New Securities Product Tied to Home Prices
April 20, 2009 by Lela Davidson
Filed under Finance
MacroMarkets and WisdomTree Asset Management have come together of offer securities that are tied to home prices. WisdomTree will assist in the introduction of and education about two new products: MacroShares Major Metro Housing Up and MacroShares Major Metro Housing Down.
The MacroShares Major Metro Housing Trusts are designed to reflect trends in home price movements. The pair (Up and Down) will move in relation to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a widely followed barometer of residential housing prices in the U.S. Robert Shiller, co-founder and Chief Economist of MacroMarkets noted:
“Housing prices play a tremendous role influencing consumer confidence, the direction of the U.S. economy, and the value of related financial assets generally. By delivering greater market access, new price discovery and liquidity to this vital asset class, I believe the MacroShares Housing Trusts represent a remarkable innovation that will complement government efforts to better serve individual home owners and improve financial institutions.”
About the MacroShares Major Metro Housing Trusts
Like all MacroShares, the Major Metro Housing Trusts will be fully-collateralized by short term United States Treasury Bills, overnight repurchase agreements secured by Treasury securities and cash. In addition to addressing issuer and counterparty credit risk concerns that continue to mount in connection with certain other exchange-traded products, this collateral is also anticipated to generate quarterly distributions for MacroShares investors when interest income exceeds trust expenses.
Image Credit: woodleywonderworks, Flickr
