NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - March 14, 2016) - Blue Tractor Group, LLC ("Blue Tractor") today announced that Blue Tractor Group, LLC and Blue Tractor ETF Trust have filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") seeking exemption and relief from select provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "'40 Act") for a novel exchange traded fund ("ETF") structure called a Shielded Alpha℠ ETF (together, the "Application").

A Shielded Alpha℠ ETF is a hybrid structure incorporating the structural attributes and efficiency of a transparent actively managed ETF, while completely shielding the fund's alpha generation strategy and trading from the market. The patent pending algorithms facilitate pricing, hedging and arbitrage without third-party involvement and at no point are the fund's portfolio holdings known to anyone except for the fund and its custodian.

Terence (Terry) Norman, Founder of Blue Tractor and the originator of the novel concepts underpinning the Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure commented, "We are very pleased to have submitted our Application and look forward to working with the SEC over the coming months. It is important to emphasize that a Shielded Alpha℠ ETF is not a non-transparent ETF since with our structure the market will have daily insight into at least 90% of the holdings in the underlying fund portfolio. However, actual holdings and weightings are shielded so that the portfolio is completely unknown, preventing any risk of reverse engineering and related issues such as front running and free riding."

With trillions of dollars of assets under management in the U.S. flowing to passive indexed mutual funds and transparent ETFs at the expense of actively managed mutual funds, it is becoming a strategic imperative to be able to offer investors actively managed products that confer the efficiency and lower cost of a transparent ETF, while still preserving proprietary alpha strategies. Blue Tractor's Shielded Alpha℠ ETF offers active managers an elegant solution.

Simon Goulet, Co-Founder of Blue Tractor added, "Since early 2015 we have been speaking to market makers, exchanges, issuers and the SEC. These discussions were very helpful to refine the unique attributes of the Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure and ensure that we address concerns related to pricing, hedging, arbitrage and the '40 Act. Blue Tractor's business strategy is to speak with all parties interested in active management and work with select issuers and the SEC to bring this product to market."

Blue Tractor's Application was prepared by Michael W. Mundt, a Partner in the Washington DC office of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP and is available for review on the SEC's website through the EDGAR database www.sec.gov and at www.bluetractorgroup.com. 

About Blue Tractor Group

Founded in 2015, Blue Tractor Group, LLC develops proprietary solutions to facilitate novel exchange traded fund products. Blue Tractor's Shielded Alpha℠ ETF structure (patent pending) allows for an active fund management strategy within an ETF wrapper that shields a manager's proprietary alpha strategy. Please visit www.bluetractorgroup.com for additional information.