Montreal-based National Bank Investments Inc., a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada, has announced the launch of four ETFs, which began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

These ETFs represent National Bank’s entry into the growing ETF market.

“We believe our first ETFs provide a compelling way to gain non-traditional active and alternative niche exposure and diversify portfolio risk,” Annamaria Testani, vice-president of national sales, said in a statement.

The ETFs are:

> NBI Global Real Assets Income ETF (NREA), which aims to provide income and long-term capital growth while focusing on hedging against inflation. It invests, directly or indirectly, in a portfolio composed mostly of common shares of companies associated with real assets globally. Its management fee is 0.90%.

> NBI Active Canadian Preferred Shares ETF (NPRF), the investment objective of which is to generate tax-efficient dividend income while focusing on capital preservation. It invests, directly or through investments in securities of other mutual funds, in a portfolio composed primarily of preferred shares of Canadian companies and other income-generating securities of Canadian companies. Its management fee is 0.50%.

> NBI Canadian Family Business ETF (NFAM), which seeks to generate long-term capital growth by tracking the NBC Canadian Family Index, which measures the investment return of publicly listed Canadian family enterprises. To do this, NBI Canadian Family Business ETF invests, directly or indirectly, in a portfolio composed primarily of shares of family-owned Canadian companies. Its management fee is 0.35%.

> NBI Liquid Alternatives ETF (NALT), the investment objective of which is to provide a positive return while maintaining low correlation to, and lower volatility than, the return of the global equity markets. It will invest primarily in long and short positions on financial derivatives that provide exposure to different major global asset classes, such as government bonds, currencies, equities or commodities. Its management fee is 0.60%.