If It’s Not Crowded Enough….

here’s one that Jake will like…

PowerShares is seeking to capitalize on the “luck of the Irish,” by filing for the PowerShares Ireland Portfolio, which will track the Nasdaq OMX Ireland Index. This index is cap weighted and companies must have a minimum market cap of $200 Million and an average daily volume of $1 Million over a three month period to be included. True to copycat form, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has also begun the registration process for an Ireland-based fund. There is currently no direct play on Ireland available through an ETF.

The world is awash in commodities. ELEMENTS has launched an new commodity ETN, the Elements S&P CTI ETN (LSC), which is the first commodity fund to provide a long/short strategy within an ETF or ETN framework. The fund incorporates 16 commodity futures across six different sectors and applies the ability to be either long or short these positions within the fund. This is the first fund of its kind and the historical index data suggests the fund maintains a very low correlation to both equity and commodity benchmarks. No back-data is available on this fund. The expense ratio is 0.75%.

 And finally, for all the “greenies” out there…

The First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund (FAN) is scheduled to begin trading tomorrow as the first securitized international compilation of companies that play a major role in the wind energy industry. The fund will seek investments in companies with direct exposure to the wind power industry and with a minimum market cap of $100 million. PowerShares is also seeking registration on a similar product, the PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio, which is expected to begin trading soon.

So many choices….