Precidian's Nikkei ETF Bursts Out Of The Gate

One may be the loneliest and it's certainly tricky for ETF issuers to flourish with just one fund in their stables, bu Precidian Funds is off to a stellar start with the MAXIS Nikkei 225 Index Fund NKY, which isn't even a month old yet. Despite a terrible environment for Japanese stocks and the crumbling of global equity markets in recent weeks, NKY, which debuted on July 13th, has accumulated over $100 million in assets under management, according to Precidian. That's an astonishing total for an ETF that isn't even a month old and a haul that would make some ETFs that are multiple years old green with envy. With an expense ratio of 0.5%, NKY holds 225 stocks and is the first ETF available to U.S. investors to focus specifically on the Nikkei 225 Index. The ETF has proven to be a hit with global macro hedge fund managers as it is believed some $80 billion globally is benchmarked to the Nikkei 225, according to FINAlternatives. “While the initial participants were the index arbitrageurs, more recently it has gained traction with global macro hedge funds and we expect that all other investing segments will follow in the near future,” Precidian principle J. Stuart Thomas said in an interview with FINAlternatives. Only time will tell if NKY proves to be a legitimate rival to the iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund EWJ, which has nearly $7.4 billion in assets under management, but it is obvious NKY is off to a solid start. Plus the rookie ETF has a lower expense ratio than EWJ, which has fees of 0.54%/