Why Active ETFs Matter During Volatile Times

By Dan Hughes

The New York Stock Exchange’s ETF Leaders series profiles Vaughan Nelson Investment Management’s Client Portfolio Manager Dan Hughes.

The New York Stock Exchange’s ETF1 Leaders series profiles Vaughan Nelson Investment Management’s Client Portfolio Manager Dan Hughes on how the firm’s active approach has navigated market volatility, Fed policy moves, inflation, geopolitical strife and more. Highlights of the interview:
  • Previously broadly diversified, the S&P 500’s largest holdings are now focused on large-cap tech growth securities. As a result, broad market diversification has been eroding in the last few years as the factors that contribute to performance are based on a single monolithic trade.
  • In response to this challenged market diversification coupled with market volatility, Vaughan Nelson has been hearing a consistent message from large institutions all the way down to their retail clients – a desire for true active management and true diversification.
  • The firm’s fundamental valuation-biased, research-driven approach aims to deliver a concentrated, high active share, factor-diversified portfolio, which, importantly, allows the team to place capital where it’s going to “be treated best.”
1 An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is a marketable security that tracks an index, commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. ETFs trade like common stock on a stock exchange and experience price fluctuations throughout the day as they are bought and sold.

ETF General Risk: Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) trade like stocks, are subject to investment risk, and will fluctuate in market value. Unlike mutual funds, ETF shares are not individually redeemable directly with the Fund, and are bought and sold on the secondary market at market price, which may be higher or lower than the ETF's net asset value (NAV). Transactions in shares of ETFs will result in brokerage commissions, which will reduce returns.

Active ETF: Unlike typical exchange-traded funds, there are no indexes that the Fund attempts to track or replicate. Thus, the ability of the Fund to achieve its objectives will depend on the effectiveness of the portfolio manager. There is no assurance that the investment process will consistently lead to successful investing.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are volatile and can decline significantly in response to broad market and economic conditions.

Non-Diversified Risk: Non-diversified funds invest a greater portion of assets in fewer securities and therefore may be more vulnerable to adverse changes in the market.

Value Investing Risk: Value investing carries the risk that a security can continue to be undervalued by the market for long periods of time.

Predatory Trading Practices Risk: Although the Fund seeks to benefit from keeping its portfolio holdings information secret, market participants may attempt to use the Proxy Portfolio and related Proxy Portfolio Disclosures to identify the Fund’s holdings and trading strategy. If successful, this could result in such market participants engaging in predatory trading practices that could harm the Fund and its shareholders.

Proxy Portfolio Structure Risk: Unlike traditional ETFs that provide daily disclosure of their portfolio holdings, the Fund does not disclose the daily holdings of the Actual Portfolio. Instead, the Fund discloses a Proxy Portfolio that is designed to reflect the economic exposure and risk characteristics of the Fund’s Actual Portfolio on any given trading day. Although the Proxy Portfolio and Proxy Portfolio Disclosures are intended to provide Authorized Participants and other market participants with enough information to allow them to engage in effective arbitrage transactions that will keep the market price of the Fund’s shares trading at or close to the underlying NAV per share of the Fund, while at the same time enabling them to establish cost-effective hedging strategies to reduce risk, there is a risk that market prices will vary significantly from the underlying NAV of the Fund.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: Only an authorized participant (“Authorized Participant”) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as Authorized Participants, none of which are or will be obligated to engage in creation or redemption transactions. To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem Creation Units, Fund shares may trade at a discount to NAV and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting. The Fund’s novel structure may affect the number of entities willing to act as Authorized Participants, and this risk may be exacerbated during times of market stress.

Trading Issues Risk: Trading in Fund shares on the NYSE Arca may be halted in certain circumstances. If 10% or more of the Fund’s Actual Portfolio does not have readily available market quotations, the Fund will promptly request that the NYSE Arca halt trading in the Fund’s shares. Such trading halts may have a greater impact on the Fund compared to other ETFs due to its lack of transparency.

Premium/Discount Risk: The market value of the Fund’s shares will fluctuate, in some cases materially, in response to changes in the Fund’s NAV, the intraday value of the Fund’s holdings, and the relative supply and demand for the Fund’s shares on the exchange. There is a risk (which may increase during periods of market disruption or volatility) that market prices for Fund shares will vary significantly from the Fund’s NAV. This risk may be greater for the Fund than for traditional ETFs that disclose their full portfolio holdings on a daily basis because the publication of the Proxy Portfolio does not provide the same level of transparency as the publication of the full portfolio by a fully transparent active ETF.

Fixed Income Securities Risk: Fixed income securities may carry one or more of the following risks: credit, interest rate (as interest rates rise bond prices usually fall), inflation and liquidity.

Below Investment Grade Securities Risk: Below investment grade fixed income securities may be subject to greater risks (including the risk of default) than other fixed income securities.

Foreign and Emerging Market Securities Risk: Foreign and emerging market securities may be subject to greater political, economic, environmental, credit, currency and information risks. Foreign securities may be subject to higher volatility than US securities, due to varying degrees of regulation and limited liquidity. These risks are magnified in emerging markets.

Interest Rate Risk: Interest rate risk is a major risk to all bondholders. As rates rise, existing bonds that offer a lower rate of return decline in value because newly issued bonds that pay higher rates are more attractive to investors.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) trade like stocks, are subject to investment risk, and will fluctuate in market value. Unlike mutual funds, ETF shares are not individually redeemable directly with the Fund, and are bought and sold on the secondary market at market price, which may be higher or lower than the ETF's net asset value (NAV). Transactions in shares of ETFs will result in brokerage commissions, which will reduce returns. Unlike typical exchange-traded funds, there are no indexes that an active ETF attempts to track or replicate. Thus, the ability of an active ETF to achieve its objectives will depend on the effectiveness of the portfolio manager.

Active share is a measure of the differentiation of the holdings of a portfolio from the holdings of its appropriate passive benchmark index.

Factor analysis identifies performance catalysts for a given security. This allows an investor to accurately isolate contributors of return.

This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. The views and opinions expressed above may change based on market and other conditions. There can be no assurance that developments will transpire as forecasted.

Diversification does not guarantee against loss.

Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Before investing, consider the fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit im.natixis.com for a prospectus or a summary prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully.

ALPS Distributors, Inc. is the distributor for the Natixis Loomis Sayles Short Duration Income ETF, the Natixis Vaughan Nelson Mid Cap ETF, the Natixis Vaughan Nelson Select ETF, and the Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF. Natixis Distribution, LLC is a marketing agent. ALPS Distributors, Inc. is not affiliated with Natixis Distribution, LLC.

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