Horizons ETFs has become the first ETF provider in the world to offer clients an interactive BlackBerry application. The Horizons ETF BlackBerry will allow users to track their investments, including daily updated quotes, without being in front of their computer.

The development of a BlackBerry app adds a new tool to the marketing of ETFs, which unlike mutual fund trusts trade on the markets. Horizons ETFs CEO, Howard Atkinson, believes a handheld ETF app for the BlackBerry friendly crowd of securities licensed advisors and brokers, will only further enhance the appeal of ETF investing.

“We’re an innovator in this space — we were the first in Canada in the leveraged ETFs — and we are the first ETF provider in the world to offer a BlackBerry application for ETF investors, which is certainly the most common device on Bay Street, Fleet Street and Wall Street,” Atkinson says.

The free application will give investors access to current pricing, with data delayed by 15 minutes, as well as learning tools and press coverage of Horizons ETFs. Ultimately, the firm hopes it will make ETF investing more transparent and convenient. Currently, the firm’s ETFs account for 63.5% of total trading volume among ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Of particular importance to investors in the firm’s leveraged ETF line-up is the daily rebalancing tool. Leveraged ETFs are rebalanced to match daily index performance. If an investor holds a BetaPro ETF longer than one day, there is no guarantee the fund will duplicate the performance of the underlying index. Much of the success of employing a leveraged ETF strategy requires monitoring the direction of the ETF.

The rebalancing tool is designed to lets users understand the impact of daily rebalancing in order to make sound investment decisions. It includes a mock portfolio to track selected ETFs and determine the potential impact of trades.

“We developed this tool during a period where there was a lot discussion about leveraged ETFs and the importance of understanding path dependent volatility,” Atkinson says.

For now, the application will just track the firm’s BetaPro ETFs. Atkinson says it hopes to expand the firm’s offerings to include Horizon’s growing AlphPro line-up of actively managed ETFs.

“Right now is just phase one, which we are informally referring to as ‘BetaPro on the go’,” Atkinson says.

(01/06/10)