Regarding SMOG, Rakszawski says he hopes the new name and ticker aligns better with the increased focus on climate change.
“Our hope is that aligning our fund name and making a memorable ticker will help an ETF that has been in the market for some time, within a sub-segment of the market that has been around for some time. We hope it will get some attention with those that may not have been aware that it existed,” he says.
The fund has $95 million in assets under management and an expense ratio of 0.63 percent. Ycharts notes the former GEX had suffered from outflows. On a six-month basis prior to the name change, GEX lost $3.3 million in flows, and on a 10-year basis it lost $87.3 million. Rakszawski says flows in the space in general have been weak, although just before the name change he noted a pick up in flows. He couldn’t say why that occurred.
The GEX/SMOG fund launched in 2007 at the height of interest in green energy, when crude-oil prices peaked at $140 a barrel. Since then petroleum prices cratered and are trading around $60 a barrel. The lower oil prices have muted the previously strong interest in green energy.
Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA, says he doesn’t know if name changes in general help with attracting assets, but it can help increase investor awareness. More thematic ETFs are coming out with tickers that lend themselves to being connected to what the product is trying to accomplish.
“An ESG or clean energy-oriented product that has ‘smog’ in its name is certainly an appropriate way of doing it,” he says. “The changing of a ‘final frontiers’ ETF to have the ticker ROKT, which certainly gives me an image of a rocket for a space-related ETF, certainly fits into that.”
SMOG may benefit from an increase in interest in ESG-oriented products, Rosenbluth notes, and the environmental aspect of ESG is probably the easiest of the three pillars for investors to understand.
“Clean energy is increasingly in focus for investors. By directly connecting the dots to smog, the new ticker SMOG should hopefully help VanEck Vectors be on the radar for investors,” he says.
It probably helps that the firms that recently changed product names and tickers were from well-known fund providers such as State Street and VanEck. A small, independent shop like EventShares has a harder time commanding attention and is still working to educate people on what makes the product unique, Rosenbluth explains.
“This is a great example that an appealing ticker is not enough to gather investor interest,” he says.