June 18, 2010

SEA has begun to trade again via ARCA. The new investment fund is now named the Claymore Shipping ETF.

The new Claymore Shipping ETF is trading under the same SEA ticker as its predecessor fund, Delta Global Shipping Index ETF. It will be interesting to see if the name changes again, since Guggenheim Partners acquired Claymore Group last summer.

Initial trading volumes in this new fund suggest that investor appetite for the shipping sector remains strong on the back of global recovery and growth stories such as Canada, Russia, and of course, China.

As before, the fund allocation is heavily weighted toward Greek shipping names so this fund has some currency risk associated with it. The recent (2010) bailout of Greece by the EU has not helped investor optimism for Greek shipping companies on the whole.

Because ETFs are traded on the exchange, fund prices can vary throughout the trading day. This intraday liquidity makes the fund attractive to traders as well as investors looking to hold their shares long enough to qualify for long term capital gains treatment.