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In yet another sign that the growing U.S. legal pot market is no joke, Cambria Investment Management, which manages more than $1 billion in assets, launched the Cambria Cannabis ETF, trading on the Cboe as TOKE.
The new fund is actively managed with a net expense ratio of 0.42%, the company said. TOKE joined a suite of 11 other Cambria ETFs, covering core, tactical and value strategies.
TOKE is Cambria's "first thematic ETF, which we believe has the potential to be a long-term growth story characterized by structural and behavioral inefficiencies," Meb Faber, its co-founder and CIO, said in a statement.
But the company warned in its announcement that cannabis companies are subject to "various laws and regulations that may differ at the local and federal level," and because the use of marijuana is illegal under U.S. federal law "federally regulated banking institutions may be unwilling to make financial services available to growers and sellers of marijuana." The fund's investments are concentrated in the cannabis industry and may, therefore, "be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this industry," it said.
In a prospectus, Cambria said its new fund only invests in publicly-traded cannabis companies that are "primarily listed and traded on a national securities exchange that operates in a jurisdiction where… cannabis-related business activities are legal under the national and local laws of the relevant jurisdiction."
Cambria also said the fund's investment advisor "expects that the industry will grow and crossover with other established industries such as tobacco, food, alcohol, medicine, tourism, and personal care" as the "as the cannabis industry matures.
Earlier Cannabis ETF launches include Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF (CNBS), AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (YOLO), ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) and The Cannabis ETF (THCX).
AQR Launches its First Model Portfolios
AQR launched its first model portfolios, the AQR Styles Model Portfolios, now available through Envestnet.
AQR's five portfolios are designed to provide: "Unique exposure to liquid alternatives"; diversification across asset classes, geography and investment styles; and a factor-based approach to security selection," the company said in a statement.
Unlike many other model portfolios, which typically rely on traditional return sources, AQR's portfolios incorporate liquid alternatives, the firm noted. The portfolios leverage AQR's expertise in factor/styles-based investing, the use of systematic investment themes that are historically sources of long-term returns with low correlation to each other, it said.
Principal Global Investors Introduces Three New Multi-Factor ETFs
Principal Global Investors expanded its factor ETF offerings Wednesday with the launch of three new multi-factor ETFs: Principal U.S. Large-Cap Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PLC), with a net expense ratio of 15 basis points; Principal U.S. Small-Mid Cap Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PSM), 20 basis points; and Principal International Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PDEV), 25 basis points.
The new funds were developed for RobustWealth, the firm's digital wealth management platform, to provide investors with "innovative strategic beta strategies with relatively low tracking error and competitive fees but will also be available to the general marketplace," Principal said in its announcement.
They "provide additional choices for our investors when building portfolios," according to Paul Kim, managing director of ETF Strategy at Principal. "The factor ETFs are index-aware and provide a balance of potential outperformance and limited tracking error to established market-cap weighted benchmarks. They are cost-efficient, comprised of multiple factors, and designed for use as core holdings in portfolios," he said in a statement.
Mirae Asset Global Investments Launches Cloud Computing, Biotech ETFs
Mirae Asset Global Investments released two thematic index ETFs Thursday that capitalize on the growing trends of cloud computing and biotech. The Mirae Asset Horizons China Biotech ETF and the Mirae Asset Horizons China Cloud Computing ETF are out to "track the individual performance of the twenty largest and most liquid Chinese companies operating in their corresponding sectors," Frankfurt, Germany-based Solactive said in an announcement.
The ETFs are based on Solactive indexes and each has an expense ratio of 0.68%.
Citing a Gartner forecast in its announcement, Solactive said the global cloud service industry is "expected to grow exponentially with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings growing most rapidly." For 2019, Gartner projected the cloud computing industry will grow 17.5%, resulting in total global revenue of $ 214.3 billion.
Solactive also cited research by Global Market Insights projecting the global biotech industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.9 %, reaching $775 billion in expected annual revenue in 2024.
DPL Financial Partners, Lighthouse Life to Provide Life Settlement Options to RIAs
