Barclays has launched four new ETFs that will hold internationally diversified investments. These are funds of funds (or ETFs of ETFs) in a new product line called iShares Portfolio Builder Funds. ETF portfolios were introduced to the market by Claymore Investments in June 2007. The Barclays portfolios start out with holdings of 10 to 21 ETFs each, mainly iShares ETFs. Asset allocations will be determined by Barclays’ proprietary portfolio-optimization process, which seeks to maximize risk-adjusted return by factoring in key drivers of return and the correlations between asset classes. Among the fundamental factors employed in the Barclays model are interest rates, inflation, economic growth rates in various countries and regions, political uncertainty, credit quality, liquidity and exchange rates. The four ETF portfolios are:

• iShares Conservative Core Portfolio Builder
• iShares Growth Core Portfolio Builder
• iShares Global Completion Portfolio Builder
• iShares Alternative Completion Portfolio Builder

The management expense ratio is 0.6% for the first two and 0.7% for the last two.