Precious Metals

The industry in Europe Etp (exchange traded product, acronym, which includes all types of replicants) starts to close 2012 with a budget surplus. According to data from Etfgi, assets rose from $ 300 billion in 2011 to 359 (at the end of November 2012). The number of products, however, has risen from 1, 795 to 1, 934.

The collection is physical
Overall, net inflows totaled 27.2 billion, almost like the whole of 2011. But not all issuers have benefited equally. The collection, in fact, awarded to physical replication ETFs (ie bonds) than the synthetic ones (with derivatives). According to the data of Deutsche Bank (November 16), Lyxor and db x-trackers, the leading provider of synthetic ETFs in Europe, recorded respectively spill Net 168 and 397 million euro. In contrast, iShares, which dominates the segment "physical", had inflows of 10.8 billion, winning about 68% of the new cash invested in replicating Europe.

The face of change in investors' preferences, the response of Lyxor and db x-trackers was ready. Both have decided to enter the arena of physical ETFs. The French began with the conversion of certain debt instruments indexed EuroMTS, while the Germans have chosen to offer investors the choice between the two methods on some products in specialized equity on the American, Japanese, English and German.

More and more discounts
Another trend that has characterized 2012 was that of the race for commission rebates . The "price war", as it is called, is still fought on both sides of the ocean. Lead was the American giant of passive funds, Vanguard, but later took to the field other actors, first of all iShares and Lyxor, which has recently added Invesco PowerShares.

There were, however, given the numbers of last year in the launch of new products. Year to date (in late November), in Europe, 170 ETFs have debuted against 363 in 2011. In most cases, it was linked instruments with emerging market debt and corporate, both very popular among investors. During the year, Piazza business has reached the 800 surrogates listed and was confirmed as the first electronic circuit for European contracts traded.

Bond, that passion
In terms of asset class, 2012 saw a change in the preferences of investors, with net flows which have surged to bond ETFs and more than halved for equities. Have also increased the funds allocated in Etp on raw materials, particularly precious metals. According to statistics Morningstar (as at the end of November), at the European level as purchased (in terms of estimated net cash flows) was the ' Etc Source physical gold and third place went to another replicant physical gold, the ' Etfs physical gold . On the second, however, is positioned iShares global corporate bonds , which specializes on corporate bonds.