A Solid Start For This New ETF

This has been another year of brisk new product launches from the exchange-traded funds industry as hundreds of new funds have come to market. As is often the case, some new ETFs take awhile to attract a following while others thrive right out of the gates.

Put the ClearShares OCIO ETF OCIO in the latter category. The ClearShares OCIO ETF is about three months and is already celebrating the $100 million in assets under management milestone. To be precise, the ClearShares OCIO ETF had $101.7 million in assets under management as of Sept. 26. 

“OCIO” stands for outsourced chief investment officer. The ETF is an actively managed, ETF of ETFs that holds both active and passive ETFs.

The Allure Of OCIO

As Benzinga reported in June when OCIO debuted, “OCIO holds 30 ETFs, all but three of which are iShares or Vanguard products. The largest holding in the new ETF accounts for nearly 4.8 percent of the fund's weight and OCIO's top 10 holdings combine for about 47 percent of the ETF's weight.” 

“ClearShares OCIO ETF deploys an active management focused on tactical asset allocation by a team of experienced investment professionals with multi-asset class, multi-market cycle experience,” said ClearShares in a statement. “The Fund seeks to outperform a traditional 60/40 mix of global equity and fixed-income investments.” 

Currently, OCIO provides investors with exposure to multiple asset classes, including U.S. equities, emerging markets stocks and ex-US developed market stocks as well as bonds.

Familiar Names

None of OCIO's holdings exceed a weight of 4.8 percent. Seven of OCIO's top 10 holdings are Vanguard funds and the other three are iShares ETFs. All of OCIO's top 10 holdings are low-fee ETFs.

Those ETFs include the Vanguard Value ETF VTV, the Vanguard Growth ETF VUG, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF IEMG and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV.

OCIO is up about 3 percent since coming to market.

Related Link: International Bond ETF Exposure