Daniel Tsang of Calgary wins top prize in Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner 5

Calgary-based direct investor wins competition with a six week return of 21%.

TORONTO, June 10, 2015 /CNW/ - Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") and National Bank Direct Brokerage ("NBDB") are pleased to name Daniel Tsang, from Calgary, Alberta as the grand prize winner of Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner 5 Trading Competition (the "Competition"). For having the highest six-week cumulative return of 20.99% in the Competition, Mr. Tsang has been awarded the grand prize of $7,500.

The Competition, which ran from April 13 to May 22, 2015, had its highest number of registrants ever, with more than 1,600 registrants. For the Competition, eligible registrants opened up a fantasy brokerage account, which began with a balance of $100,000 in notional Canadian dollars (no actual money was traded). Registrants then used those fantasy funds to make simulated purchases and sales, of the more than 350 ETFs available to Canadian investors, throughout regular trading days during the Competition.

Nancy Kelly, from Cobourg, ON, won $2,500 for having the second highest six-week cumulative return of 18.68%. In addition, six weekly prizes of $500 were awarded to each of the best single week returns.

"Most major asset classes were in positive territory during the course of the competition, but generating more than 20% return over a six week period is phenomenal," said Howard Atkinson, President of Horizons ETFs. "In fact, each of the top 15 competitors had returns in excess of 10%. Most of these notional returns were generated through the effective use of leveraged ETFs."

This was the first time the Biggest Winner Competition was opened up to the entire universe of Canadian ETF products listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  Despite this, the top 20 traded ETFs were all ETFs that belong to the Horizons BetaPro family of leveraged and inverse ETFs.  The two most traded ETFs in the Competition were the Horizons NYMEX® Crude Oil Bull Plus and Bear Plus ETFs, (HOU and HOD,) which track two times the daily long and two times daily inverse performance of the NYMEX Crude Oil Futures, respectively.  

"I'm not surprised that competitors overwhelmingly decided to use our BetaPro ETFs. With a relatively short time horizon of only 6 weeks, maximizing returns is essential to winning," said Mr. Atkinson. "The BetaPro ETFs, which utilize leverage, are going to generally deliver the highest returns over a shorter time horizon, assuming the investor gets the directional call right on the asset class.  As we saw with the amount of trading in our leveraged crude oil ETFs, HOU and HOD, significant returns could be generated from the price movement of oil."

Mr. Tsang's top trade came from a well-timed purchase of the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX® Natural Gas Bull Plus ETF (HNU), which seeks daily investment results equal to 200% the daily performance of the NYMEX Natural Gas Futures. Mr. Tsang generated a 9.04% return on that one trade alone, when the unit price of HNU rose from his $3.29 purchase price to be sold at $4.50.

More than 20,000 individual trades were made during the contest period, an increase of more than 78% from the previous contest.

Another notable finding was the number of female registrants, which increased more than twofold over the last competition.

"Despite the fact that this this is the fifth edition of the competition, this was by far the highest number of participants we've had who had never traded an ETF. I think this only underscores the growing interest in ETFs amongst Canadian investors, particularly women." said Howard Atkinson. "While one group of competitors was clearly focused on winning the competition, the majority of registrants are by and large using this as a learning experience. We think for the most part, it's a very positive experience, where participants not only learn about the benefits of ETF investing, but also have fun!"

This was the third straight competition with National Bank Direct Brokerage as the exclusive sponsor of The Biggest Winner Competition.

"National Bank Direct Brokerage would like to congratulate Mr. Tsang and the rest of the prize winners for this year's Biggest Winner Competition," said Robert Girard, Senior Director at National Bank Direct Brokerage.  "This is the third time that we've partnered with Horizons ETFs to sponsor this competition, and each time it gets bigger, with more registrants, and more diverse competitors, with an increasing mix of skill levels, gender and geographic locations. This just underscores how accessible ETF investing is becoming for all Canadian investors."

In total, Horizons ETFs awarded $13,000 in cash prizes during the Competition, including 6 individual $500 prizes for portfolios with the best weekly returns. The winners were:

About National Bank Direct Brokerage
National Bank Direct Brokerage is a subsidiary of National Bank, the sixth largest bank in Canada and the leading financial institution in Quebec where it is the partner of choice among small- and medium-sized enterprises. It has branches in most Canadian provinces as well as numerous representative offices, subsidiaries and partnerships, through which it serves clients in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.

About National Bank of Canada
With $214 billion in assets as at January 31, 2015, National Bank of Canada (www.nbc.ca), together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada's leading integrated financial groups. The Bank has more than 20,000 employees and is widely recognized as a top employer. The Bank's securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA). Follow the Bank's activities via social media and learn more about its extensive community involvement at clearfacts.ca and commitment.nationalbank.ca.

About Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (www.HorizonsETFs.com)
Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. and its affiliate AlphaPro Management Inc. are innovative financial services companies offering the Horizons ETFs family of exchange-traded funds. The Horizons ETFs family includes a broadly diversified range of investment tools with solutions for investors of all experience levels to meet their investment objectives in a variety of market conditions. Horizons ETFs has more than $5.1 billion of assets under management and with 70 ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Horizons ETFs family makes up one of the largest families of ETFs in Canada. Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. and AlphaPro Management Inc. are members of the Mirae Asset Financial Group.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with an investment in exchange traded products managed by AlphaPro Management Inc. and Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (the "Horizons Exchange Traded Products"). The Horizons Exchange Traded Products are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing.

The Horizons Exchange Traded Products include the Horizons Bull Plus and Bear Plus ETFs ("Plus ETFs"). The Plus ETFs, and certain other Horizons Exchange Traded Products, use leveraged investment techniques that can magnify gains and losses and may result in greater volatility of returns. These Horizons Exchange Traded Products are subject to leverage risk and may be subject to aggressive investment risk and price volatility risk, which, where applicable, are described in their respective prospectuses. Each Plus ETF seeks a return, before fees and expenses, that is either 200% or -200% of the performance of a specified underlying index, commodity or benchmark (the "Target") for a single day. Due to compounding of daily returns, a Plus ETFs' returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount, and possibly the expected direction, from the performance of their respective Target(s) for the same period.

National Bank Direct Brokerage makes no representation or guarantee, whether explicit or implicit, as to the suitability of investing in exchange-traded funds, or does it endorse Horizons ETFs or the Horizons Exchange Traded Products.

SOURCE Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.

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