It was a busy month of March for 14 year old commodity ETF firm, ETF Securities. They launched three commodity-linked ETFs based on Bloomberg Indexes on March 30: All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy (BCD 34,07 +0,01 +0,03%), All Commodity Strategy (BCI 21,24 -0,21 -0,98%) and the Energy Commodity Longer Dated Strategy (BEF 25,57 +0,01 +0,03%).
Steven Dunn, Executive Director of the company told the RIA Channel on the sidelines of a Charles Schwab event recently that the advisor community is still interested in commodities, even in a strong dollar world. As a rule, a strong dollar equals weak gold. He singled out gold here because that’s their biggest fund.
“Gold has been forgotten somewhat, but it’s having a good year,” Dunn says. ETF Securities was the first to market with their Swiss Gold (SGOL 22,73 -0,42 -1,81%) ETF. That fund is up 10.16% year-to-date ending April 25. The Swiss Gold fund is their biggest claim to fame, but they tend to take a back seat to the mighty State Street Bank in Boston, whose SPDR Gold Trust (GLD 211,52 -1,22 -0,57%) ETF is one of the biggest funds in the world.
In the video, Dunn answers the question about the role precious metals play in a diversified portfolio. Key word is “insurance” here.
“There is no optimal allocation, ” he says. “But if there was an optimal allocation it is definitely never zero.”
ETF Securities’ three biggest funds are ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares, ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT 95,40 -1,54 -1,59%) and ETFS Physical Silver Shares (SIVR 29,52 -1,11 -3,62%) based on assets under management as of April 21. ETF Securities has around $22 billion in AUM worldwide, Dunn tells us.