The failure of Direxion's first non-leveraged ETF to take flight is not stopping Andy O'Rourke from exploring alternatives. Buried at the bottom of Barron's coverage of Legg Mason's ETF filing last week, there is a hint of the direction O'Rourke is taking Direxion [profile].

O'Rourke, Diexion's chief marketing officer, told Barron's that the firm is looking at adding plain-vanilla ETFs in mid December. The five new ETFs will take the firm into the alternatives space. Three of the ETFs will invest around volatility themes while the final pair will focus on stocks with insider's buying and selling.

That is a shift in the conservative direction for the second-largest provider of leveraged ETFs.

"While we've been known for funds that are best suited for active traders, the vast majority of the market is interested in longer-term investment horizons."

O'Rourke has made this move before. In October Direxion closed a non-leveraged ETF that tracked airline stocks due to lack of interest. 

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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