Harvest Portfolio Groups announced March 6 the launch of the Harvest European Leaders Income ETF. The new exchange-traded fund offering is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HEUR:TSX.

“The Harvest European Leaders Income ETF's investment objectives are to provide unitholders with monthly cash distributions; the opportunity for capital appreciation; and lower overall volatility of portfolio returns than would otherwise be experienced by owning equity securities of the European leaders directly,” stated Harvest in an announcement.

Covered call options

To achieve lower overall volatility of portfolio returns, the new ETF will generally write covered call options on up to 33 per cent of the portfolio securities. The level of covered call option writing may vary based on market volatility and other factors, says the company.

"Europe houses some of the most established and innovative business in the world, it was only logical for Harvest to add an ETF of true business leaders to our lineup of Equity Income ETFs," says Michael Kovacs, president and chief executive officer, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.