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Traditionally, ETFs tracked major stock and bond indexes; today, many funds follow more obscure indexes or have a manager who picks stocks.Getty Images/iStockphoto

Hahn Investment Stewards & Company Inc. has rebranded itself as Forstrong Global Asset Management Inc. and will sub-advise its first Canadian ETF with the launch of the Horizons Managed Global Opportunities ETF (HGM).

While Forstrong Global has been managing portfolios of ETFs for more than a decade now, this will be its first Canadian ETF.

HGM is actively managed and invests primarily in exchange traded products that are listed on North American stock exchanges and may be exposed to equity securities, fixed-income securities or currencies around the world, or to gold.

Management fees for HGM are 0.85 per cent, and 1.60 per cent for the adviser class.

Canada only represents 3 per cent of the MSCI's World Index, yet many Canadian investor portfolios typically have more than 50 per cent of their assets invested in domestic equities, says Forstrong.

"Through our first active ETF in Canada, we hope that investors can broaden the assets in their portfolio and open themselves up to the greater opportunities globally," says Tyler Mordy, president and chief investment officer of Forstrong Global in a statement.

Forstrong Global will apply a three-tier investment process to its fund management which combines long-term and short-term macroeconomic views, statistical analysis and currency management to determine growing global trends, while managing the downside risk.

Forstrong Global uses hedged and unhedged currency exposures to capitalize on their analysis, and to mitigate risk.

"Historically, Canadian investors have displayed a strong 'home bias' towards domestic asset classes; while patriotic, they have high concentration risk, especially in the financial and energy sectors that make up over half of domestic indices," says Howard Atkinson, president of Horizons ETFs. "The potential benefits of HGM are that it adds to the global diversification of one's portfolio, and offers a risk-based approach to managing asset allocation."

iShares Global Completion Portfolio Builder Fund also uses a similar strategy of using fund of funds.

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