ETRE Office REIT Total Return Index: NQETOT
NASDAQ ETRE Residential REIT Index: NQETRR
NASDAQ ETRE Residential REIT Total Return Index: NQETRRT
NASDAQ ETRE Retail REIT Index: NQETR
NASDAQ ETRE Retail REIT Total Return Index: NQETRT

The indexes use ETRE Financial’s proprietary Enterprise Value (EV) methodology to weight components based on the total value of the underlying properties of the REIT, rather than the traditional market cap equity value of the component. This improved approach to tracking real estate valuations is designed to bring a higher level of understanding to the tracking, trading, investing, and benchmarking of exchange-traded real estate. The unique NASDAQ ETRE REIT Indexes methodology allows investors to take advantage of changes and velocity of market cycles.

Click here for NASDAQ ETRE REIT Indexes Methodology.

John Jacobs, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Information Services, addresses the growth of Dividend & Income Index Strategies in the first installment of his video series.

Transcript: Since 2007, 2008, since the financial crisis, it’s been very difficult for institutional and individual investors to find yield. So dividend investing has a lot of advantages because it guarantees investors a yield on their portfolio instead of just relying on the performance of the stock, or the underlying stocks in the ETF. So with the acquisition of the Dividend Achievers suite of products, we can marry that with our income family of products and offer investors a suite of different indexes to use. The indexes are a basis for a variety of ETFs and other types of products and it’s another stepping stone for NASDAQ as we continue to build out our Global Index business, which has become multi-asset class and, as well, multi-different investment style.

NASDAQ OMX and Chaikin Analytics, LLC announced the launch of three NASDAQ Chaikin Power Indexes today: the NASDAQ Chaikin Power US Large Cap Index (NQULCHK), the NASDAQ Chaikin Power US Small Cap Index (NQUSCHK), and the NASDAQ Chaikin Power US Dividend Achievers Index (NQDACHK). These new indexes are rules-based, quantitatively enabled investment strategies designed to outperform their peers and the market based on the Chaikin Power Gauge, a multi-factor quantitative model.

Referred to as enhanced alpha indexes, the NASDAQ Chaikin Power Indexes filter the NASDAQ US 300 Index, NASDAQ US 1500 Index and NASDAQ US Broad Dividend Achievers Index. The NASDAQ Chaikin Power Indexes are available to fund managers, advisors and investors for licensing and implementation through separately managed accounts and ETFs.

Read more here. 

We are excited to announce that Invesco PowerShares launched the Invesco PowerShares International BuyBack Achievers Portfolio (IPKW) exchange traded fund (ETF) on The NASDAQ Stock Market, providing investors efficient access to a portfolio of global companies classified as International BuyBack Achievers.

The ETF is based on the NASDAQ International BuyBack Achievers Index, which comprises international securities, excluding the United States, issued by corporations that have repurchased at least of 5% or more of outstanding shares in the trailing 12 months.
"Our U.S.-focused flagship fund, the PowerShares BuyBack Achievers Portfolio (PKW), has achieved a competitive long-term track record demonstrating the investment merit of the BuyBack Achievers methodology, and more broadly of smart beta," says Lorraine Wang, Invesco PowerShares global head of ETF products and research. "The PowerShares International BuyBack Achievers Portfolio (IPKW) expands the range of tools investors can use to efficiently allocate the BuyBack Achievers strategy across the globe."

The NASDAQ International BuyBack Achievers Index is the latest index in NASDAQ OMX’s popular Dividend AchieversTM index family. The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers are an objective composite of companies with a history of increasing dividend payouts. This select group of companies is committed to enhancing shareholder value through the return of capital to shareholders.