HealthShares Launches 9 New ETF’s

This morning HealthShares(TM) ETF’s, from XShares Advisors LLC, is launching 9 new ETF’s dedicated to various aspects of healthcare.  This is in addtion to the 5 launched in January, so there are now 14 different HealthShares ETF’s on the market.  Here are the ETF’s by sector:

HealthShares Autoimmune-Inflammation ETF (HHA)
HealthShares Cancer ETF (HHK)
HealthShares Cardiology ETF (HRD)
HealthShares GI/Gender Health ETF (HHU)
HealthShares Metabolic-Endocrine Disorders ETF (HHM)
HealthShares Neuroscience ETF (HHN)
HealthShares Opthamology ETF (HHZ)
HealthShares Respiratory/Pulmonary ETF (HHR)
HealthShares Composite ETF (HHQ)

Each ETF is comprised of 22 to 25 stocks, except the COMPOSITE with 80 stocks, and tracks their own intellectual models from XShares.  Each index is calculated independently by Standard & Poors.  As a reminder, XShares does allow foreign holdings in these to better expand its coverage universe to each ailment in medicine that it covers. 

This just goes to show you, ETF’s can be created very much into niche-oriented investment vehicles down to very specific strategies into sub-sectors of larger sectors.  More information can be found at the www.healthsharesinc.com web site. 

The one issue that has to be taken into consideration as each sector ETF turns into sub-sector ETF’s is the liquidity.  These are still liquid in a bid/ask spread, but traders may shy away from these with larger capital transactions because of the fact that trading volume is very thin and can even see days where no shares trade hands.  If the trading volume can be increased then investors on Main Street will have much more diversified access to invest into Wall Street sub-sectors.

Jon C. Ogg
March 12, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.