Throw Out an ETF, See What Sticks

So it seems unlikely that specialists would be willing to support all of the products currently in registration. "That window of opportunity is closing. It's getting a lot harder to secure seed capital for these products," says Joseph Keenan, a managing director at the Bank of New York.

He says the big, mainstream ETF companies have the clout to get support and backing from the specialist firms. But in "the current environment of the capital crunch among the specialists, it will probably prohibit entrepreneurial firms who don't have a lot of capital from creating their own ETFs."

This could prompt sponsors to re-evaluate the demand for some of the more esoteric ETFs currently in the pipeline, such as the Adelante Shares RE Kings, which will focus on real estate companies with low dividend payout ratios as an investment characteristic, the StreetTracks KBW Mortgage Finance ETF or the IndexIQ Effective Workforce Leaders Large-Cap.

Keenan says ETF sponsors are looking for alternative means of securing seed capital, such as private equity .

Still, industry watchers say it's likely that some products in the pipeline might be withdrawn -- or simply wither and die, since sponsors aren't required to formally pull a registration statement.

"There's no way of knowing which ones will be pulled," says Matt Hougan, editor of IndexUniverse.com.