Cboe Australia continues to expand a range of listed funds that let advisers add specialist strategies to clients’ portfolios.

The country’s second largest exchange offers exclusive access to 28 listed funds, in addition to providing trading in all ASX listed securities. 

Its growing suite of listed funds highlights the continued growth of Cboe Australia. Its average daily share of overall local equity trading was more than 21% in the June quarter and its share of daily ETF trading rose to as much as 57% in the same period.

It also offers trading in more than 1000 warrants, some of which are again unavailable on the ASX.

Cboe Australia is the local subsidiary of Cboe Global Markets, which operates 26 exchanges around the world. It is an alternative trading venue in the Australian market and AUSIEX’s “best execution” policy means trading orders can be directed to it to obtain the best outcome for clients.

Cboe’s exclusive funds include vehicles from the world’s biggest investors, such as iShares by BlackRock, Janus Henderson, Lazard Asset Management and Global X. According to AUSIEX data, the value traded in Cboe-listed funds has grown steadily as a proportion of the total traded value in exchange traded products (ETPs) across ASX and Cboe Australia since 2022.

Many of the funds use thematic or specialist strategies. The newest listings include the Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Active ETF (CXA: GIFL), the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (CXA: IBTC) and five factor ETFs from Blackrock iShares. 

The Lazard fund provides investors and advisers access to an actively managed ETF portfolio of 25-50 listed infrastructure companies with higher revenue predictability, profitability and lower volatility. It is a unit class of the A$2 billion Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Fund which launched in 2005. 

Local asset managers such as Elstree Investment Management, Coolabah Capital Investments and Australian Ethical have also listed their funds on the exchange.

Cboe Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Emma Quinn, said its parent prides itself both on technology and the competition it brings to each market in which it operates.

“Our technology is all proprietary – we don’t take it from vendors. That means we’re able to bring innovation to markets, such as a new ‘Post Order’ type in Australia, to encourage liquidity and meet different investors’ trading needs,” Quinn said.

“We’re proud of the fact that competition brings reduced costs and certainty. Cboe being in Australia means the end investor, in our view, should be paying less for their regular trading,” Quinn says.

Monochrome’s Bitcoin ETF was Australia’s first to hold bitcoin directly and the first under a new Australian crypto-asset licensing category. Two other crypto-asset ETFs, the Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (CXA: EBTC) and Global X 21Shares Ethereum ETF (CXA: EETH) are also listed on Cboe. 

The biggest exchange traded products unique to Cboe Australia include the Talaria Global Equity Fund (CXA: TLRA) and the AB Managed Volatility Equities Fund (Managed Fund) – MVE Class (CXA: MVE).

The former was the among the largest holdings for advisers across all Cboe-listed securities in August, according to AUSIEX data. It also received its highest monthly inflows from advisers using the AUSIEX platform in July 2024. It is a high conviction value fund that holds approximately 32% of its assets in US companies and Europe ex UK stocks respectively. 

Fixed interest funds available via Cboe Australia include theJanus Henderson Income Active ETF (CXA: TACT), Coolabah’s Active Composite Bond Fund (CXA:FIXD) and the Elstree Hybrid Fund (CXA: EHF1). The Janus Henderson fund is an active vehicle that seeks to achieve a total return after fees that exceeds the returns of the Bloomberg AusBond Bank Bill Index and Bloomberg AusBond Composite 0+ Yr Index equally weighted. It delivered a net return of 6.35% in the year to July 31 and 2.49% in the five years to the same date.

Quinn said that Cboe’s 100% uptime rate reflects the reliability of its platform and that it will continue to focus on bringing innovation to the Australian market.

In the hunt for diversification and pinpoint exposures, it is important to consider all avenues and Australia’s second largest exchange has some unique offerings which may just fit the bill.