Wall Street Wants To Bring Diamonds To The ETF Market
IndexIQ is the backing company, which over the past five years has bought 14 other ETFs.
While gold has seen a huge increase over the past few years along with gold ETFs, a diamond-centered ETF has yet to be created.
From the NYT.com
In addition, Martin Rapaport, who founded a popular gauge of diamond pricing, said in a recent interview that he was preparing to release a “few” products this year that would be available to retail investors. He declined to describe them.
In perhaps the most developed plan, the largest publicly traded diamond company, Harry Winston, is working with a Swiss asset manager to create a $250 million fund that is set to begin buying half-carat to six-carat diamonds this year with money from institutional investors like hedge funds and pensions. The fund would own diamonds bought and sold in Harry Winston stores and sell shares to private investors.
The story quotes Edahn Golan, the editor-in-chief of INDEX Online, in saying "Diamond is the last uncommoditized commodity, and so it's drawing in may organizations. I assume that by the end of this year there will be a bunch of them out."