For the third time in as many months, the team at Blue Tractor filed an exemptive relief application with the SEC. This attempt marks Blue Tractor's ninth since filing their first application in 2016.

Blue Tractor’s application centers around an active ETF structure called the Shielded Alpha ETF structure, a transparent model that would publish the composition of a fund's portfolio, but not the actual portfolio weightings.

One standout on this new application is that a Shielded Alpha ETF structure would now also be able to invest in foreign equity securities in markets that "trade contemporaneously with the U.S. So you think Canada, Brazil, Mexico, those kinds of markets," Simon Goulet, co-founder of Blue Tractor, tells MFWire.

Blue Tractor founder Terry Norman states that because asset managers would now be able to invest in foreign equity securities "in addition to domestic all-cap equity securities and ADRs," "the Shielded Alpha ETF structure could be used in connection with a wider range of investment strategies."

There's no word on when this could pass through the SEC, although Goulet is hopeful that they're getting closer to approval. After Precidian’s ActiveShares structure got SEC approval in April, other innovators with active ETF structures awaiting SEC approval have become increasingly optimistic that the SEC will allow their structures to join the marketplace. 

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