Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc. and AlphaPro Management Inc. launched the Horizons Auspice Managed Futures Index ETF on Tuesday, providing investors with a new vehicle for exposure to managed futures.

The fund offers investors exposure to the Auspice Managed Futures Excess Return Index – a managed futures index developed by Calgary-based Auspice Capital Advisors Ltd.

The Auspice Index seeks to benefit from trends in the commodity and financial futures markets. It takes long and short positions in 21 different assets for broad diversification, including currencies, interest rates, commodities and other financial instruments.

“The Auspice Managed Futures Index uses a robust risk management and dynamic trend following strategy which endeavours to provide superior risk-adjusted returns,” said Howard Atkinson, CEO of Horizons ETFs. “We’re very excited to be able to partner with Auspice to offer this index strategy to the Canadian marketplace in an innovative ETF structure.”

Performance of the Auspice Index is most impressive during extreme bear markets, according to Horizons ETFs. The company notes that because managed futures strategies can invest long or short, they can deliver positive returns when other investments don’t.

The Horizons Auspice Managed Futures Index ETF is the third managed futures ETF to launch so far this year.

“Managed futures strategies have been around for more than 30 years. They are popular with many institutional and alternative strategy investors because they tend to deliver returns non-correlated to traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds,” said Atkinson. “Typically, products that employ managed futures strategies have only been available to accredited investors, but this new ETF now offers all investors exposure to a managed futures strategy.”

Class E units and advisor class units of the new ETF began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday under the ticker symbols HMF and HMF.A, respectively.