NYSE Active ETF Updates

Q&A with Fidelity Investments

This week we sit down with Greg Freidman at Fidelity Investments to discuss the company’s views and support of the active ETF market.

Fidelity has a long-standing track record as an active asset manager, having launched its first investment strategies over 70 years ago. The firm entered the active ETF market in 2014 with the launch of three active fixed income ETFs. Since then, the lineup has grown to include 25 active ETFs across fixed income and equity. What are your observations on how the active ETF market has evolved?

Since 2019, the active ETF market has seen a dramatic increase in fund launches and overall interest. From 2008 to 2018, 359 ETFs were launched compared to 2019 through June of 2023 where 1,010 active ETFs were launched. In other words, nearly three times the number of active ETFs were launched in under five years than the previous ten. ETF products, specifically active ETFs, continue to gain momentum in the industry. Fidelity is committed to being a leader in active management, and we continue to build on our history of active management in growing our comprehensive lineup of active ETFs. There is continued demand for innovative strategies and active ETFs to help meet investors’ evolving needs.

As a global asset manager what benefits and/or nuances come with operating an active ETF product lineup compared to other investment wrappers (i.e., Mutual Funds, CITs, etc.)?

Fidelity is a global asset manager with over 75 years of focus on strengthening and securing clients’ financial well-being. We have a heritage of active management and deep fundamental research, and we are committed to delivering those proven capabilities in a range of vehicles including mutual funds and ETFs. We are committed to offering clients choices to meet their investment needs. Both ETFs and mutual funds can offer investors exposure to a diversified basket of securities to help meet their financial goals and objectives – and it doesn’t have to be one or the other. If you’re interested in learning more about the different investment wrappers, Fidelity has a number of resources available at Fidelity.com/learning-center.

Fidelity is unique in offering active ETFs with various levels of transparency, why offer both transparent active ETFs and an ETF utilizing a proxy structure? Any early observations on adoption?

We continually evaluate our product lineup to help ensure it meets evolving client needs, and there are many factors considered when determining whether to use our transparent or semi-transparent* methodologies. We plan to use both methodologies on a case-by-case basis moving forward, and the “semi-transparent” construct is still an important tool for us at Fidelity.

What are some key considerations that investors should be aware of when considering actively managed ETFs?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to investing and there are different factors for investors to consider when building a portfolio. Whether active or passive, it is crucial for investors to understand what they are investing in and the investment strategy the ETF follows. Investors should choose the best option for their specific investing needs, keeping their time horizon, risk tolerance, financial circumstance and short- and long-term goals in mind before making any investment decision. Through active management at Fidelity, investors have access to funds that have the opportunity to outperform the benchmark through investment decisions by portfolio managers and research analysts. This provides investors many investment options to meet their distinct financial goals.

Lastly, what guidance would you provide sponsors as they consider expanding their product lineup to include actively managed ETFs?

As the active ETF industry grows, there are more resources available to those interested in expanding their product offering to include active ETFs. The NYSE is an important resource to establish and grow relationships across the ETF ecosystem to support various product offerings. Fidelity’s decades of investment expertise allow us to focus on growing our broad product lineup with innovative strategies that offer choice, value and new opportunities to investors. As we continue to grow our relationship with the NYSE, we now have 33 Fidelity ETFs listed with the exchange, including our flagship and largest active fixed income ETF, Fidelity Total Bond ETF (FBND).

Before investing in any mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, you should consider its investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses.

Contact Fidelity for a prospectus, an offering circular, or, if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.

*This ETF is different from traditional ETFs. Traditional ETFs tell the public what assets they hold each day. This ETF will not. This may create additional risks for your investment. For example: You may have to pay more money to trade the ETF’s shares. This ETF will provide less information to traders, who tend to charge more for trades when they have less information. The price you pay to buy ETF shares on an exchange may not match the value of the ETF’s portfolio. The same is true when you sell shares. These price differences may be greater for this ETF compared to other ETFs because it provides less information to traders. These additional risks may be even greater in bad or uncertain market conditions. The ETF will publish on its website each day a “Tracking Basket” designed to help trading in shares of the ETF. While the Tracking Basket includes some of the ETF’s holdings, it is not the ETF’s actual portfolio. The differences between this ETF and other ETFs may also have advantages. By keeping certain information about the ETF secret, this ETF may face less risk that other traders can predict or copy its investment strategy. This may improve the ETF’s performance. If other traders are able to copy or predict the ETF’s investment strategy, however, this may hurt the ETF’s performance. For additional information regarding the unique attributes and risks of the ETF, see section below. Additional Active ETF Disclosure: The objective of the actively managed ETF Tracking Basket is to construct a portfolio of stocks and representative index ETFs that tracks the daily performance of an actively managed ETF without exposing current holdings, trading activities, or internal equity research. The Tracking Basket is designed to conceal any nonpublic information about the underlying portfolio and only uses the Fund’s latest publicly disclosed holdings, representative ETFs, and the publicly known daily performance in its construction. You can gain access to the Tracking Basket and the Tracking Basket Weight overlap on Fidelity.com or i.Fidelity.com. Although the Tracking Basket is intended to provide investors with enough information to allow for an effective arbitrage mechanism that will keep the market price of the Fund at or close to the underlying NAV per share of the Fund, there is a risk (which may increase during periods of market disruption or volatility) that market prices will vary significantly from the underlying NAV of the Fund; ETFs trading on the basis of a published Tracking Basket may trade at a wider bid/ask spread than ETFs that publish their portfolios on a daily basis, especially during periods of market disruption or volatility, and, therefore, may cost investors more to trade, and although the Fund seeks to benefit from keeping its portfolio information secret, market participants may attempt to use the Tracking Basket to identify a Fund’s trading strategy, which, if successful, could result in such market participants engaging in certain predatory trading practices that may have the potential to harm the Fund and its shareholders. Because shares are traded in the secondary market, a broker may charge a commission to execute a transaction in shares, and an investor may incur the cost of the spread between the price at which a dealer will buy shares and the price at which a dealer will sell shares. For more information on each fund, please visit the individual product pages. The NYSE and Fidelity Investments are independent entities and are not legally affiliated. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917 1097457.1.0