BNY Mellon has been selected to provide exchange-traded fund (ETF) services, custody, fund accounting and fund administration for the AdvisorShares Rockledge SectorSAM ETF (NYSE: SSAM).
This mandate expands BNY Mellon’s relationship with AdvisorShares, which began in 2009, to include 12 ETFs with assets totalling more than USD420 million.
Sub-advised by Rockledge Advisors LLC, the new ETF seeks to generate stable and consistent annual returns under all market conditions by investing in both long and short positions in US sector ETFs that offer exposure to US large capitalisation equities. The ETF employs an actively managed and diversified equity sector rotation process based on a proprietary quantitative analysis known as the “Sector Scoring and Allocation Methodology.”
Utilising this analysis, the fund managers will buy long the sector ETFs that Rockledge forecasts to outperform the S&P 500 Index while also selling short an equal dollar amount of sector ETFs that are expected to underperform the S&P 500. The fund expects to hold equal amounts long and short, creating a dollar neutral portfolio.
“We expanded our relationship with BNY Mellon because of its ability to provide comprehensive support for alternative ETFs,” says Noah Hamman (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of AdvisorShares. “This new fund requires BNY Mellon to support our ability to take both long and short positions.”
“We continue to see an increasing array of ETF strategies being developed by our clients, including actively managed funds such as those created by AdvisorShares,” says Joseph Keenan, managing director and global head of exchange-traded fund services at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing. “BNY Mellon remains committed to the ongoing enhancement of its industry-leading ETF technology platform to facilitate the rapid evolution of the ETF business.”
