It sounds like a oxymoron. An actively managed exchange-traded fund? Wasn't the point of an ETF to five customers low-cost access to passive products? PowerShares, the Invesco unit, apparently senses demand for the product and aims to launch managed ETFs next year. The term actively managed may be an overstatement. PowerShares says it will restrict fund managers of its active ETFs to three trades at the end of every week. Some have long felt there was a subtle management of some ETFs anyway. So maybe this is an acknowledgment of the practice. We'll see if the market responds. Some think they may find an audience with people who have soured on quant funds.  

For more:
- here's the Financial News Online article