First Trust Begins Trading The “First Trust BICK Index Fund” (BICK) Today
First Trust began trading the “First Trust BICK Index Fund” (BICK) today. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the Fund’s fees and expenses) of an equity index called the ISE BICK (TM) (Brazil, India, China, South Korea) Index (the “Index”). The Index is designed to provide a benchmark for investors interested in tracking the largest and most liquid public companies that are domiciled in Brazil, India, Mainland China and South Korea. The Index has been created to provide investors an opportunity to take advantage of both event-driven news and long-term economic trends as the economies of these countries continue to evolve.
The Index uses an equal weighted allocation methodology for each country in the Index so that each country represents 25% of the Index at each rebalance, as
well as an equal weighted allocation methodology for all components within a country allocation. International Securities Exchange (“ISE” or the “Index
Provider”) reviews the Index components each March, June, September and December of each year for eligibility and weighs the Index according to that
distribution. The components for the Index are identified as such using the eligibility criteria set forth in the prospectus under “Index Information.”
Changes are announced on ISE’s publicly available website at www.ise.com.
Index Description
The ISE BICK (TM) (Brazil, India, China, South Korea) Index provides a benchmark for investors interested in tracking the largest and most liquid public companies that are domiciled in Brazil, India, Mainland China and South Korea. The Index has been created to provide investors with an opportunity to take advantage of both event-driven news and long term economic trends as the economies of these countries continue to evolve. The Index uses an equal weighted allocation methodology for each country in the Index so that each country represents 25% of the Index at each rebalance, as well as an equal weighted allocation methodology for all components within a country allocation. Index components are reviewed quarterly for eligibility, and the weights are re-set according to that distribution.
Index Construction
Component Eligibility Requirements
All of the following requirements must be met in order for a company to be eligible for inclusion:
1. The component security issuer must be domiciled in Brazil, India, Mainland China or South Korea.
2. The component security must not be listed on an exchange in a country which employs restrictions on foreign capital investment such that those restrictions render the component effectively non-investible, as determined by the ISE.
3. Must be an operating company and not a closed-end fund, exchange-traded fund, holding company, investment vehicle or royalty trust.
The following market capitalization and weighting concentration requirements
must also be satisfied:
1. Each component security has a market capitalization of at least $100 million.
2. No single component stock represents more than 24% of the weight of the Index, and the cumulative weight of all components with an individual weight of 5% or greater do not in the aggregate account for more than 50% of the weight of the Index. This particular equirement will be satisfied at the conclusion of the Index’s semi-annual rebalance periods.
The ISE will, in most cases, use the quantitative ranking and screening system described herein. However, subjective screening based on fundamental analysis or other factors may be used, if in the opinion of the ISE certain components should be included or excluded from the Index.
Initial Component Selection
The following steps are taken to select the initial components for the Index:
1. Establish total population of exchange listed common shares and depository receipts for companies domiciled in Brazil, India, Mainland China and South Korea.
2. Remove companies that do not meet the Component Eligibility Requirements.
3. If a component has multiple share classes, include the most liquid issue for that company (using average daily value traded during the prior six-month period) and remove the remaining classes.
4. For each country, rank each security in descending order by market capitalization (1 assigned to largest) and in descending order by liquidity (1 assigned to most liquid).
5. For each country, calculate the overall rank for each component using the following formula: Final Rank = (Market Cap Rank * 33.333%)+(Liquidity Rank*66.667)
6. For each country, select the 25 top ranked securities (lowest score represents the highest rank).
7. If a country has less than 25 eligible securities, select what is eligible.
8. Adjust each component’s weighting to an equal weight within its country’s aggregate weight.
9. Set liquidity thresholds by setting the percentage of three month average daily value traded threshold to 1000% and investment threshold to $100 million.
10. Determine component percentage of average daily value traded given the investment threshold and the calculated weight of the component.
11. If component percentage of average daily value traded is less than the percentage average daily value traded threshold then that weight does not need to be adjusted.
12. If component percentage of average daily value traded is greater than the percentage average daily value traded threshold then assign new component weight such that percentage of average daily value traded is equal to the percentage average daily value traded threshold.
13. Repeat steps 8 through 10 until all component percentage of average daily value traded is less than or equal to the percentage average daily value traded threshold.
The Index portfolio does not have a fixed number of components and attempts to include every stock in the industry that meets the eligibility requirements contained herein.
Related posts:
- United States Commodity Funds To Begin Trading The United States Copper Index Fund Today, November 15th
- First Trust Files For First Trust CBOE VIX Tail Hedge Index Fund ETF
- Rydex To Begin Trading The CurrencyShares Chinese Renminbi Trust (FXCH) Today, October 4th
- FaithShares Christian Values Fund ETF (FOC) Will Cease Trading At The End Of The Day Today
- Teucrium To Begin Trading The Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT) Today


Most Comments