Lanette Lam of Vancouver wins top prize in Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner 4

Women made up 17% of the 1,024 participants in the popular ETF trading competition, but took home six out of eight prizes.

TORONTO, July 31, 2014 /CNW/ - Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. ("Horizons ETFs") is pleased to name Lanette Lam of Vancouver, B.C. as the grand prize winner of Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner 4 Trading Competition (the "Competition") sponsored by National Bank Direct Brokerage ("NBDB").

Having had the highest six-week cumulative return of 17.9% in the Competition, Ms. Lam will take home the grand prize of $7,500 in cash.

The Competition, which ran from May 20 to June 27, 2014, had 1,024 participants. 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 70 ETFs offered in Canada by Horizons ETFs and its affiliates throughout regular trading days during the period.

Following Ms. Lam, the runner-up, Nandanie Ojha of Mississauga, Ont., won $2,500 for having the second highest six-week cumulative return of 15.5%. In addition, six weekly prizes of $500 were awarded to each of the best single week returns and four of these winners were women.

"Biggest Winner 4 is a testament to the fact that trading is no longer a 'Boys club'; while women were only about 17 per cent of the total number of participants, it was great  to see them take home the majority of the prizes," said Howard Atkinson, President of Horizons ETFs.

Compared to the past three Competitions, Biggest Winner 4 had the highest activation rate among its participants. Out of the 1,024 people that signed up for the Competition, over 74% followed through and participated in the contest. Over 11,500 individual trades were made during the contest period.

"We are proud to have sponsored a competition with such a high activation rate, and see investors of all levels enthusiastic to learn more about ETFs," said Nancy Paquet, President of NBDB. "Congratulations to all participants."

Ms. Lam's top trade came from a well-timed purchase of Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Gold Bull Plus ETF ("HGU"), which seeks daily investment results equal to 200% the daily performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index™. Ms. Lam held that position for 22 days, generating a hypothetical profit of 6.9% of her overall portfolio value on this single trade alone.

Ms. Ojha on the other hand, bet on low market volatility and invested in Horizons BetaPro S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures™ Inverse ETF ("HVI"), which seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses that aim to correspond to the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index™. She gained 7.75% in her final week due to trading HVI, which helped her finish the Competition as the runner-up.

Only 7% of the Competition's participants were advisors or professional money managers. Of the participants, 81% described themselves as investors without financial advisors, and 63% said they had never traded ETFs before.

"Looking at the participants that take part in Biggest Winner, we can see time and time again that there is a lot of investing talent among 'do-it-yourself' investors. The low-cost and diverse selection of ETFs gives these investors access to difficult-to-reach asset classes that many professional portfolio managers utilize," said Mr. Atkinson. "In each ETF competition, we are reminded that a curious mind and an ability to self-educate are the two keys to an investor, regardless of their expertise, performing well in various market conditions."

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 wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. National Bank Direct Brokerage offers no advice and makes no investment recommendations. The client alone is responsible for the financial and fiscal consequences of his or her investment decisions. National Bank Direct Brokerage is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

About National Bank of Canada
With $194 billion in assets as at April 30, 2014, National Bank of Canada (www.nbc.ca), together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada's leading integrated financial groups. The Bank has close to 20,000 employees and is widely recognized as a top employer. Its 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. With approximately $4.1 billion in assets under management and 70 ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (as at June 30, 2014), 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 Global Investments 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 Horizons Index ETFs ("Index ETFs"), Inverse ETFs ("Inverse ETFs"), VIX ETFs (defined below) and active 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. Each Index ETF or Inverse ETF seeks a return that is 100% or – 100%, respectively, of the performance of a specified Target for a single day. Due to compounding of daily returns, a Plus ETFs' or Inverse 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. The Horizons Exchange Traded Products whose Target is the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index™ (the "VIX ETFs"), one of which is a Plus ETF, one of which is an Index ETF and one of which is an Inverse ETF, as described in their prospectus, are speculative investment tools that are not conventional investments. The VIX ETFs' Target is highly volatile. As a result, the VIX ETFs are not generally viewed as stand-alone long-term investments. Historically, the VIX ETFs' Target has tended to revert to a historical mean. As a result, the performance of the VIX ETFs' Target is expected to be negative over the longer term and neither the VIX ETFs nor their Target are expected to have positive long-term performance. Investors should monitor their holdings, as frequently as daily, to ensure that they remain consistent with their investment strategies.

"Standard & Poor's®" and "S&P®" are registered trademarks of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P"). These marks have been licensed for use by Horizons ETFs. HVI is not sponsored, endorsed, sold, or promoted by S&P or its affiliated companies and S&P does not make any representation, warranty or condition regarding the advisability of buying, selling and holding units of HVI.

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 its products.

SOURCE Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc.