ck0001833032-20221231
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF (ZSPY)
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF
(MORE)
Upon
commencement of operations, the shares will be listed on NYSE Arca,
Inc.
January 27,
2023
The
Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved or disapproved these
securities or passed upon the adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to
the contrary is a criminal offense.
The
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
and ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF (each, the “Fund,” and collectively, the
“Funds”) are each an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”). This means that shares of the
Funds are listed on a national securities exchange, the
NYSE
Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and trade at market prices. The market price for
the Funds’ shares may be different from their net asset value per share
(“NAV”).
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ZSPY
SUMMARY INFORMATION |
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MORE
SUMMARY INFORMATION |
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OVERVIEW |
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DESCRIPTION
OF THE PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE FUNDS |
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ADDITIONAL
INVESTMENT STRATEGIES |
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DESCRIPTION
OF PRINCIPAL RISKS OF THE FUNDS |
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CONTINUOUS
OFFERING |
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CREATION
AND REDEMPTION OF CREATION UNITS |
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MANAGEMENT |
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OTHER
SERVICE PROVIDERS |
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FREQUENT
TRADING |
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DISTRIBUTION
AND SERVICE PLAN |
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DETERMINATION
OF NET ASSET VALUE (NAV) |
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DIVIDENDS,
DISTRIBUTIONS, AND TAXES |
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CODES
OF ETHICS |
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PORTFOLIO
HOLDINGS INFORMATION |
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HOUSEHOLDING |
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INDEX
PROVIDER AND DISCLAIMERS |
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FINANCIAL
HIGHLIGHTS |
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PRIVACY
POLICY |
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FOR
MORE INFORMATION |
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ASYM®,
ASYMshares™,
ASYMshares MAKE SENSE and Design™,
ASYMmetric ETFs™,
ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology™,
and PriceVol™
are trademarks of ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC
SUMMARY
INFORMATION
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
Investment Objective
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
(the
“Fund”) seeks to track the total return performance, before fees and expenses,
of the ASYMmetric Smart Alpha 500 Index (the
“Index”).
Fees and Expenses
The
following table describes the fees and expenses that you may incur if you buy,
hold or sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You
may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial
intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and example
below.
Annual
Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your
investment):
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Management
Fee |
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0.95% |
Distribution
and/or Service (12b-1) Fees |
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0.00% |
Other
Expenses* |
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0.00% |
Acquired
Fund Fees and Expenses** |
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Total
Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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0.95% |
*Estimated for the current
fiscal year.
**Acquired Fund Fees and
Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies.
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses will not correlate to the expense ratios in
the Fund’s Financial Highlights because the Financial Highlights will include
only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund and exclude Acquired
Fund Fees and Expenses.
Example. This example is
intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of
investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the
Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the
end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a return
of 5% each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the
same. Although your actual costs may be higher
or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would
be:
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One
Year |
Three
Years |
$97 |
$303 |
Portfolio
Turnover. The Fund pays transaction
costs, including commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over”
its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction
costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account.
These costs, which are not reflected in the annual fund operating expenses or in
the example, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund had not yet
commenced operations prior to the date of this Prospectus, it does not have
portfolio turnover information for the prior fiscal year to
report.
Principal Investment
Strategies
The
Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to
track the total return performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The
Index is based on proprietary ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology developed
and maintained by ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC (the “Index Provider”),
an affiliate of ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser (the
“Adviser”).
The
Index is a rules-based, quantitative leveraged strategy that seeks
to:
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generate
returns up to two times the performance of the S&P 500®
Total Return Index (“S&P 500 Index”) in a bull market by leveraging
its net exposure (the difference between the aggregate long and short
positions) to individual securities and futures,
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provide
protection against losses in a bear market by limiting its net exposure
using futures to hedge. |
The
Fund will use leverage and hedging to achieve its investment goals of maximizing
alpha while minimizing market risk. Leverage is an investment strategy used by a
Fund to increase its assets available for investment using borrowings,
derivatives, or similar instruments or techniques.
A
bull market is typically characterized by a period of material increase in the
overall U.S. stock market, and a bear market is typically characterized by a
period of material decrease in the overall U.S. stock market.
The
Index is powered by the Index Provider’s ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology,
which relies on mathematical formulas to dynamically manage the Index’s net
exposure in three market risk environments:
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Risk-On:
Market prices are trending up and have low realized volatility (below the
Risk-Off or bear market threshold) as determined by actual price
fluctuations over a prior period (“realized volatility”), which is termed
a “Risk-On” market environment; |
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Risk-Elevated:
Market prices are trending down and have low realized volatility (below
the Risk-Off or bear market threshold), which is termed a “Risk-Elevated”
market environment; and |
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Risk-Off:
Market prices are trending down and have high realized volatility (above
the Risk-Off or bear market threshold), which is termed a “Risk-Off”
market environment.
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The
ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology is designed to dynamically manage, as of
each monthly Index rebalancing and reconstitution date, the Index’s net exposure
to its market to:
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Generate
two times the performance of the S&P 500 Index in a bull market, by
using leverage to be 200% exposed to the S&P 500
Index; |
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Protect
capital by paring back net exposure during periods of heightened market
uncertainty, by being market neutral; and |
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Profit
in bear markets, by being net short (by investing in more short positions
than long positions in its portfolio). |
The
Index achieves its long exposure by investing in individual securities and
futures (the “Long Book”). The Index seeks to achieve two times the performance
of the S&P 500 Index in a bull market by leveraging its exposure 90% to
individual securities and 110% to futures. In order to effect its short exposure
to the market, the Index utilizes cash-settled short selling of shares of the
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (“SPY”) (the “Short Book”). The Index’s exposure to
its market ranges between 200% long and -25% short where net exposure is the
difference between the Index’s Long Book and its Short Book.
Under
normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets,
plus borrowings for investment purposes, in investments that provide exposure to
the S&P 500 Index. To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds more
than 25% of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or
group of related industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to
approximately the same extent as the Index.
In
tracking the Index, the Fund will replicate the Long Book through investments in
individual securities that are included in or track the S&P 500 Index,
respectively. The Fund will achieve the appropriate amount of leverage in the
Long Book and replicate the Short Book, as determined by the Index, by investing
primarily in futures on the S&P 500 Index.
The
Fund’s long and short positions are determined at each rebalance based on the
market risk environment measured by two price indicator components of the Index:
the Price Momentum Indicator and Price Volatility Indicator. The Fund’s exposure
is then fine-tuned using Volatility Adjusted Exposure (“VAE”). Each of the price
indicators and VAE components of the Index are described below.
Price
Indicator Determination of Market Risk Environments.
Market risk environments are quantitatively determined by the congruence of the
two proprietary price-based indicators that measure, monitor and quantify market
risk.
The
Price Momentum Indicator is driven by the 200-business day moving average of the
S&P 500 Index. The Price Momentum Indicator is designed to identify
historical market price trends (up or down).
The
Price Volatility Indicator is driven by the Index Provider’s
PriceVol™
proprietary measure of the realized (i.e.,
historical as opposed to anticipated) volatility of the Index’s market. PriceVol
measures the dispersion of prices of the securities comprising the S&P 500
Index. PriceVol is engineered to measure market risk (high or low) based on
actual market price movements and not expected price movements.
The
congruence of the output of the Price Momentum and Price Volatility Indicators
is used to classify monthly the Index’s market condition as either Risk-On,
Risk-Elevated, or Risk-Off market environments, as indicated in the table below.
The
market is in a Risk-On environment when the market is trending up, above its
200-business day moving average, and realized volatility is low. The market is
in a Risk-Elevated environment when the market is below its 200-business day
moving average, but realized volatility has not spiked. The market is in a
Risk-Off environment when the market is trending down, below its 200-business
day moving average, and realized volatility has spiked.
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Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Price
Volatility
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Market
Trending Up |
Realized
Volatility Low |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Realized
Volatility Low |
Risk-Elevated
(Uncertain Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Realized
Volatility High |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Index
Net Exposure Determination. The
market risk environment classification systematically determines the targeted
long, short and net exposure of the Index. In a Risk-On environment, the
targeted net exposure of the Index is 200%. In a Risk-Elevated environment, the
targeted net exposure of the index is 0%. In a Risk-Off environment, the
targeted net exposure of the Index is -25%.
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Risk
Environment Target Exposures |
Risk
Environment |
Target
Long Exposure |
Target
Short Exposure |
Target
Net Exposure |
Risk-On |
200% |
0% |
200% |
Risk-Elevated |
35% |
-35% |
0% |
Risk-Off |
0% |
-25% |
-25% |
Volatility
Adjusted Exposure. VAE
uses PriceVol to measure and group market volatility into three categories -
low, moderate, and high. VAE increases portfolio exposure when volatility is low
or moderate and decreases portfolio exposure when volatility is high by
adjusting Target Short Exposure for incrementally greater profit or greater
protection, as appropriate. VAE is designed to position the portfolio to capture
more of the upside and less of the downside of the market. When market
volatility is low, VAE reduces the Target Short Exposure to 0%. When market
volatility is moderate, VAE reduces Target Short Exposure by 50%. When market
volatility is high, VAE keeps Target Short Exposure at 100%. The table below
illustrates how VAE adjusts Target Short Exposure in a Risk-Elevated
environment.
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Risk-Elevated
Environment |
Market
Volatility (PriceVol) |
VAE
Adjuster (% of Target Short Exposure) |
Target Short Exposure |
VAE
Adjusted Short Exposure |
VAE
Adjusted Net Exposure |
Low |
0% |
-35% |
0% |
35% |
Moderate |
50% |
-35% |
-17.5% |
17.5% |
High |
100% |
-35% |
-35% |
0% |
Weightings
of Index Components.
The weighting of the Index’s Long Book and Short Book are formulaically
determined based on the table below, which indicates the various weighting
outcomes in each of the three potential market risk environments.
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Weighting
of Index Components |
Risk
Environment |
Long
Book
Weight
(Long
Book Securities Component) |
Short
Book
Weight |
Target
Net
Exposure |
Risk-On |
200% |
0% |
200% |
Risk-Elevated |
35% |
0%
to -35% |
0% |
Risk-Off |
0% |
0%
to -25% |
-25% |
The
Index was developed by the Index Provider, an affiliate of the Adviser. The
Index Calculation Agent is Solactive AG, which is not affiliated with the Index
Provider, the Fund, the Adviser or the Fund’s sub-adviser, Toroso Investments,
LLC (the “Subadviser”). The Index Calculation Agent provides information to the
Fund about the constituents of the Index and does not provide investment advice
with respect to the desirability of investing in, purchasing or selling
securities.
As
of December 31, 2022, the Index was comprised of 504
components.
Principal Investment
Risks
You can lose money on your investment in the
Fund. The Fund is subject to the risks summarized below. Some or
all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share
(“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its
objectives. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that
investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them
before making an investment in the Fund.
Leverage
Risk –
The Fund will invest in futures as a principal investment strategy. Futures and
other derivative investments give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage is
investment exposure that exceeds the initial amount invested. The loss on a
leveraged investment may far exceed the Fund’s principal amount invested.
Leverage can magnify the Fund’s gains and losses and therefore increase its
volatility.
Long/Short
Risk
– The performance of the Fund will depend on the difference in the rates of
return between its long positions and short positions. During a rising market,
when most equity securities and long-only equity ETFs are increasing in value,
the Fund’s short positions will likely cause the Fund to underperform the
overall U.S. equity market and such ETFs. However, there is no guarantee that
the returns on the Fund’s long or short positions will produce positive returns,
and the Fund could lose money on either or both of the Fund’s long and short
positions.
Derivatives
Risk
– A
derivative instrument typically involves leverage and provides exposure to
potential gain or loss from a change in the market price of the underlying asset
(or a basket of assets or an index) in a notional amount that exceeds the amount
of cash or assets required to establish or maintain the derivative instrument.
Adverse changes in the value or price of the underlying asset (or basket of
assets or index), which the Fund may not directly own, can result in a loss to
the Fund substantially greater than the amount invested in the derivative
itself. The use of derivative instruments also exposes the Fund to additional
risks and transaction costs.
Futures
Contract Risk
– Futures contracts are derivative instruments pursuant to a contract where the
parties agree to exchange a fixed price for an agreed amount of securities or
other underlying assets at an agreed date. The use of such derivative
instruments may expose the Fund to additional risks, such as credit risk,
liquidity risk, and counterparty risk, that it would not be subject to if it
invested directly in the securities underlying those derivatives. There can be
no assurance that any strategy used will succeed. There may at times be an
imperfect correlation between the movement in the prices of futures contracts
and the value of their underlying instruments or indexes. There also can be no
assurance that, at all times, a liquid market will exist for offsetting a
futures contract that the Fund has previously bought or sold, and this may
result in the inability to close a futures contract when desired. Futures
contracts may experience potentially dramatic price changes, which will increase
the volatility of the Fund and may involve a small investment of cash (the
amount of initial and variation margin) relative to the magnitude of the risk
assumed (the potential increase or decrease in the price of the futures
contract).
Concentration
Risk –
The Fund may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due
to adverse events that affect the Fund’s investments more than the market as a
whole, to the extent that the Fund's investments are concentrated in the
securities and/or other assets of a particular issuer or issuers, market,
industry, group of industries, sector, market segment or asset class. The Fund’s
investments will be concentrated in an industry or group of industries to the
extent that the Index is so concentrated. In such event, the value of the Shares
may rise and fall more than the value of shares of a fund that invests in
securities of companies in a broader range of industries.
Counterparty
Risk
– The Fund may enter into various types of OTC derivative contracts with a
counterparty that may be privately negotiated in the over-the-counter market.
These contracts involve exposure to credit risk because contract performance
depends, in part, on the financial condition of the counterparty. If the
creditworthiness of the counterparty declines, the Fund may not receive payments
owed under the contract, or such payments may be delayed, and the value of the
counterparty agreements can be expected to decline, potentially resulting in
losses to the Fund.
Shorting
Risks
– In order to achieve its investment objective, the Fund may engage in short
sales, which are designed to provide the Fund gains when the price of a
particular security, basket of securities or index declines. When the Fund
shorts
securities,
including securities of another investment company, it borrows shares of that
security or investment company, which it then sells. Unlike with a long
position, losses on a short position could be much greater if the value of the
security that the Fund is shorting increases because the cost of covering a
short position is potentially unlimited. There is no guarantee the Fund will be
able to borrow the shares of the security or investment company it seeks to
short in order to achieve its investment objective. In addition, shares of the
security or investment company may become hard-to-borrow, generally in times of
heightened market volatility, and cause the Fund to have to pay to borrow the
shares, in addition to financing costs of short positions, which would
negatively impact Fund performance and cause the Fund not to track the Index.
Short positions can be called at any time by the lender, which would cause the
Fund to have greater net exposure than the Index. The Fund typically closes out
a short sale by exchanging agreed-upon cash amounts that represent settlement in
lieu of delivery of the actual underlying security, or, in less likely
circumstances, by purchasing the security that it has sold short and returning
that security to the entity that lent the security.
Volatility
Risk
– The Fund’s investments are designed to respond to historical or realized
volatility based on a proprietary model developed and implemented by the Index
Provider, which is not intended to predict the future volatility of the S&P
500 Index. If the S&P 500 Index is rapidly rising during periods when the
Index Provider’s volatility model has predicted significant volatility, the Fund
may be underexposed to the S&P 500 Index due to its short position, and the
Fund would not be expected to gain the full benefit of the rise in the S&P
500 Index. Additionally, in periods of rapidly changing volatility, the Fund may
not be appropriately hedged or may not respond as expected to current
volatility. In periods of extreme market volatility, the Index’s strategy, and
consequently the Fund, may underperform due to the backward-looking nature of
the Index’s model.
Index
Tracking Risk
– There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation
to the Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. The Fund may have
difficulty achieving its investment objective due to fees, difficulty borrowing
securities, expenses (including rebalancing expenses), and other transaction
costs related to the normal operation of the Fund. These costs that may be
incurred by the Fund are not incurred by the Index, which may make it more
difficult for the Fund to track the Index. Market disruptions, regulatory
restrictions or extreme volatility will also adversely affect the Fund’s ability
to achieve its investment objective.
Passive
Investment Risk
– The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser would not sell a security due
to current or projected underperformance of a security, industry or sector,
unless that security is removed from the Index. The Fund invests in securities
included in the Index regardless of the Adviser’s independent analysis of the
investment decision.
Index
Calculation Methodology Risk
– The Index relies directly or indirectly on various sources of information to
assess the criteria of issuers included in the Index, including information that
may be based on assumptions and estimates. Neither the Fund, the Index Provider,
or the Adviser (as defined below) can offer assurances that the Index’s
calculation methodology or sources of information will provide an accurate
assessment of included issuers or a correct valuation of securities, nor can
they guarantee the availability or timeliness of the production of the
Index.
Market
Disruption Risk –
Geopolitical and other events, including public health crises, natural disasters
and armed conflicts or war have recently led to increased market volatility and
significant market losses. Significant market volatility and market downturns
may limit the Fund’s ability to sell securities. Under such circumstances, the
Fund may have difficulty achieving its investment objective for one or more
trading days, which may adversely impact the Fund’s returns on those days and
periods inclusive of those days. Alternatively, the Fund may incur higher costs
in order to achieve its investment objective. Under those circumstances, the
Fund’s ability to track its Index is likely to be adversely affected, the market
price of Fund shares may reflect a greater premium or discount to net asset
value, and bid-ask spreads on the Fund’s shares may widen, resulting in
increased transaction costs for secondary market purchasers and sellers. The
Fund may also incur additional tracking error due to the use of other securities
that are not perfectly correlated to the Fund’s Index.
Interruption
in Trading Risk
– An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities,
or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be
restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain
securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be
unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its
investments, may incur significant tracking differences with its Index, and/or
may incur substantial losses and may limit or stop purchases of the
Fund.
Equity
Securities Risk –
Investments in publicly issued equity securities, including common stocks, are
subject to market risks that may cause their prices to fluctuate over time.
Fluctuations in the value of equity securities in which the Fund invests will
cause the net asset value of the Fund to fluctuate.
High
Portfolio Turnover Risk –
At times, the Fund may have a portfolio turnover rate substantially greater than
100%. A high portfolio turnover rate would result in correspondingly greater
transaction expenses, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark ups and other
transaction costs, on the sale of securities and on reinvestment in other
securities and may result in reduced performance and the distribution to
shareholders of additional capital gains for tax purposes. These factors may
negatively affect the Fund’s performance.
Market
Risk –
Market risks include political, regulatory, market and economic developments,
including developments that impact specific economic sectors, industries or
segments of the market, which may affect the Fund’s value. Turbulence in
financial markets and reduced liquidity in equity, credit and fixed income
markets may negatively affect many issuers worldwide, which could have an
adverse effect on the Fund.
Cybersecurity
Risk
– Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund or its services
providers may cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund’s business
operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund. While the
Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems
seeking to address system breaches or failures, these plans and systems are
inherently limited. Further, cybersecurity incidents could also affect issuers
of securities in which the Fund invests, leading to a significant loss of
value.
Operational
Risk –
The Fund is exposed to operational risks arising from a number of factors,
including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors,
errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties,
failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund,
Adviser and Subadviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls
and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and
may be inadequate to address these risks.
Large-Capitalization
Investing Risk
– The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a
result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of
large-capitalization companies underperform securities of smaller-capitalization
companies or the market as a whole. The securities of large-capitalization
companies may be relatively mature compared to smaller companies and therefore
subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
New
Fund Risk
–
The Fund is a recently organized investment company with no operating history.
As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to
base their investment decision.
Special
Risks of Exchange-Traded Funds
Authorized
Participants (“APs”), Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk
–
The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as APs. In
addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity
providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events
occur, shares of the Fund may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly
face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process
creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these
services, or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or
significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step
forward to perform their functions.
Shares
of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV –
As with all ETFs, shares of the Fund may be bought and sold in the secondary
market at market prices. The price of shares of the Fund, like the price of all
traded securities, will be subject to factors such as supply and demand, as well
as the current value of the Fund’s portfolio holdings. Although it is expected
that the market price of the shares of the Fund will approximate the Fund’s NAV,
there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV
intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount). This risk is
heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and
periods when there is limited trading activity for shares in the secondary
market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be
significant.
Trading
–
Although shares of the Fund are listed for trading on a national securities
exchange, such as the Exchange, and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than
the Exchange, there can be no assurance that shares of the Fund will trade with
any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. In stressed market conditions, the
liquidity of shares of the Fund may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s
underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than
shares of the Fund.
Flash
Crash Risk
– Sharp price declines in securities owned by the Fund may trigger trading
halts, which may result in the Fund’s shares trading in the market at an
increasingly large discount to NAV during part (or all) of a trading day or
cause the Fund itself to halt trading.
Risk
that Short Book Gains May Result in Tax Inefficiencies –
The Fund may be able to manage realized tax gains on its Long Book positions by
arranging for in-kind creation and redemption transactions to remove from its
portfolio securities experiencing such gains in a tax efficient manner. However,
the Fund will be unable to use the creation and redemption process to manage
realized tax gains on its Short Book positions because they are not amenable to
in-kind transfers. Consequently, the Fund may be compelled to recognize Short
Book position gains for tax purposes unless it can offset such gains with
commensurate losses on other positions in its portfolio. The inability of the
Fund to offset such Short Book position gains may cause shareholders to incur
income tax liabilities upon such gain recognition in a manner similar to that
typically experienced by mutual fund shareholders but not by shareholders of
ETFs that do not invest in Short Book positions.
Performance
Information
Performance information for the Fund is not
included because the Fund had not yet commenced operations as of the date of
this Prospectus. In the future, performance information for the
Fund will be presented in this section. Updated performance information is
available on the Fund’s website at www.asymshares.com.
Management
Investment
Adviser.
ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC
Subadviser.
Toroso Investments, LLC
Portfolio
Managers.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, and Qiao Duan, CFA, of Toroso Investments, LLC (each a
“Portfolio Manager”) are primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of
the Fund. Each of the Portfolio Managers has been a portfolio manager of the
Fund since its inception.
Purchase
and Sale of Fund Shares
The
Fund is an ETF. Individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national
securities exchange. Individual shares of the Fund may only be bought and sold
in the secondary market through a broker or dealer. The price of Fund shares is
based on market price, and because ETF shares trade at market prices rather than
at NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (a premium) or less than
NAV (a discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the
difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase
shares of the Fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for
shares of the Fund (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market
(the “bid-ask spread”). The Fund will only issue or redeem shares that have been
aggregated into blocks of shares or multiples thereof (“Creation Units”) to
Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s
distributor, and accepted by the Transfer Agent. Information regarding the
Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads is
available on the Fund’s website at www.asymshares.com/zspy.
Tax
Information
The
Fund’s distributions are taxable and will generally be taxed as ordinary income
or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement,
such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account. Withdrawals from such
tax-deferred arrangements may be subject to tax at a later date.
Payments
to Broker-Dealers and other Financial Intermediaries
If
you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial
intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund or other related companies may pay the
intermediary for marketing activities and presentations, educational training
programs,
conferences,
the development of technology platforms and reporting systems or other services
related to the sale or promotion of the Fund. These payments may create a
conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and
your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your
salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more
information.
Index
Information
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha 500 Index (the “Derived Index”) is the property of ASYMmetric
Investment Solutions, LLC (“Solutions”), which has contracted with S&P Opco,
LLC (a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC) (“S&P Dow Jones
Indices”) to license the use of the S&P 500 Index in connection with the
Derived Index. The S&P 500 Index is the property of S&P Dow Jones
Indices, its affiliates and/or their third-party licensors. “S&P®,
S&P 500®
and “SPY®”
are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC
(“S&P”); Dow Jones®
is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”); and
these trademarks have been licensed for use by SPDJI and sublicensed for certain
purposes by Solutions. ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF (the “Fund”) is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by SPDJI, Dow
Jones, S&P, any of their respective affiliates. S&P Dow Jones Indices
does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, to the owners
of the Fund or any member of the public regarding the advisability of investing
in securities generally or in the Fund particularly or the ability of the
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha 500 Index to track general market performance. S&P
Dow Jones Indices’ only relationship to Solutions with respect to the S&P
500 Index is the licensing of the S&P Index and certain trademarks, service
marks and/or trade names of S&P Dow Jones Indices and/or its licensors. The
S&P 500 Index is determined, composed and calculated by S&P Dow Jones
Indices without regard to Solutions or the Fund. S&P Dow Jones Indices has
no obligation to take the needs of Solutions or the owners of the Fund into
consideration in determining, composing or calculating the S&P 500 Index.
S&P Dow Jones Indices is not responsible for and has not participated in the
determination of the prices, and amount of the Fund or the timing of the
issuance or sale of the Fund or in the determination or calculation of the
equation by which the Fund is to be converted into cash, surrendered or
redeemed, as the case may be. S&P Dow Jones Indices has no obligation or
liability in connection with the administration, marketing or trading of the
Fund. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC is not an investment advisor or a broker
dealer. Inclusion of a security within an index is not a recommendation by
S&P Dow Jones Indices to buy, sell, or hold such security, nor is it
considered to be investment advice.
S&P
DOW JONES INDICES DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE ADEQUACY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS AND/OR
THE COMPLETENESS OF THE S&P 500 INDEX, ANY INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS WITH
RESPECT TO THE INDEX OR ANY DATA RELATED THERETO OR ANY COMMUNICATION, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ORAL OR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION (INCLUDING ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATIONS)
WITH
RESPECT THERETO. S&P DOW JONES INDICES SHALL NOT BE SUBJECT TO ANY DAMAGES
OR LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR DELAYS THEREIN. S&P DOW JONES
INDICES MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE OR AS
TO RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED BY SOLUTIONS, OWNERS OF THE FUND, OR ANY OTHER PERSON
OR ENTITY FROM THE USE OF THE S&P 500 INDEX, INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS WITH
RESPECT TO THE INDEX OR WITH RESPECT TO ANY DATA RELATED THERETO. WITHOUT
LIMITING ANY OF THE FOREGOING, IN NO EVENT WHATSOEVER SHALL S&P DOW JONES
INDICES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF PROFITS, TRADING
LOSSES, LOST TIME OR GOODWILL, EVEN IF THEY HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.
S&P DJI HAS NOT PREPARED, REVIEWED AND/OR CERTIFIED ANY PORTION OF, NOR DOES
S&P HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER, THE LICENSEE ETF REGISTRATION STATEMENT,
PROSPECTUS OR OTHER OFFERING MATERIALS. THERE ARE NO THIRD-PARTY BENEFICIARIES
OF ANY AGREEMENTS OR ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN S&P DOW JONES INDICES AND
SOLUTIONS, OTHER THAN THE LICENSORS OF S&P DOW JONES INDICES.”
SUMMARY
INFORMATION
ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF
Investment Objective
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF
(the “Fund”) seeks to track the total return performance, before fees and
expenses, of the ASYMmetric Smart Income Index (the
“Index”).
Fees and Expenses
The
following table describes the fees and expenses that you may incur if you buy,
hold or sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You
may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial
intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and example
below.
Annual
Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your
investment):
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Management
Fee |
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0.75% |
Distribution
and/or Service (12b-1) Fees |
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0.00% |
Other
Expenses* |
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0.00% |
Acquired
Fund Fees and Expenses** |
|
| 0.00% |
Total
Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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|
0.75% |
*Estimated for the current
fiscal year
**Acquired Fund Fees and
Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies.
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses will not correlate to the expense ratios in
the Fund’s Financial Highlights because the Financial Highlights will include
only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund and exclude Acquired
Fund Fees and Expenses.
Example. This example is
intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of
investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the
Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the
end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a return
of 5% each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the
same. Although your actual costs may be higher
or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would
be:
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One
Year |
Three
Years |
$77 |
$240 |
Portfolio
Turnover. The Fund pays transaction
costs, including commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over”
its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction
costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account.
These costs, which are not reflected in the annual fund operating expenses or in
the example, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund had not yet
commenced operations prior to the date of this Prospectus, it does not have
portfolio turnover information for the prior fiscal year to
report.
Principal Investment
Strategies
The
Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to
track the total return performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The
Index is based on proprietary ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology developed
and maintained by ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC (the “Index Provider”),
an affiliate of ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser (the
“Adviser”).
The
Index is a rules-based, quantitative strategy that seeks to generate higher
income and better performance than the S&P 500®
Total Return Index (“S&P 500 Index”) with less risk.
The
Index is powered by the Index Provider’s ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology,
which relies on mathematical formulas to dynamically manage the Index’s exposure
in two market risk environments:
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Risk-On:
Market prices are trending up, which is termed a “Risk-On” market
environment; |
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| ● |
Risk-Off:
Market prices are trending down, which is termed a “Risk-Off” market
environment. |
The
ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology is designed to dynamically manage, as of
each monthly Index rebalancing and reconstitution date, the Index’s exposure to
high income producing asset classes to:
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Generate
high quality income from high income producing asset classes that are in a
bull market; |
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Secure
income and principle by allocating away from high income producing asset
classes that are in a bear market; and |
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| ● |
Protect
capital when all high income producing assets classes are in a bear
market, by being invested in U.S. treasuries, if treasuries are in a bull
market or in the safety of cash, if no bull markets currently
exist. |
A
bull market is typically characterized by a period of material increase in the
overall U.S. stock market, and a bear market is typically characterized by a
period of material decrease in the overall U.S. stock market.
The
Index employs a tactical allocation strategy by allocating to (i) high income
equity asset classes, including Master Limited Partnerships (“MLPs”), Real
Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”), and utilities (together, the “Equities”),
and (ii) fixed income securities. When the Index allocates to Equities, the Fund
will invest principally in individual securities that provide exposure to MLPs,
REITs, and utilities or directly in U.S. equity securities of those asset
classes. The Fund may also invest directly in Canadian equity securities of
MLPs. When the Index allocates to fixed income asset classes, the Fund may
invest in U.S. Treasury securities (e.g., 30-Year U.S. Treasury bonds, 10-Year
U.S. Treasury notes, or U.S. Treasury bills) or
cash.
The
Index screens MLPs, REITs, and the utilities sector (as designated by the Global
Industry Classification Standard (“GICS”)) to determine whether any of these
asset classes are in a bull market. The Index allocates to each the three high
income equity asset classes if the market risk environment for that asset class
is Risk-On, as determined in accordance with the Price Momentum Indicator
described below.
Price
Indicator Determination of Market Risk Environments.
Market risk environments are quantitatively determined by a proprietary
price-based indicator that measures, monitors and quantifies market risk. This
indicator is called the “Price Momentum Indicator.”
The
Price Momentum Indicator is driven by the 200-business day moving average of the
relevant asset class. The Price Momentum Indicator is designed to identify
historical market price trends (up or down).
The
output of the Price Momentum Indicator is used to classify, on a monthly basis,
as in either Risk-On or Risk-Off market environment, as outlined in the table
below. The market is in a Risk-On environment when the market is trending up,
above its 200-business day moving average. The market is in a Risk-Off
environment when the market is trending down, below its 200-business day moving
average.
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Equity |
Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Market
Trending Up |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Portfolio
Exposure. The
Index screens the MLP, REIT, and utility markets to determine their current
market risk environments. If all three high income equity asset classes are in a
Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates equally (33.3%) to each. If two
are in a Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates equally (50%) to each. If
only one is in a Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates entirely (100%)
to that asset class.
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High
Income Equity Risk Environments & Equity Exposure |
Asset
Classes |
MLPs |
REITs |
Utilities |
Risk-On
(Three) |
33% |
33% |
33% |
Risk-On
(Two) |
50% |
0% |
50% |
Risk-On
(One) |
100% |
0% |
0% |
Fixed
Income Matrix. If
all high income equity asset classes are Risk-Off (in a bear market), the Index
screens fixed income segments to determine if any are Risk-On. If any fixed
income asset class is Risk-On, then the Index allocates 100% to the fixed income
asset class with the highest yield, as shown in the table below. If all fixed
income segments are Risk-Off (in a bear market), then the Index allocates 100%
to cash or cash equivalents (which include U.S. Treasury bills or notes having
less than three months to maturity or money market funds invested in such U.S.
Treasuries). The Price Momentum Indicator described above uses the 200-business
day moving average of yields to determine which U.S. Treasuries markets, if any,
are in a Risk-On market environment. If yields are falling below the
200-business day average, then the Price Momentum Indicator indicates a Risk-On
environment.
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Fixed
Income Risk Environments & Fixed Exposure |
Segment |
30-Year
U.S. Treasury |
10-Year
U.S. Treasury |
Treasury
Bills |
Bull
Market |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yield |
5% |
4% |
3% |
Highest
Yield |
Yes |
No |
No |
Exposure |
100% |
0% |
0% |
The
output of the Price Momentum Indicator is used to classify monthly U.S.
Treasuries markets as in either a Risk-On or Risk-Off market environment, as
outlined in the table below.
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| |
Fixed
Income |
Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Yields
Trending Down (below 200-business day average yield) |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Yields
Trending Up (above 200-business day average yield) |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Under
normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets
in securities and cash included in the ASYMmetric Smart Income Index. To the
extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds more than 25% of its total assets) in
the securities of a particular industry or group of related industries, the Fund
will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the
Index.
The
Index was developed by the Index Provider, ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC,
an affiliate of the Adviser. The Index Calculation Agent is Solactive AG, which
is not affiliated with the Index Provider, the Fund, the Adviser or the Fund’s
sub-adviser, Toroso Investments, LLC (the “Subadviser”). The Index Calculation
Agent provides information to the Fund about the constituents of the Index and
does not provide investment advice with respect to the desirability of investing
in, purchasing or selling securities.
As
of December 31, 2022, the Index was comprised of 65
components.
Principal Investment Risks
You can lose money on your investment in the
Fund. The Fund is subject to the risks summarized below. Some or
all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share
(“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its
objectives. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that
investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them
before making an investment in the Fund.
MLP
Risk –
The
Fund may invest in Equities that principally invest in MLPs, or the Fund may
invest directly in MLPs. MLP investment returns are enhanced during periods of
declining or low interest rates and tend to be negatively influenced when
interest rates are rising. In addition, most MLPs are fairly leveraged and
typically carry a portion of a “floating” rate debt. As such, a significant
upward swing in interest rates would also drive interest expense higher.
Furthermore, most MLPs grow by acquisitions partly financed by debt, and higher
interest rates could make it more difficult to make acquisitions. MLP
investments also entail many of the general tax risks of investing in a
partnership. Limited partners in an MLP typically have limited control and
limited rights to vote on matters affecting the partnership. Additionally, there
is always the risk that an MLP will fail to qualify for favorable tax treatment.
Concentration
Risk –
The Fund may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due
to adverse events that affect the Fund’s investments more than the market as a
whole, to the extent that the Fund's investments are concentrated in the
securities and/or other assets of a particular issuer or issuers, market,
industry, group of industries, sector, market segment or asset class. The Fund’s
investments will be concentrated in an industry or group of industries to the
extent that the Index is so concentrated. In such event, the value of the Shares
may rise and fall more than the value of shares of a fund that invests in
securities of companies in a broader range of industries.
REIT
Investment Risk –
The
Fund may invest in Equities that primarily invest in REITs, or the Fund may
invest directly in REITs. Investments in REITs involve unique risks. REITs may
have limited financial resources, may trade less frequently and in limited
volume, and may be more volatile than other securities. REITs may be affected by
changes in the value of their underlying properties or mortgages or by defaults
by their borrowers or tenants. Furthermore, these entities depend upon
specialized management skills, have limited diversification and are, therefore,
subject to risks inherent in financing a limited number of projects. In
addition, the performance of a U.S. REIT may be affected by changes in the tax
laws or by its failure to qualify for tax-free pass-through of income.
Utilities
Sector Risk
– The
Fund may invest in Equities that primarily invest in utility companies, or the
Fund may invest directly in utility companies.
Utility
companies are affected by supply and demand, operating costs, government
regulation, environmental factors, liabilities for environmental damage and
general civil liabilities, and rate caps or rate changes. Although rate changes
of a regulated utility usually fluctuate in approximate correlation with
financing costs, due to political and regulatory factors rate changes ordinarily
occur only following a delay after the changes in financing costs. This factor
will tend to favorably affect a regulated utility company’s earnings and
dividends in times of decreasing costs, but conversely, will tend to adversely
affect earnings and dividends when costs are rising. The value of regulated
utility equity securities may tend to have an inverse relationship to the
movement of interest rates. Certain utility companies have experienced full or
partial deregulation in recent years. These utility companies are frequently
more similar to industrial companies in that they are subject to greater
competition and have been permitted by regulators to diversify outside of their
original geographic regions and their traditional lines of business. These
opportunities may permit certain utility companies to earn more than their
traditional regulated rates of return. Some companies, however, may be forced to
defend their core business and may be less profitable. In addition, natural
disasters, terrorist attacks, government intervention or other factors may
render a utility company’s equipment unusable or obsolete and negatively impact
profitability.
Debt
Securities Risk – Investments
in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer. Credit
risk refers to the possibility that the issuer or other obligor of a security
will not be able or willing to make payments of interest and principal when due.
Generally, the value of debt securities will change inversely with changes in
interest rates. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying
obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and
the value of those securities may fall sharply. During periods of falling
interest rates, the income received by the Fund may decline. If the principal on
a debt security is prepaid before expected, the prepayments of principal may
have to be reinvested in obligations paying interest at lower rates. Debt
securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them generally
less liquid and more difficult to value than common stock.
Index
Tracking Risk
– There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation
to the Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. The Fund may have
difficulty achieving its investment objective due to fees, difficulty borrowing
securities, expenses (including rebalancing expenses), and other transaction
costs related to the normal operation of the Fund. These costs that may be
incurred by the Fund are not incurred by the Index, which may make it more
difficult for the Fund to track the Index. Market disruptions, regulatory
restrictions or extreme volatility will also adversely affect the Fund’s ability
to achieve its investment objective.
Passive
Investment Risk
– The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser would not sell a security due
to current or projected underperformance of a security, industry or sector,
unless that security is removed from the Index. The Fund invests in securities
included in the Index regardless of the Adviser’s independent analysis of the
investment decision.
Index
Calculation Methodology Risk
– The Index relies directly or indirectly on various sources of information to
assess the criteria of issuers included in the Index, including information that
may be based on assumptions and estimates. Neither the Fund, the Index Provider,
or the Adviser (as defined below) can offer assurances that the Index’s
calculation methodology or sources of information will provide an accurate
assessment of included issuers or a correct valuation of securities, nor can
they guarantee the availability or timeliness of the production of the
Index.
Interest
Rate Risk
– As
interest rates rise, the value of debt securities held by the Fund is likely to
decrease. Securities with longer durations tend to be more sensitive to interest
rate changes, usually making their prices more volatile than those of securities
with shorter durations. To the extent the Fund invests a substantial portion of
its assets in debt securities with longer-term durations, rising interest rates
may cause the value of the Fund’s investments to decline significantly. In a low
interest rate environment, the Fund’s cash and cash equivalent positions, which
typically include highly rated and highly liquid debt securities, are expected
to earn correspondingly low returns.
Market
Disruption Risk –
Geopolitical and other events, including public health crises, natural disasters
and armed conflicts or war have recently led to increased market volatility and
significant market losses. Significant market volatility and market downturns
may limit the Fund’s ability to sell securities. Under such circumstances, the
Fund may have difficulty achieving
its
investment objective for one or more trading days, which may adversely impact
the Fund’s returns on those days and periods inclusive of those days.
Alternatively, the Fund may incur higher costs in order to achieve its
investment objective. Under those circumstances, the Fund’s ability to track its
Index is likely to be adversely affected, the market price of Fund shares may
reflect a greater premium or discount to net asset value, and bid-ask spreads on
the Fund’s shares may widen, resulting in increased transaction costs for
secondary market purchasers and sellers. The Fund may also incur additional
tracking error due to the use of other securities that are not perfectly
correlated to the Fund’s Index.
U.S.
Treasury Securities Risk –
U.S.
Treasury securities may differ from other securities in their interest rates,
maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Although U.S. Treasury
securities are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the United States, the
U.S. Government does not guarantee the market value of these securities, and
consequently, the market value of such securities may fluctuate. Similar to
other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S.
Government may cause the value of the Fund’s U.S. Treasury securities to
decline.
Interruption
in Trading Risk
– An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities,
or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be
restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain
securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be
unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its
investments, may incur significant tracking differences with its Index, and/or
may incur substantial losses and may limit or stop purchases of the
Fund.
Equity
Securities Risk –
Investments in publicly issued equity securities, including common stocks, are
subject to market risks that may cause their prices to fluctuate over time.
Fluctuations in the value of equity securities in which the Fund invests will
cause the net asset value of the Fund to fluctuate.
High
Portfolio Turnover Risk –
At times, the Fund may have a portfolio turnover rate substantially greater than
100%. A high portfolio turnover rate would result in correspondingly greater
transaction expenses, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark ups and other
transaction costs, on the sale of securities and on reinvestment in other
securities and may result in reduced performance and the distribution to
shareholders of additional capital gains for tax purposes. These factors may
negatively affect the Fund’s performance.
Market
Risk –
Market risks include political, regulatory, market and economic developments,
including developments that impact specific economic sectors, industries or
segments of the market, which may affect the Fund’s value. Turbulence in
financial markets and reduced liquidity in equity, credit and fixed income
markets may negatively affect many issuers worldwide, which could have an
adverse effect on the Fund.
Cybersecurity
Risk
– Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund or its services
providers may cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund’s business
operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund. While the
Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems
seeking to address system breaches or failures, these plans and systems are
inherently limited. Further, cybersecurity incidents could also affect issuers
of securities in which the Fund invests, leading to a significant loss of
value.
Operational
Risk –
The Fund is exposed to operational risks arising from a number of factors,
including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors,
errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties,
failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund,
Adviser and Subadviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls
and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and
may be inadequate to address these risks.
Small-Capitalization
Investing.
The Fund may invest in the securities of small-capitalization companies. As a
result, the Fund may be more volatile than funds that invest in larger, more
established companies. The securities of small-capitalization companies
generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more
unpredictable price changes than larger capitalization stocks or the stock
market as a whole. Small-capitalization companies may be particularly sensitive
to changes in interest rates, government regulation, borrowing costs and
earnings.
Mid-Capitalization
Investing.
The
Fund may invest in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result,
the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of
mid-capitalization companies underperform securities of other capitalization
ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of smaller companies are often more
vulnerable to market volatility than securities of larger companies.
Large-Capitalization
Investing Risk
– The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a
result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of
large-capitalization companies underperform securities of smaller-capitalization
companies or the market as a whole. The securities of large-capitalization
companies may be relatively mature compared to smaller companies and therefore
subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
New
Fund Risk
–
The Fund is a recently organized investment company with no operating history.
As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to
base their investment decision.
Canadian
Securities Risk
–
The Canadian economy is especially dependent on the demand for, and supply of,
natural resources, and the Canadian market is relatively concentrated in issuers
involved in the production and distribution of natural resources. Any adverse
events that affect Canada’s major industries may have a negative impact on the
overall Canadian economy and the shares of the Fund. Canada is also heavily
dependent on trading with key partners, including the United States, Mexico, and
China. Any reduction in trading with these key partners may adversely affect the
Canadian economy. Canada’s dependency on the economy of the United States, in
particular, makes Canada’s economy vulnerable to political and regulatory
changes affecting the United States economy.
Special
Risks of Exchange-Traded Funds
Authorized
Participants (“APs”), Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk
–
The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as APs. In
addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity
providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events
occur, shares of the Fund may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly
face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process
creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these
services, or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or
significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step
forward to perform their functions.
Shares
of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV –
As with all ETFs, shares of the Fund may be bought and sold in the secondary
market at market prices. The price of shares of the Fund, like the price of all
traded securities, will be subject to factors such as supply and demand, as well
as the current value of the Fund’s portfolio holdings. Although it is expected
that the market price of the shares of the Fund will approximate the Fund’s NAV,
there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV
intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount). This risk is
heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and
periods when there is limited trading activity for shares in the secondary
market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be
significant.
Trading
–
Although shares of the Fund are listed for trading on a national securities
exchange, such as the Exchange, and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than
the Exchange, there can be no assurance that shares of the Fund will trade with
any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. In stressed market conditions, the
liquidity of shares of the Fund may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s
underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than
shares of the Fund.
Flash
Crash Risk
– Sharp price declines in securities owned by the Fund may trigger trading
halts, which may result in the Fund’s shares trading in the market at an
increasingly large discount to NAV during part (or all) of a trading day or
cause the Fund itself to halt trading.
Performance
Information
Performance information for the Fund is not
included because the Fund had not yet commenced operations as of the date of
this Prospectus. In the future, performance information for the
Fund will be presented in this section. Updated performance information is
available on the Fund's website at www.asymshares.com.
Management
Investment
Adviser.
ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC
Subadviser.
Toroso Investments, LLC
Portfolio
Managers. Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, and Qiao Duan, CFA, of Toroso Investments,
LLC (each a “Portfolio Manager”) are primarily responsible for the day-to-day
management of the Fund. Each of the Portfolio Managers has been a portfolio
manager of the Fund since its inception.
Purchase
and Sale of Fund Shares
The
Fund is an ETF. Individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national
securities exchange. Individual shares of the Fund may only be bought and sold
in the secondary market through a broker or dealer. The price of Fund shares is
based on market price, and because ETF shares trade at market prices rather than
at NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (a premium) or less than
NAV (a discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the
difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase
shares of the Fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for
shares of the Fund (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market
(the “bid-ask spread”). The Fund will only issue or redeem shares that have been
aggregated into blocks of shares or multiples thereof (“Creation Units”) to
Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s
distributor, and accepted by the Transfer Agent. Information regarding the
Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads is
available on the Fund’s website at www.asymshares.com/more.
Tax
Information
The
Fund’s distributions are taxable and will generally be taxed as ordinary income
or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement,
such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account. Withdrawals from such
tax-deferred arrangements may be subject to tax at a later date.
Payments
to Broker-Dealers and other Financial Intermediaries
If
you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial
intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund or other related companies may pay the
intermediary for marketing activities and presentations, educational training
programs, conferences, the development of technology platforms and reporting
systems or other services related to the sale or promotion of the Fund. These
payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or
other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another
investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website
for more information.
OVERVIEW
The
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
and ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF (each, a “Fund”, and collectively, the “Funds”)
are each a series of the ASYMmetric ETFs Trust (the “Trust”), a Delaware
statutory trust registered as an investment company under the Investment Company
Act of 1940, as amended (“1940 Act”). Each Fund will operate as an ETF. ETFs are
funds that trade like other publicly-traded securities. Each Fund is designed to
track an index. Similar to shares of an index mutual fund, shares of each Fund
represent an ownership interest in an underlying portfolio of securities and
other instruments intended to track a market index. Unlike shares of a mutual
fund, which can be bought and redeemed from the issuing fund by all shareholders
at a price based on NAV, shares of each Fund may be purchased or redeemed
directly from each Fund at NAV solely by Authorized Participants (“APs”). Also,
unlike shares of a mutual fund, shares of each Fund are listed on a national
securities exchange and trade in the secondary market at market prices, which
may differ from NAV.
An
index is a financial calculation, based on a grouping of financial instruments,
which is not an investment product, while each Fund is an actual investment
portfolio. The performance of each Fund and the ASYMmetric Smart Alpha 500 Index
and ASYMmetric Smart Income Index (each, the “Index”, and collectively, the
“Indexes”) may vary for a number of reasons, including transaction costs, asset
valuations, corporate actions (such as mergers and spin-offs), timing variances
and differences between each Fund’s portfolio and each Index resulting from each
Fund’s use of representative sampling or from legal restrictions (such as
diversification requirements) that apply to each Fund but not to each Index.
“Tracking error” is the divergence of the performance (return) of each Fund’s
portfolio from that of each Index. ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC, the investment adviser
to each Fund (the “Adviser”), expects that, over time, each Fund’s tracking
error will not exceed 5%.
Shares
of each Fund (the “Shares”), upon commencement of operations, will be listed and
traded on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), where the market prices for the
Shares may be different from the intra-day value of the Shares disseminated by
the Exchange from its NAV. Unlike conventional mutual funds, Shares are not
individually redeemable directly with a Fund. Rather, each Fund issues and
redeems Shares on a continuous basis at NAV only in large blocks of Shares
called “Creation Units.” Creation Units of each Fund are issued and redeemed in
cash and/or in-kind for securities and portfolio component cash included in each
Fund. As a result, retail investors generally will not be able to purchase or
redeem Shares directly from, or with, each Fund. Most retail investors will
purchase or sell Shares in the secondary market through a broker.
This
Prospectus provides the information you need to make an informed decision about
investing in each Fund. It contains important facts about the Trust and the
Funds.
There
is no assurance that each Fund will achieve its investment objective and an
investment in each Fund could lose money. Each Fund is not a complete investment
program.
Changes
in Investment Objective. Each
Fund’s investment objective is not a fundamental policy and may be changed by
the Funds’ Board of Trustees without shareholder approval.
DESCRIPTION
OF THE PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE FUNDS
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
The
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
is engineered to generate up to 2x the performance of the S&P
500®
Total Return Index (“S&P 500 Index”) with a risk profile generally in line
with the S&P 500 Index. The Fund seeks to accomplish these goals by being
200% long the S&P 500 Index in a bull market and being net short the S&P
500 Index in a bear market. The Index is a quantitatively driven rules-based
strategy powered by ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology™.
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Smart
Alpha ETFs |
ETF |
Ticker |
Above
Market Returns |
Market
Risk |
Benchmark |
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500® ETF |
ZSPY |
2x
the S&P 500 Index |
Equal
to S&P 500 Index |
S&P
500 Index |
The
Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to
track the total return performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The
Index is based on proprietary ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology developed
and maintained by ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC (the “Index Provider”),
an affiliate of ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser (the
“Adviser”).
The
Index is a rules-based, quantitative leveraged strategy that seeks
to:
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generate
returns up to two times the performance of the S&P 500 Index in a bull
market by leveraging its net exposure (the difference between the
aggregate long and short positions) to individual securities and futures,
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provide
protection against losses in a bear market by limiting its net exposure
using futures to hedge. |
The
Fund will use leverage and hedging to achieve its investment goals of maximizing
alpha while minimizing market risk. Leverage is an investment strategy used by a
Fund to increase its assets available for investment using borrowings,
derivatives, or similar instruments or techniques.
A
bull market is typically characterized by a period of material increase in the
overall U.S. stock market, and a bear market is typically characterized by a
period of material decrease in the overall U.S. stock market.
The
Index is powered by the Index Provider’s ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology,
which relies on mathematical formulas to dynamically manage the Index’s net
exposure in three market risk environments:
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Risk-On:
Market prices are trending up and have low realized volatility (below the
Risk-Off or bear market threshold) as determined by actual price
fluctuations over a prior period (“realized volatility”), which is termed
a “Risk-On” market environment; |
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Risk-Elevated:
Market prices are trending down and have low realized volatility (below
the Risk-Off or bear market threshold), which is termed a “Risk-Elevated”
market environment; and |
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Risk-Off:
Market prices are trending down and have high realized volatility (above
the Risk-Off or bear market threshold), which is termed a “Risk-Off”
market environment. |
The
ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology is designed to dynamically manage, as of
each monthly Index rebalancing and reconstitution date, the Index’s net exposure
to its market to:
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Generate
two times the performance of the S&P 500 Index in a bull market, by
using leverage to be 200% exposed to the S&P 500
Index; |
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Protect
capital by paring back net exposure during periods of heightened market
uncertainty, by being market neutral; and |
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Profit
in bear markets, by being net short (by investing in more short positions
than long positions in its portfolio). |
The
Index achieves its long exposure by investing in individual securities and
futures (the “Long Book”). The Index seeks to achieve two times the performance
of the S&P 500 Index in a bull market by leveraging its exposure 90% to
individual securities and 110% to futures. In order to effect its short exposure
to the market, the Index utilizes cash-settled short selling of shares of the
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (“SPY”) (the “Short Book”). The Index’s exposure to
its market ranges between 200% long and -25% short where net exposure is the
difference between the Index’s Long Book and its Short Book.
Under
normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets,
plus borrowings for investment purposes, in investments that provide exposure to
the S&P 500 Index. To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds more
than 25% of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or
group of related industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to
approximately the same extent as the Index.
In
tracking the Index, the Fund will replicate the Long Book through investments in
individual securities that are included in or track the S&P 500 Index,
respectively. The Fund will achieve the appropriate amount of leverage in the
Long Book and replicate the Short Book, as determined by the Index, by investing
primarily in futures on the S&P 500 Index.
The
Fund’s long and short positions are determined at each rebalance based on the
market risk environment measured by two price indicator components of the Index:
the Price Momentum Indicator and Price Volatility Indicator. The Fund’s exposure
is then fine-tuned using Volatility Adjusted Exposure (“VAE”). Each of the price
indicators and VAE components of the Index are described below.
Price
Indicator Determination of Market Risk Environments.
Market risk environments are quantitatively determined by the congruence of the
two proprietary price-based indicators that measure, monitor and quantify market
risk.
The
Price Momentum Indicator is driven by the 200-business day moving average of the
S&P 500 Index. The Price Momentum Indicator is designed to identify
historical market price trends (up or down).
The
Price Volatility Indicator is driven by the Index Provider’s
PriceVol™
proprietary measure of the realized (i.e.,
historical as opposed to anticipated) volatility of the Index’s market. PriceVol
measures the dispersion of prices of the securities comprising the S&P 500
Index. PriceVol is engineered to measure market risk (high or low) based on
actual market price movements and not expected price movements.
The
congruence of the output of the Price Momentum and Price Volatility Indicators
is used to classify monthly the Index’s market condition as either Risk-On,
Risk-Elevated, or Risk-Off market environments, as indicated in the table below.
The
market is in a Risk-On environment when the market is trending up, above its
200-business day moving average, and realized volatility is low. The market is
in a Risk-Elevated environment when the market is below its 200-business day
moving average, but realized volatility has not spiked. The market is in a
Risk-Off environment when the market is trending down, below its 200-business
day moving average, and realized volatility has spiked.
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Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Price
Volatility
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Market
Trending Up |
Realized
Volatility Low |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Realized
Volatility Low |
Risk-Elevated
(Uncertain Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Realized
Volatility High |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Index
Net Exposure Determination. The
market risk environment classification systematically determines the targeted
long, short and net exposure of the Index. In a Risk-On environment, the
targeted net exposure of the Index is 200%. In a Risk-Elevated environment, the
targeted net exposure of the index is 0%. In a Risk-Off environment, the
targeted net exposure of the Index is -25%.
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Risk
Environment Target Exposures |
Risk
Environment |
Target
Long Exposure |
Target
Short Exposure |
Target
Net Exposure |
Risk-On |
200% |
0% |
200% |
Risk-Elevated |
35% |
-35% |
0% |
Risk-Off |
0% |
-25% |
-25% |
Volatility
Adjusted Exposure. VAE
uses PriceVol to measure and group market volatility into three categories -
low, moderate, and high. VAE increases portfolio exposure when volatility is low
or moderate and decreases portfolio exposure when volatility is high by
adjusting Target Short Exposure for incrementally greater profit or greater
protection, as appropriate. VAE is designed to position the portfolio to capture
more of the upside and less of the downside of the market.
When
market volatility is low, VAE reduces the Target Short Exposure to 0%. When
market volatility is moderate, VAE reduces Target Short Exposure by 50%. When
market volatility is high, VAE keeps Target Short Exposure at 100%. The table
below illustrates how VAE adjusts Target Short Exposure in a Risk-Elevated
environment.
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Risk-Elevated
Environment |
Market
Volatility (PriceVol) |
VAE
Adjuster (% of Target Short Exposure) |
Target
Short Exposure |
VAE
Adjusted Short Exposure |
VAE
Adjusted Net Exposure |
Low |
0% |
-35% |
0% |
35% |
Moderate |
50% |
-35% |
-17.5% |
17.5% |
High |
100% |
-35% |
-35% |
0% |
Weightings
of Index Components.
The weighting of the Index’s Long Book and Short Book are formulaically
determined based on the table below, which indicates the various weighting
outcomes in each of the three potential market risk environments.
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Weighting
of Index Components |
Risk
Environment |
Long
Book
Weight
(Long
Book Securities Component) |
Short
Book
Weight |
Targeted
Net
Exposure |
Risk-On |
200% |
0% |
200% |
Risk-Elevated |
35% |
0%
to -35% |
0% |
Risk-Off |
0% |
0%
to -25% |
-25% |
The
Index was developed by the Index Provider, an affiliate of the Adviser. The
Index Calculation Agent is Solactive AG, which is not affiliated with the Index
Provider, the Fund, the Adviser or the Fund’s sub-adviser, Toroso Investments,
LLC (the “Subadviser”). The Index Calculation Agent provides information to the
Fund about the constituents of the Index and does not provide investment advice
with respect to the desirability of investing in, purchasing or selling
securities.
ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF
The
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF is engineered to generate higher income and better
performance than the S&P 500®
Total Return Index (“S&P 500 Index”) with less risk. The Fund seeks to
accomplish these goals by dynamically allocating to high income producing asset
classes (MLPs, REITs, Utilities or fixed income) when they are in a bull market
and away from them in a bear market. The Fund is quantitatively driven
rules-based strategy powered by ASYMmetric Risk Management
Technology™.
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Smart
Income ETFs |
ETF |
Ticker |
More
Income |
Less
Risk |
Benchmark |
ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF |
MORE |
Greater
than S&P 500 Index |
Less
than S&P 500 Index |
S&P
500 Index |
The
Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to
track the total return performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The
Index is based on proprietary ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology developed
and maintained by ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC (the “Index Provider”),
an affiliate of ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser (the
“Adviser”).
The
Index is a rules-based, quantitative strategy that seeks to generate higher
income and better performance than the S&P 500 Index with less
risk.
The
Index is powered by the Index Provider’s ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology,
which relies on mathematical formulas to dynamically manage the Index’s exposure
in two market risk environments:
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Risk-On:
Market prices are trending up, which is termed a “Risk-On” market
environment; |
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Risk-Off:
Market prices are trending down, which is termed a “Risk-Off” market
environment. |
The
ASYMmetric Risk Management Technology is designed to dynamically manage, as of
each monthly Index rebalancing and reconstitution date, the Index’s exposure to
high income producing asset classes to:
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Generate
high quality income from high income producing asset classes that are in a
bull market; |
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Secure
income and principle by allocating away from high income producing asset
classes that are in a bear market; and |
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Protect
capital when all high income producing assets classes are in a bear
market, by being invested in U.S. treasuries, if treasuries are in a bull
market or in the safety of cash, if no bull markets currently
exist. |
A
bull market is typically characterized by a period of material increase in the
overall U.S. stock market, and a bear market is typically characterized by a
period of material decrease in the overall U.S. stock market.
The
Index employs a tactical allocation strategy by allocating to (i) high income
equity asset classes, including Master Limited Partnerships (“MLPs”), Real
Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”), and utilities (together, the “Equities”),
and (ii) fixed income securities. When the Index allocates to Equities, the Fund
will invest principally in individual securities that provide exposure to MLPs,
REITs, and utilities or directly in U.S. equity securities of those asset
classes. The Fund may also invest directly in Canadian equity securities of
MLPs. When the Index allocates to fixed income asset classes, the Fund may
invest in U.S. Treasury securities (e.g., 30-Year U.S. Treasury bonds, 10-Year
U.S. Treasury notes, or U.S. Treasury bills) or cash.
The
Index screens MLPs, REITs, and the utilities sector (as designated by the Global
Industry Classification Standard (“GICS”)) to determine whether any of these
asset classes are in a bull market. The Index allocates to each the three high
income equity asset classes if the market risk environment for that asset class
is Risk-On, as determined in accordance with the Price Momentum Indicator
described below.
Price
Indicator Determination of Market Risk Environments.
Market risk environments are quantitatively determined by a proprietary
price-based indicator that measures, monitors and quantifies market risk. This
indicator is called the “Price Momentum Indicator.”
The
Price Momentum Indicator is driven by the 200-business day moving average of the
relevant asset class. The Price Momentum Indicator is designed to identify
historical market price trends (up or down).
The
output of the Price Momentum Indicator is used to classify, on a monthly basis,
as in either Risk-On or Risk-Off market environment, as outlined in the table
below. The market is in a Risk-On environment when the market is trending up,
above its 200-business day moving average. The market is in a Risk-Off
environment when the market is trending down, below its 200-business day moving
average.
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Equity |
Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Market
Trending Up |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Market
Trending Down |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Portfolio
Exposure. The
Index screens the MLP, REIT, and utility markets to determine their current
market risk environments. If all three high income equity asset classes are in a
Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates equally (33.3%) to each. If two
are in a Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates equally (50%) to each. If
only one is in a Risk-On environment, then the Index allocates entirely (100%)
to that asset class.
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High
Income Equity Risk Environments & Equity Exposure |
Asset
Classes |
MLPs |
REITs |
Utilities |
Risk-On
(Three) |
33% |
33% |
33% |
Risk-On
(Two) |
50% |
0% |
50% |
Risk-On
(One) |
100% |
0% |
0% |
Fixed
Income Matrix. If
all high income equity asset classes are Risk-Off (in a bear market), the Index
screens fixed income segments to determine if any are Risk-On. If any fixed
income asset class is Risk-On, then the Index allocates 100% to the fixed income
asset class with the highest yield, as shown in the table below. If all fixed
income segments are Risk-Off (in a bear market), then the Index allocates 100%
to cash or cash equivalents (which include U.S. Treasury bills or notes having
less than three months to maturity or money market funds invested in such U.S.
Treasuries). The Price Momentum Indicator uses the 200-business day moving
average of yields to determine which U.S. Treasuries markets, if any, are in a
Risk-On market environment. If yields are falling below the 200-business day
average, then the Price Momentum Indicator indicates a Risk-On
environment.
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Fixed
Income Risk Environments & Fixed Exposure |
Segment |
30-Year
U.S. Treasury |
10-Year
U.S. Treasury |
Treasury
Bills |
Bull
Market |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yield |
5% |
4% |
3% |
Highest
Yield |
Yes |
No |
No |
Exposure |
100% |
0% |
0% |
The
output of the Price Momentum Indicator is used to classify monthly U.S.
Treasuries markets as in either a Risk-On or Risk-Off market environment, as
outlined in the table below.
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Fixed
Income |
Price
Momentum
Indicator |
Indicated
Market
Risk Environment |
Yields
Trending Down (below 200-business day average yield) |
Risk-On
(Bull Market) |
Yields
Trending Up (above 200-business day average yield) |
Risk-Off
(Bear Market) |
Under
normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets
in securities and cash included in the ASYMmetric Smart Income
Index.
The
Index was developed by the Index Provider, ASYMmetric Investment Solutions, LLC,
an affiliate of the Adviser. The Index Calculation Agent is Solactive AG, which
is not affiliated with the Index Provider, the Fund, the Adviser or the Fund’s
sub-adviser, Toroso Investments, LLC (the “Subadviser”). The Index Calculation
Agent provides information to the Fund about the constituents of the Index and
does not provide investment advice with respect to the desirability of investing
in, purchasing or selling securities.
ADDITIONAL
INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
Smart
ETF Categories - Description
The
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF is categorized in the Smart Income category, and
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
is categorized in the Smart Alpha category. The Smart ETF categories of the
ASYMmetric ETFs are listed and described below.
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Smart
ETF Categories |
ETF
Categories |
Risk
Profile |
Description |
Primary
Goal |
Secondary
Goal |
Smart
Equity |
Very
Low |
Smart
Equity ETFs are engineered to generate market returns with a fraction of
the risk. |
Market
Returns |
Less
Risk |
Smart
Income |
Low |
Smart
Income ETFs are engineered to maximize income while minimizing
risk. |
Maximize
Income |
Less
Risk |
Smart
Alpha |
Moderate |
Smart
Alpha ETFs are engineered to outperform the market while maintaining a
market risk profile. |
Maximize
Alpha |
Market
Risk |
Smart
ETF Categories - Fund Structures
The
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF
does
not use leverage or derivatives to achieve its investment goals of maximum
income with less risk. The ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
uses leverage and hedging to achieve its investment goals of maximizing alpha
with market risk.
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Smart
ETF Categories |
Bull
Market |
Bear
Market |
Income |
Structure |
Correlation |
|
Profit |
Alpha |
Profit |
Protect |
Maximize |
Secure |
Hedging |
Leverage |
Low |
Moderate |
High |
Smart
Equity |
✓ |
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✓ |
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✓ |
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✓ |
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Smart
Income |
✓ |
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✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
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✓ |
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Smart
Alpha |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
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✓ |
✓ |
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✓ |
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Smart
ETF Categories - Target Investors
The
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF is designed for conservative investors who want more
income, but not more risk. The ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
is designed for investors with a higher risk tolerance who want greater returns,
but not greater risk.
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Smart
ETF Categories |
Investor
Profile |
Smart
Equity |
Smart
Equity products are designed to conservative investors who are looking for
equity returns, but can stomach market volatility. |
Smart
Income |
Smart
Income products are designed for conservative investors who are looking
for high current income, with less risk. |
Smart
Alpha |
Smart
Alpha products are designed for investors with a higher risk tolerance who
are looking to maximize returns, with the least amount of
risk. |
Smart
ETF Categories - Investment Applications
The
ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF may be used as a fixed income replacement. The
ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
may be used as a source of portfolio alpha.
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Smart
ETF Categories |
Portfolio
Use |
Target
Allocation |
Smart
Equity |
Core
Equity |
30%
Equities |
Smart
Income |
Income
Generation |
25%
Fixed Income |
Smart
Alpha |
Alpha
Generation |
10%
- 25% Equities |
The
additional investment strategies outlined above do not represent and are
distinct from the principal investment strategies of the Funds.
Each
Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in instruments that are not included in
its Index, but that the Adviser believes will help the Fund track its
index.
Each
of the policies described herein, including the investment objective of each
Fund, constitutes a non-fundamental policy that may be changed by the Board of
Trustees of the Trust (the “Board”) without shareholder approval upon 60 days
prior written notice to shareholders. Certain fundamental policies of the Funds
are set forth in the Funds’ Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”) under
“Investment Restrictions.
DESCRIPTION
OF PRINCIPAL RISKS OF THE FUNDS
Each
Fund is subject to various risks, including the principal risks noted below, any
of which may adversely affect each Fund’s NAV, trading price, yield, total
return and ability to meet its investment objective. You could lose all or part
of your investment in the Funds, and the Funds could underperform other
investments.
Leverage
Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
Some
transactions may give rise to a form of economic leverage. These transactions
may include, among others, derivatives, and may expose the Fund to greater risk
and increase its costs. As an open-end investment company registered with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the Fund is subject to the
federal securities laws, including the Investment Company Act, and the rules
thereunder. Under Rule 18f-4 under the 1940 Act, among other things, the Fund
must either use derivatives in a limited manner or comply with an outer limit on
fund leverage risk based on value-at-risk. The use of leverage may cause the
Fund to liquidate portfolio positions when it may not be advantageous to do so
to satisfy its
obligations
or to meet the applicable requirements of the Investment Company Act and the
rules thereunder. Increases and decreases in the value of the Fund’s portfolio
will be magnified when the Fund uses leverage.
Long/Short
Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
The
performance of the Fund will depend on the difference in the rates of return
between its long positions and short positions. During a rising market, when
most equity securities and long-only equity ETFs are increasing in value, the
Fund’s short positions will likely cause the Fund to underperform the overall
U.S. equity market and such ETFs. However, there is no guarantee that the
returns on the Fund’s long or short positions will produce positive returns, and
the Fund could lose money on either or both of the Fund’s long and short
positions.
Master
Limited Partnership Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
MLPs
involve risks related to limited control and limited rights to vote on matters
affecting the MLP, risks related to potential conflicts of interest between the
MLP and the MLP’s general partner, and cash flow risks. MLP common units and
other equity securities can be affected by macroeconomic and other factors
affecting the stock market in general, expectations of interest rates, investor
sentiment towards MLPs or the energy sector, changes in a particular issuer’s
financial condition or unfavorable or unanticipated poor performance of a
particular issuer (in the case of MLPs, generally measured in terms of
distributable cash flow). Prices of common units of individual MLPs and other
equity securities also can be affected by fundamentals unique to the partnership
or company, including earnings power and coverage ratios.
MLPs
typically do not pay U.S. federal income tax at the partnership level. Instead,
each partner is allocated a share of the partnership’s income, gains, losses,
deductions and expenses. A change in current tax law or in the underlying
business mix of a given MLP could result in an MLP being treated as a
corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which would result in such MLP
being required to pay U.S. federal income tax on its taxable income. The
classification of an MLP as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes
would have the effect of reducing the amount of cash available for distribution
by the MLP. Thus, if any MLP owned by the Fund were treated as a corporation for
U.S. federal income tax purposes, the result could be a reduction of the value
of your investment in the Fund and lower income, as compared to if the MLP were
not taxed as a corporation. The Fund may invest in certain MLPs which may be
treated as “qualified publicly traded partnerships.” Income from qualified
publicly traded partnerships is qualifying income for purposes of the Qualifying
Income Requirement, but the Fund’s investment in one or more of such “qualified
publicly traded partnerships” is limited under the Diversification Requirement
to no more than 25% of the value of the Fund’s assets.
Tax
Risks. Regulated
investment companies (“RICs”) are subject to a favorable tax treatment under the
U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). To qualify as a
RIC, the Fund must meet certain source-of-income, asset diversification and
annual distribution requirements. Under the diversification requirements, the
Fund must generally limit its investments in MLPs to no more than 25% of its
total assets. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a RIC (e.g., by
investing more than 25% of its assets in MLPs), it would be subject to federal
income tax as a corporation, and its distributions to shareholders would be
taxed as dividend income to the extent of the Fund’s earnings and profits. Under
certain circumstances, the Fund could cure a failure to qualify as a RIC, but to
do so, the Fund could incur significant Fund-level taxes and could be forced to
dispose of certain assets.
Depreciation
or other cost recovery deductions passed through to the Fund from investments in
MLPs in a given year will generally reduce the Fund’s taxable income, but those
deductions may be recaptured in the Fund’s income in one or more subsequent
years. When recognized and distributed, recapture income will generally be
taxable to shareholders at the time of the distribution at ordinary income tax
rates, even though those shareholders might not have held shares in the Fund at
the time the deductions were taken by the Fund, and even though those
shareholders will not have corresponding economic gain on their shares at the
time of the recapture. In order to distribute recapture income or to fund
redemption requests, the Fund may need to liquidate investments.
REIT
Investment Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
Investments
in REITs involve unique risks. REITs may have limited financial resources, may
trade less frequently and in limited volume, and may be more volatile than other
securities. In addition, to the extent the Fund holds interests in REITs, it is
expected that investors in the Fund will bear two layers of asset-based
management fees and expenses (directly at the Fund level and indirectly at the
REIT level). The risks of investing in REITs include certain risks associated
with the direct ownership of real estate and the real estate industry in
general. These include risks related to general, regional and local economic
conditions; fluctuations in interest rates and property tax rates; shifts in
zoning laws, environmental regulations and other governmental action such as the
exercise of eminent domain; cash flow dependency; increased operating expenses;
lack of availability of mortgage funds; losses due to natural disasters;
overbuilding; losses due to casualty or condemnation; changes in property values
and rental rates; and other factors.
In
addition to these risks, residential/diversified REITs and commercial equity
REITs may be affected by changes in the value of the underlying property owned
by the trusts, while mortgage REITs may be affected by the quality of any credit
extended. Further, REITs are dependent upon management skills and generally may
not be diversified. REITs are also subject to heavy cash flow dependency,
defaults by borrowers and self-liquidation. In addition, REITs could possibly
fail to qualify for the beneficial tax treatment available to REITs under the
Code, or to maintain their exemptions from registration under the 1940 Act. The
Fund expects that dividends received from a REIT and distributed to Fund
shareholders generally will be taxable to the shareholder as ordinary income.
The above factors may also adversely affect a borrower’s or a lessee’s ability
to meet its obligations to the REIT. In the event of a default by a borrower or
lessee, the REIT may experience delays in enforcing its rights as a mortgagee or
lessor and may incur substantial costs associated with protecting
investments.
Utilities
Sector Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
Utility
companies are affected by supply and demand, operating costs, government
regulation, environmental factors, liabilities for environmental damage and
general civil liabilities, and rate caps or rate changes. Although rate changes
of a regulated utility usually fluctuate in approximate correlation with
financing costs, due to political and regulatory factors, rate changes
ordinarily occur only following a delay after the changes in financing costs.
This factor will tend to favorably affect a regulated utility company’s earnings
and dividends in times of decreasing costs, but conversely, will tend to
adversely affect earnings and dividends when costs are rising. The value of
regulated utility equity securities may tend to have an inverse relationship to
the movement of interest rates. Certain utility companies have experienced full
or partial deregulation
in
recent years. These utility companies are frequently more similar to industrial
companies in that they are subject to greater competition and have been
permitted by regulators to diversify outside of their original geographic
regions and their traditional lines of business. These opportunities may permit
certain utility companies to earn more than their traditional regulated rates of
return. Some companies, however, may be forced to defend their core business and
may be less profitable. In addition, natural disasters, terrorist attacks,
government intervention or other factors may render a utility company’s
equipment unusable or obsolete and negatively impact profitability.
Among
the risks that may affect utility companies are the following: risks of
increases in fuel and other operating costs; the high cost of borrowing to
finance capital construction during inflationary periods; restrictions on
operations and increased costs and delays associated with compliance with
environmental and nuclear safety regulations; and the difficulties involved in
obtaining natural gas for resale or fuel for generating electricity at
reasonable prices. Other risks include those related to the construction and
operation of nuclear power plants, the effects of energy conservation and the
effects of regulatory changes.
Derivatives
Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
A
derivative instrument typically involves leverage and provides exposure to
potential gain or loss from a change in the market price of the underlying asset
(or a basket of assets or an index) in a notional amount that exceeds the amount
of cash or assets required to establish or maintain the derivative instrument.
Adverse changes in the value or price of the underlying asset (or basket of
assets or index), which the Fund may not directly own, can result in a loss to
the Fund substantially greater than the amount invested in the derivative
itself. The use of derivative instruments also exposes the Fund to additional
risks and transaction costs.
Futures
Contract Risk
(ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
Futures
contracts are derivative instruments pursuant to a contract where the parties
agree to a fixed price for an agreed amount of securities or other underlying
assets at an agreed date. The use of such derivative instruments may expose the
Fund to additional risks, such as credit risk, liquidity risk, and counterparty
risk, that it would not be subject to if it invested directly in the securities
underlying those derivatives. There can be no assurance that any strategy used
will succeed. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the
movement in the prices of futures contracts and the value of their underlying
instruments or indexes. There also can be no assurance that, at all times, a
liquid market will exist for offsetting a futures contract that the Fund has
previously bought or sold, and this may result in the inability to close a
futures contract when desired. Futures contracts may experience potentially
dramatic price changes, which will increase the volatility of the Fund and may
involve a small investment of cash (the amount of initial and variation margin)
relative to the magnitude of the risk assumed (the potential increase or
decrease in the price of the futures contract).
Counterparty
Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
A
Fund may enter into various types of OTC derivative contracts with a
counterparty that may be privately negotiated in the over-the-counter market.
These contracts involve exposure to credit risk because contract performance
depends, in part, on the financial condition of the counterparty. If the
creditworthiness of the counterparty declines, the Fund may not receive payments
owed under the contract, or such payments may be delayed, and the value of the
counterparty agreements can be expected to decline, potentially resulting in
losses to the Fund.
Shorting
Risks (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
In
order to achieve its investment objective, the Fund may engage in short sales,
which are designed to provide the Fund gains when the price of a particular
security, basket of securities or index declines. When the Fund shorts
securities, including securities of another investment company, it borrows
shares of that security or investment company, which it then sells. Unlike with
a long position, losses on a short position could be much greater if the value
of the security that the Fund is shorting increases because the cost of covering
a short position is potentially unlimited. There is no guarantee the Fund will
be able to borrow the shares of the security or investment company it seeks to
short in order to achieve its investment objective. In addition, shares of the
security or investment company may become hard-to-borrow, generally in times of
heightened market volatility, and cause the Fund to have to pay to borrow the
shares, in addition to financing costs of short positions, which would
negatively impact Fund performance and cause the Fund not to track the Index.
Short positions can be called at any time by the lender, which would cause the
Fund to have greater net exposure than the Index. The Fund typically closes out
a short sale by exchanging agreed-upon cash amounts that represent settlement in
lieu of delivery of the actual underlying security, or, in less likely
circumstances, by purchasing the security that it has sold short and returning
that security to the entity that lent the security.
Debt
Securities Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
Investments
in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer. Credit
risk refers to the possibility that the issuer or other obligor of a security
will not be able or willing to make payments of interest and principal when due.
Generally, the value of debt securities will change inversely with changes in
interest rates. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying
obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and
the value of those securities may fall sharply. During periods of falling
interest rates, the income received by the Fund may decline. If the principal on
a debt security is prepaid before expected, the prepayments of principal may
have to be reinvested in obligations paying interest at lower rates. Debt
securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them generally
less liquid and more difficult to value than common stock.
Volatility
Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
The
Fund’s investments are designed to respond to historical or realized volatility
based on a proprietary model developed and implemented by the Index Provider,
which is not intended to predict the future volatility of the S&P 500 Index.
If the S&P 500 Index is rapidly rising during periods when the Index
Provider’s volatility model has predicted significant volatility, the Fund may
be underexposed to the S&P 500 Index due to its short position and the Fund
would not be expected to gain the full benefit of the rise in the S&P 500
Index. Additionally, in periods of rapidly changing volatility, the Fund may not
be appropriately hedged or may not respond as expected to current volatility. In
periods of extreme market volatility, the Index’s strategy, and consequently the
Fund, may underperform due to the backward-looking nature of the Index’s
model.
Index
Tracking Risk
There
is no guarantee that each Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to its
Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Each Fund may have
difficulty achieving its investment objective due to fees, difficulty borrowing
securities, expenses (including rebalancing expenses), transaction costs, income
items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or
illiquidity in the markets for the securities held by each Fund, each Fund’s
holding of uninvested cash, costs of complying with various new or existing
regulatory requirements, and transactions carried out to minimize the
distribution of capital gains to shareholders and other requirements to maintain
pass-through tax treatment. These costs that may be incurred by each Fund are
not incurred by each Index, which may make it more difficult for each Fund to
track its Index. Market disruptions, regulatory restrictions or extreme
volatility will also adversely affect each Fund’s ability to achieve its
investment objective. Activities surrounding Index reconstitutions and other
Index rebalancing events may hinder each Fund’s ability to meet its investment
objective. In addition, if each Fund uses representative sampling to track its
Index, each Fund may not be as well correlated with the return of its Index as
when each Fund purchases all of the securities in its Index in the proportions
in which they are represented in the Index.
Passive
Investment Risk
Each
Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser would not sell a security due to
current or projected underperformance of a security, industry or sector, unless
that security is removed from the Index or the selling of shares of that
security is otherwise required upon a reconstitution of the Index in accordance
with the Index methodology. Each Fund invests in securities included in the
Index regardless of the Adviser’s independent analysis of the investment
decision.
Index
Calculation Methodology Risk
The
Index relies directly or indirectly on various sources of information to assess
the criteria of issuers included in the Index, including information that may be
based on assumptions and estimates. Neither the Funds, the Index Provider, or
the Adviser (as defined below) can offer assurances that the Index’s calculation
methodology or sources of information will provide an accurate assessment of
included issuers or a correct valuation of securities, nor can they guarantee
the availability or timeliness of the production of the Index. A failure in the
management or dissemination of the Index could cause the Funds to become unable
to meet their investment objectives, and may result in losses.
Interest
Rate Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
As
interest rates rise, the value of debt securities held by the Fund is likely to
decrease. Securities with longer durations tend to be more sensitive to interest
rate changes, usually making their prices more volatile than those of securities
with shorter durations. To the extent the Fund invests a substantial portion of
its assets in debt securities with longer-term durations, rising interest rates
may cause the value of the Fund’s investments to decline significantly. An
increase in interest rates may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income
markets and adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments.
In addition, decreases in fixed-income dealer market-making capacity may also
potentially lead to heightened volatility and reduced liquidity in the
fixed-income markets. In a low interest rate environment, the Fund’s cash and
cash equivalent positions, which typically include highly rated and highly
liquid debt securities, are expected to earn correspondingly low
returns.
Market
Disruption Risk
Geopolitical
and other events, including public health crises, natural disasters and armed
conflicts or war have recently led to increased market volatility and
significant market losses. Significant market volatility and market downturns
may limit the Fund’s ability to sell securities. Under such circumstances, the
Funds may have difficulty achieving their investment objectives for one or more
trading days, which may adversely impact the Funds’ returns on those days and
periods inclusive of those days. Alternatively, the Funds may incur higher costs
in order to achieve their investment objectives and may be forced to purchase
and sell securities (including other ETFs’ shares) at market prices that do not
represent their fair value (including in the case of an ETF, its net asset
value) or at times that result in differences between the price the Funds
receive for the security and the market closing price of the security. Under
those circumstances, each Fund’s ability to track the Index is likely to be
adversely affected, the market price of each Fund’s shares may reflect a greater
premium or discount to net asset value, and bid-ask spreads on each Fund’s
shares may widen, resulting in increased transaction costs for secondary market
purchasers and sellers. Each Fund may also incur additional tracking error due
to the use of other securities that are not perfectly correlated to each Fund’s
Index.
U.S.
Treasury Securities Risk
(ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF only)
U.S.
Treasury securities may differ from other securities in their interest rates,
maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Although U.S. Treasury
securities are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the United States, the
U.S. Government does not guarantee the market value of these securities, and
consequently, the market value of such securities may fluctuate. Similar to
other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S.
Government may cause the value of the Fund’s U.S. Treasury securities to
decline. U.S. Treasury Securities are also subject to interest rate risk.
Generally, as interest rates rise, the market value of fixed income securities
tends to decrease. Conversely, as interest rates fall, the market value of fixed
income securities tends to increase. This risk will be greater for long-term
securities than for short-term securities.
Interruption
in Trading Risk
An
exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or
the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be
restricted, which may result in each Fund being unable to buy or sell certain
securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, each Fund may be
unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its
investments, may incur significant tracking differences with its Index, and/or
may incur substantial losses and may limit or stop purchases of each
Fund.
Equity
Securities Risk
Investments
in publicly issued equity securities, including common stocks, are subject to
market risks that may cause their prices to fluctuate over time. These
fluctuations in the market price of equity securities could be caused by general
stock market movements as well as volatile increases or decreases in the value
of certain stocks or sectors as public confidence in
and
perceptions of certain issuers change. Fluctuations in the value of equity
securities in which each Fund invests will cause the net asset value of each
Fund to fluctuate.
High
Portfolio Turnover Risk
At
times, each Fund may have a portfolio turnover rate substantially greater than
100%. A high portfolio turnover rate would result in correspondingly greater
transaction expenses, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark ups and other
transaction costs, on the sale of securities and on reinvestment in other
securities and may result in reduced performance and the distribution to
shareholders of additional capital gains for tax purposes. These factors may
negatively affect each Fund’s performance.
Market
Risk
Market
risks include political, regulatory, market and economic developments, including
developments that impact specific economic sectors, industries or segments of
the market, which may affect each Fund’s value. Turbulence in financial markets
and reduced liquidity in equity, credit and fixed income markets may negatively
affect many issuers worldwide, which could have an adverse effect on each
Fund.
Cybersecurity
Risk
Failures
or breaches of the electronic systems of each Fund or its services providers may
cause disruptions and negatively impact each Fund’s business operations,
potentially resulting in financial losses to each Fund. While each Fund has
established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to
address system breaches or failures, these plans and systems are inherently
limited. Further, cybersecurity incidents could also affect issuers of
securities in which each Fund invests, leading to a significant loss of
value.
Operational
Risk
Each
Fund is exposed to operational risks arising from a number of factors,
including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors,
errors of each Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties,
failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. Each Fund,
Adviser and Subadviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls
and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and
may be inadequate to address these risks.
Small-Capitalization
Risk (ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF only)
The
securities of small-capitalization companies may be more vulnerable to adverse
issuer, market, political, or economic developments than securities of
larger-capitalization companies. The securities of small-capitalization
companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more
unpredictable price changes than larger capitalization stocks or the stock
market as a whole. Some small capitalization companies have limited product
lines, markets, and financial and managerial resources and tend to concentrate
on fewer geographical markets relative to larger capitalization companies. There
is typically less publicly available information concerning
smaller-capitalization companies than for larger, more established companies.
Small-capitalization companies also may be particularly sensitive to changes in
interest rates, government regulation, borrowing costs and earnings.
Mid-Capitalization
Risk (ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF only)
The
securities of mid-capitalization companies may be more vulnerable to adverse
issuer, market, political, or economic developments than securities of
large-capitalization companies, but they may also be subject to slower growth
than small-capitalization companies during times of economic expansion. The
securities of mid-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and
are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than large
capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole, but they may also be
nimbler and more responsive to new challenges than large-capitalization
companies. Some mid-capitalization companies have limited product lines,
markets, financial resources, and management personnel and tend to concentrate
on fewer geographical markets relative to large-capitalization
companies.
Large-Capitalization
Investing Risk
Each
Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a
result, each Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of
large-capitalization companies underperform securities of smaller-capitalization
companies or the market as a whole. The securities of large-capitalization
companies may be relatively mature compared to smaller companies and therefore
subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
New
Fund Risk
Each
Fund is a recently organized investment company with no operating history. As a
result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to base
their investment decision.
Canadian
Securities Risk (ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
The
Canadian economy is especially dependent on the demand for, and supply of,
natural resources, and the Canadian market is relatively concentrated in issuers
involved in the production and distribution of natural resources. Any adverse
events that affect Canada’s major industries may have a negative impact on the
overall Canadian economy and the shares of the Fund. Canada is also heavily
dependent on trading with key partners, including the United States, Mexico, and
China. Any reduction in trading with these key partners may adversely affect the
Canadian economy. Canada’s dependency on the economy of the United States, in
particular, makes Canada’s economy vulnerable to political and regulatory
changes affecting the United States economy.
Special
Risks of Exchange-Traded Funds
Authorized
Participants (“APs”), Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration
Risk
Each
Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as APs. In
addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity
providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events
occur, shares of each Fund may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly
face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process
creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these
services, or (ii) market
makers
and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their
business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their
functions.
Shares
of the Funds May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV
As
with all ETFs, shares of each Fund may be bought and sold in the secondary
market at market prices. The price of shares of each Fund, like the price of all
traded securities, will be subject to factors such as supply and demand, as well
as the current value of each Fund’s portfolio holdings. Although it is expected
that the market price of the shares of each Fund will approximate each Fund’s
NAV, there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV
intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount). Price differences
may be due to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary
trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical, the
same forces influencing the prices of each Fund’s portfolio securities. This
risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market
declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for shares in the
secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be
significant.
Trading
Although
shares of each Fund are listed for trading on a national securities exchange,
such as the Exchange, and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the
Exchange, there can be no assurance that shares of each Fund will trade with any
volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. In stressed market conditions, the
liquidity of shares of each Fund may begin to mirror the liquidity of each
Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid
than shares of each Fund.
Flash
Crash Risk
Sharp
price declines in securities owned by each Fund may trigger trading halts, which
may result in each Fund’s shares trading in the market at an increasingly large
discount to NAV during part (or all) of a trading day or cause each Fund itself
to halt trading.
Risk
that Short Book Gains May Result in Tax Inefficiencies (ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF
only)
The
Fund may be able to manage realized tax gains on its Long Book positions by
arranging for in-kind creation and redemption transactions to remove from its
portfolio securities experiencing such gains in a tax efficient manner. However,
the Fund will be unable to use the creation and redemption process to manage
realized tax gains on its Short Book positions because they are not amenable to
in-kind transfers. Consequently, the Fund may be compelled to recognize Short
Book position gains for tax purposes unless it can offset such gains with
commensurate losses on other positions in its portfolio. The inability of the
Fund to offset such Short Book position gains may cause shareholders to incur
income tax liabilities upon such gain recognition in a manner similar to that
typically experienced by mutual fund shareholders but not by shareholders of
ETFs that do not invest in Short Book positions.
ADDITIONAL
RISKS OF INVESTING IN THE FUNDS
Investment
Risk
An
investment in each Fund is not a deposit in a bank and is not insured or
guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government
agency. When you sell your Shares, they could be worth less than what you paid
for them.
Loss
Mitigation Risk
There
is no guarantee that the strategy utilized by each Index will be successful in
its attempt to mitigate against significant losses.
Securities
Lending Risk
Securities
lending involves the risk that each Fund may lose money because the borrower of
the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at
all. Each Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of
collateral provided for loaned securities, a decline in the value of any
investments made with cash collateral, or a “gap” between the return on cash
collateral reinvestments and any fees each Fund has agreed to pay a borrower.
These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for each
Fund.
Please
refer to the SAI for a more complete discussion of the risks of investing in the
Funds.
CONTINUOUS
OFFERING
The
method by which Creation Units are purchased and traded may raise certain issues
under applicable securities laws. Because new Creation Units are issued and sold
by each Fund on an ongoing basis, at any point a “distribution,” as such term is
used in the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”), may occur.
Broker-dealers and other persons are cautioned that some activities on their
part may, depending on the circumstances, result in their being deemed
participants in a distribution in a manner which could render them statutory
underwriters and subject them to the prospectus delivery and liability
provisions of the Securities Act. For example, a broker-dealer firm or its
client may be deemed a statutory underwriter if it takes Creation Units after
placing an order with the Transfer Agent, breaks them down into individual
Shares, and sells such Shares directly to customers, or if it chooses to couple
the creation of a supply of new Shares with an active selling effort involving
solicitation of Secondary Market demand for Shares. A determination of whether
one is an underwriter for purposes of the Securities Act must take into account
all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the activities of the
broker-dealer or its client in the particular case, and the examples mentioned
above should not be considered a complete description of all the activities that
could lead to categorization as an underwriter.
Broker-dealer
firms should also note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are effecting
transactions in Shares, whether or not participating in the distribution of
Shares, are generally required to deliver a prospectus. This is because the
prospectus delivery exemption in Section 4(3) of the Securities Act is not
available with respect to such transactions as a result of Section 24(d) of the
1940 Act. As a result, broker-dealer firms should note that dealers who are not
underwriters but are participating in a distribution (as contrasted with
ordinary Secondary Market transactions) and thus dealing with Shares that are
part of an over-allotment within the meaning of Section 4(3)(a) of the
Securities Act would be unable to take advantage of the prospectus delivery
exemption provided by Section 4(3) of the Securities Act. Firms that incur a
prospectus delivery
obligation
with respect to Shares of each Fund are reminded that under Rule 153 of the
Securities Act, a prospectus delivery obligation under Section 5(b)(2) of the
Securities Act owed to an exchange member in connection with a sale on the
Exchange is satisfied by the fact that each Fund’s prospectus is available at
the Exchange upon request. The prospectus delivery mechanism provided in Rule
153 is only available with respect to transactions on an exchange.
CREATION
AND REDEMPTION OF CREATION UNITS
Each
Fund issues and redeems Shares only in bundles of a specified number of Shares.
These bundles are known as “Creation Units”. The number of Shares in a Creation
Unit may change in the event of a share split, reverse split, or similar
revaluation. Each Fund may not issue fractional Creation Units. To purchase or
redeem a Creation Unit, you must be an Authorized Participant or you must do so
through a broker, dealer, bank, or other entity that is an Authorized
Participant. An Authorized Participant is either (1) a “Participating Party”,
i.e.,
a broker-dealer or other participant in the clearing process of the Continuous
Net Settlement System of the NSCC (“Clearing Process”), or (2) a participant of
DTC (a “DTC Participant”), and, in each case, must have executed an agreement
with the Distributor, and accepted by the Transfer Agent, with respect to
creations and redemptions of Creation Units (each a “Participation Agreement”).
Because Creation Units are likely to cost over one million dollars each, it is
expected that only large institutional investors will purchase and redeem Shares
directly from each Fund in the form of Creation Units. In turn, it is expected
that institutional investors who purchase Creation Units will break up their
Creation Units and offer and sell individual Shares in the Secondary Market.
Although it is anticipated that most creation and redemption transactions for
each Fund will be made on an “in-kind” basis, from time to time they may be made
partially or wholly in cash. In
determining whether each Fund will sell or redeem Creation Units entirely on a
cash or in-kind basis (whether for a given day or a given order) the key
consideration will be the benefit that would accrue to each Fund and its
investors. Under certain circumstances, tax considerations may warrant in-kind,
rather than cash, redemptions.
Retail
investors may acquire Shares in the Secondary Market (not from each Fund)
through a broker or dealer. Shares are listed on the Exchange and are
publicly-traded. For information about acquiring Shares in the Secondary Market,
please contact your broker or dealer. If you want to sell Shares in the
Secondary Market, you must do so through your broker or dealer.
When
you buy or sell Shares in the Secondary Market, your broker or dealer may charge
you a commission, market premium or discount, or other transaction charge, and
you may pay some or all of the spread between the bid and the offered price for
each purchase or sale transaction. Unless imposed by your broker or dealer,
there is no minimum dollar amount you must invest and no minimum number of
Shares you must buy in the Secondary Market. In addition, because transactions
in the Secondary Market occur at market prices, you may pay more than NAV when
you buy Shares and receive less than NAV when you sell those
Shares.
The
creation and redemption processes discussed above are summarized, and such
summary only applies to Shareholders who purchase or redeem Creation Units (that
is, they do not relate to Shareholders who purchase or sell Shares in the
Secondary Market). Authorized Participants should refer to their Participant
Agreements for the precise instructions that must be followed in order to create
or redeem Creation Units.
BUYING
AND SELLING SHARES IN THE SECONDARY MARKET
Most
investors will buy and sell Shares of each Fund in Secondary Market transactions
through brokers. Shares of each Fund will be listed for trading on the Secondary
Market on the Exchange. Shares can be bought and sold throughout the trading day
like other publicly-traded shares. There is no minimum investment. Although
Shares are generally purchased and sold in “round lots” of 100 Shares, brokerage
firms typically permit investors to purchase or sell Shares in smaller “odd
lots” at no per-Share price differential. When buying or selling Shares through
a broker, you will incur customary brokerage commissions and charges, and you
may pay some or all of the spread between the bid and the offered price in the
Secondary Market on each leg of a round trip (purchase and sale)
transaction.
Share
prices are reported in dollars and cents per Share. For information about buying
and selling Shares in the Secondary Market, please contact your broker or
dealer.
Book
Entry
Shares
of each Fund are held in book-entry form and no stock certificates are issued.
The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”), through its nominee Cede & Co., is the
record owner of all outstanding Shares.
Investors
owning Shares are beneficial owners as shown on the records of DTC or its
participants. DTC serves as the securities depository for all Shares.
Participants in DTC include securities brokers and dealers, banks, trust
companies, clearing corporations, and other institutions that directly or
indirectly maintain a custodial relationship with DTC. As a beneficial owner of
Shares, you are not entitled to receive physical delivery of stock certificates
or to have Shares registered in your name, and you are not considered a
registered owner of Shares. Therefore, to exercise any right as an owner of
Shares, you must rely upon the procedures of DTC and its
participants.
These
procedures are the same as those that apply to any securities that you hold in
book-entry or “street name” form for any publicly-traded company. Specifically,
in the case of a Shareholder meeting of each Fund, DTC assigns applicable Cede
& Co. voting rights to its participants that have Shares credited to their
accounts on the record date, issues an omnibus proxy, and forwards the omnibus
proxy to each Fund. The omnibus proxy transfers the voting authority from Cede
& Co. to the DTC participant. This gives the DTC participant through whom
you own Shares (namely, your broker, dealer, bank, trust company, or other
nominee) authority to vote the Shares, and, in turn, the DTC participant is
obligated to follow the voting instructions you provide.
MANAGEMENT
Investment
Adviser.
ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC (the “Adviser”), a wholly owned subsidiary of ASYMmetric
Holdings, Inc., has overall responsibility for the general management and
administration of each Fund, including through its oversight of the Subadviser.
The Adviser selects, contracts with and compensates one or more subadvisers to
manage all or a portion of each Fund’s portfolio assets. In this role, the
Adviser has supervisory responsibility for managing the investment and
reinvestment of each Fund’s portfolio assets through proactive oversight and
monitoring of the Subadviser and each Fund, as described in further detail
below. The Adviser is responsible for developing overall investment strategies
for each Fund and overseeing and implementing each Fund’s investment programs
and provides a variety of advisory oversight services. The Adviser also
provides
management and transition services associated with certain events that may
affect each Fund such as strategy, portfolio manager, or Subadviser changes and
coordinates and oversees services provided under other agreements. In addition
to the Funds, the Adviser also serves as investment adviser to
ASYMshares™ASYMmetric S&P 500® ETF, a separate series of the
Trust.
The
Adviser has ultimate responsibility to oversee the Subadviser and recommend to
the Board of Trustees its hiring, termination, and replacement. In this
capacity, the Adviser, among other things: (i) monitors on a daily basis the
compliance of the Subadviser with the investment objectives and related policies
of each Fund; (ii) monitors significant changes that may impact the Subadviser’s
overall business and regularly performs due diligence reviews of the Subadviser;
(iii) reviews the performance of the Subadviser; and (iv) reports periodically
on such performance to the Board of Trustees. In managing each Fund, the Adviser
may draw upon the research and expertise of its asset management affiliates with
respect to certain portfolio securities.
For
its investment advisory services to the Funds, each of the Funds pays the
Adviser a unitary fee, which is calculated daily and paid monthly, at an annual
rate based upon the applicable Fund’s average daily net assets as set forth in
the table below:
|
|
|
|
| |
Name
of Fund |
Management
Fee |
ASYMmetric
Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF |
0.95% |
ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF |
0.75% |
Pursuant
to the Investment Advisory Agreement, as amended, (the “Investment Advisory
Agreement”) between the Adviser and the Trust (entered into on behalf of each
Fund), the Adviser is responsible for substantially all expenses of each Fund,
except the management fees, interest expenses, taxes, expenses incurred with
respect to the acquisition and disposition of portfolio securities and the
execution of portfolio transactions, including brokerage commissions,
distribution fees or expenses, litigation expenses and any extraordinary
expenses (as determined by a majority of the Trustees who are not “interested
persons” of the Trust). The Adviser may from time to time voluntarily waive
and/or reimburse fees or expenses in order to limit total annual fund operating
expenses (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses, if any).
The
Adviser is located at 158 East 126th Street, Suite 304, New York, NY 10035. As
of January 12, 2023, the Adviser and its affiliates provided investment advisory
services for assets in excess of $27.3 million. The Adviser and its affiliates
trade and invest for their own accounts in the actual securities and types of
securities in which each Fund may also invest, which may affect the price of
such securities.
The
basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the Funds’ Investment Advisory
Agreement will be available in the Funds’ first Annual or Semi-Annual Report to
Shareholders.
Subadviser.
Toroso
Investments, LLC, 898 N. Broadway, Suite 2, Massapequa, New York 11758, (the
“Subadviser” or “Toroso”) is responsible for each Fund’s portfolio management
activities, subject to oversight by the Adviser.
Pursuant
to the Subadvisory Agreement, Toroso receives a subadvisory fee that is equal to
the greater of (1) $20,000 per annum or (2) 0.04% per annum of the average daily
net assets of each Fund on the first $500 million in assets, 0.03% on the next
$500 million in assets, 0.02% on assets over $1 billion, paid monthly. The
Adviser is responsible for paying the entire subadvisory fee.
The
basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the Funds’ Subadvisory Agreements
will be available in the Funds’ first Annual or Semi-Annual Report to
Shareholders.
Portfolio
Managers.
Each of the Portfolio Managers has been a portfolio manager of each Fund since
inception.
The
Portfolio Managers are responsible for the securities trading and related
portfolio management activities on behalf of each Fund in accordance with and
for the purpose of carrying out each Fund’s principal investment strategy.
Charles
A. Ragauss, CFA.
Mr. Ragauss serves as Portfolio Manager at Toroso. Mr. Ragauss previously served
as Chief Operating Officer and in other roles at Exponential from April 2016 to
September 2020. Previously, Mr. Ragauss was Assistant Vice President at
Huntington National Bank, where he was Product Manager for the Huntington Funds
and Huntington Strategy Shares ETFs. Mr. Ragauss attended Grand Valley State
University where he received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance
and International Business, as well as a minor in French. He is a member of both
the National and West Michigan CFA societies and holds the CFA
designation.
Qiao
Duan, CFA.
Ms. Duan serves as Portfolio Manager at Toroso focusing on strategy
implementation and trade execution, having joined the firm in October 2020. From
February 2017 to October 2020, she was an execution Portfolio Manager at
Exponential ETFs, where she managed research and analysis relating to all
Exponential ETF strategies. Ms. Duan received a Master of Science in
Quantitative Finance and Risk Management from the University of Michigan in 2016
and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Xiamen
University in 2014. She holds the CFA designation.
The
Statement of Additional Information provides additional details about the
Portfolio Managers’ compensation, other accounts managed, and ownership of
securities in the Funds.
OTHER
SERVICE PROVIDERS
Administrator,
Fund Accountant and Transfer Agent.
U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC d/b/a U.S. Bank Global Fund Services, 615 East
Michigan Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202, serves as the Administrator, Fund
Accountant and Transfer Agent for the Funds.
Custodian.
U.S. Bank National Association, 1555 North Rivercenter Drive, Suite 302,
Milwaukee, WI 53212, is the Custodian for the Funds..
Distributor.
Foreside Fund Services, LLC, Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100, Portland, ME 04101,
is the Distributor of Creation Units for each Fund on an agency basis. The
Distributor does not maintain a Secondary Market in Shares.
Independent
Registered Public Accounting Firm.
Cohen & Company, Ltd., 1350 Euclid Avenue, Suite 800, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
serves as the Funds’ independent registered public accounting firm and is
responsible for auditing the annual financial statements of the
Funds.
Legal
Counsel.
K&L Gates LLP, 599 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York, 10022 serves as
legal counsel to the Funds.
FREQUENT
TRADING
The
Board has adopted a policy of not monitoring for frequent purchases and
redemptions of Fund shares (“frequent trading”) that appear to attempt to take
advantage of a potential arbitrage opportunity presented by a lag between a
change in the value of each Fund’s portfolio securities after the close of the
primary markets for each Fund’s portfolio securities and the reflection of that
change in each Fund’s NAV (“market timing”), because each Fund sells and redeems
its shares directly through transactions that are in-kind and/or for cash,
subject to the conditions described below under Creations
and Redemptions.
The Board has not adopted a policy of monitoring for other frequent trading
activity because shares of each Fund are listed for trading on a national
securities exchange.
DISTRIBUTION
AND SERVICE PLAN
The
Board has adopted a Distribution and Service Plan pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under
the 1940 Act. In accordance with its Rule 12b-1 plan, each Fund is authorized to
pay an amount up to 0.25% of its average daily net assets each year to finance
activities primarily intended to result in the sale of Creation Units of the
Fund or the provision of investor services. No Rule 12b-1 fees are currently
paid by the Funds and there are no plans to impose these fees. However, in the
event Rule 12b-1 fees are charged in the future, they will be paid out of the
Funds’ assets, and over time these fees will increase the cost of your
investment and they may cost you more than certain other types of sales
charges.
DETERMINATION
OF NET ASSET VALUE (NAV)
The
NAV of the Shares for each Fund is equal to each Fund’s total assets minus each
Fund’s total liabilities divided by the total number of Shares outstanding.
Interest and investment income on the Trust’s assets accrue daily and are
included in each Fund’s total assets. Expenses and fees, including investment
advisory and, if applicable 12b-1 distribution fees, and any other expense not
assumed by the Adviser, if any) accrue daily and are included in each Fund’s
total liabilities.
In
calculating NAV, each Fund’s investments are valued using market quotations when
available. When market quotations are not readily available, are deemed
unreliable, or do not reflect material events occurring between the close of
local markets and the time of valuation, investments are valued using fair value
pricing as determined in good faith by the Adviser under procedures established
by and under the general supervision and responsibility of the Trust’s Board of
Trustees. Investments that may be valued using fair value pricing include, but
are not limited to: (1) securities that are not actively traded, including
“restricted” securities and securities received in private placements for which
there is no public market; (2) securities of an issuer that becomes bankrupt or
enters into a restructuring; (3) securities whose trading has been halted or
suspended; and (4) foreign securities traded on exchanges that close before each
Fund’s NAV is calculated.
The
frequency with which each Fund’s investments are valued using fair value pricing
is primarily a function of the types of securities and other assets in which
each Fund invests pursuant to its investment objective, strategies, and
limitations.
Valuing
any of each Fund’s investments using fair value pricing results in using prices
for those investments that may differ from current market valuations.
Accordingly, fair value pricing could result in the market prices for Shares
deviating from NAV. In addition, with respect to securities that are primarily
listed on foreign exchanges, the value of each Fund’s portfolio securities may
change on days when you will not be able to purchase or sell your
Shares.
The
Adviser has been designated by the Board as the valuation designee for the Funds
pursuant to Rule 2a-5 under the 1940 Act. In its capacity as valuation designee,
the Adviser has adopted procedures and methodologies to fair value Fund
securities whose market prices are not “readily available” or are deemed to be
unreliable. For example, such circumstances may arise when: (i) a security has
been de-listed or has had its trading halted or suspended; (ii) a security’s
primary pricing source is unable or unwilling to provide a price; (iii) a
security’s primary trading market is closed during regular market hours; or (iv)
a security’s value is materially affected by events occurring after the close of
the security’s primary trading market. The Board has appointed the Adviser as
the Funds’ valuation designee to perform all fair valuations of a Fund’s
portfolio investments, subject to the Board’s oversight. Accordingly, the
Adviser has established procedures for its fair valuation of the Funds’
portfolio investments. Generally, when fair valuing a security held by a Fund,
the Adviser will take into account all reasonably available information that may
be relevant to a particular valuation including, but not limited to, fundamental
analytical data regarding the issuer, information relating to the issuer’s
business, recent trades or offers of the security, general and/or specific
market conditions and the specific facts giving rise to the need to fair value
the security. Fair value determinations are made in good faith and in accordance
with the fair value methodologies established by the Adviser. Due to the
subjective and variable nature of determining the fair value of a security or
other investment, there can be no assurance that the Adviser’s fair value will
match or closely correlate to any market quotation that subsequently becomes
available or the price quoted or published by other sources. In addition, a Fund
may not be able to obtain the fair value assigned to the security upon the sale
of such security.
The
NAV is calculated by the Administrator and determined each Business Day as of
the close of regular trading on the NYSE Arca (ordinarily 4:00 p.m. New York
time). “Business Day” means any day that the Exchange is open for trading. The
Exchange is open for trading Monday through Friday except for holidays. For the
year 2023, such holidays are: New Year’s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day,
Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth National Independence
Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas
Day.
DIVIDENDS,
DISTRIBUTIONS, AND TAXES
Net
Investment Income and Capital Gains
As
a Shareholder, you are entitled to your share of each Fund’s distributions of
net investment income and net realized capital gains on its investments. Each
Fund pays out substantially all of its net earnings to its Shareholders as
‘distributions’.
Each
Fund typically earns dividend income from stock and other types of ordinary
income from income-producing investments (as well as new short-term capital
gains). These amounts, net of expenses, are typically passed along to
Shareholders as dividends from net investment income. Each Fund realizes capital
gains or losses whenever it sells securities. Net capital gains (long-term
capital gains in excess of short-term capital losses) are distributed to
Shareholders as “capital gain distributions.”
Distributions
from the ASYMmetric Smart Alpha S&P 500®
ETF’s
net investment income, if any, are normally declared and paid annually to you.
Any net capital gain realized by the Fund are normally declared and paid
annually.
Distributions
from the ASYMmetric Smart Income ETF’s net investment income, if any, are
normally declared and paid quarterly to you. Any net capital gain realized by
the Fund are normally declared and paid annually.
The
amount of distributions may vary and there can be no guarantee that each Fund
will pay dividends of investment income in any given quarter. Dividends also may
be declared and paid more frequently to comply with the distribution
requirements of the Code. In addition, each Fund may determine to distribute at
least annually amounts representing the full dividend yield net of expenses on
securities held by each Fund, as if each Fund owned the securities for the
entire dividend period, in which case some portion of each distribution may
result in a return of capital. You will be notified regarding the portion of the
distribution that represents a return of capital. A return of capital is not
taxable, but reduces a shareholder’s tax basis in its shares, thus reducing any
loss or increasing any gain on a subsequent taxable disposition by the
shareholder of its shares.
Distributions
in cash may be reinvested automatically in additional Shares of each Fund only
if the broker through which you purchased Shares makes such option
available.
Federal
Income Taxes
The
following is a summary of the material U.S. federal income tax considerations
applicable to an investment in Shares of each Fund. The summary is based on the
laws in effect on the date of this Prospectus and existing judicial and
administrative interpretations thereof, all of which are subject to change,
possibly with retroactive effect. In addition, this summary assumes that a
Shareholder holds Shares as capital assets within the meaning of the Code and
does not hold Shares in connection with a trade or business. This summary does
not address all potential U.S. federal income tax considerations possibly
applicable to an investment in Shares of a Fund to Shareholders holding Shares
through a partnership (or other pass-through entity) or to Shareholders subject
to special tax rules. Prospective shareholders are urged to consult their own
tax advisers with respect to the specific federal, state, local, and foreign tax
consequences of investing in Shares based on their particular
circumstances.
Neither
Fund has requested nor will it request an advance ruling from the Internal
Revenue Service (the “IRS”) as to the federal income tax matters described
below. The IRS could adopt positions contrary to those discussed below and such
positions could be sustained. Prospective investors should consult their own tax
advisers with regard to the federal tax consequences of the purchase, ownership,
or disposition of Shares, as well as the tax consequences arising under the laws
of any state, foreign country, or other taxing jurisdiction.
Tax
Treatment of the Funds
Each
Fund intends to qualify and elect to be treated as a “regulated investment
company” under the Code. To qualify and maintain its tax status as a regulated
investment company, each Fund must annually meet certain income and asset
diversification requirements and must distribute annually at least the sum of
90% of its “investment company taxable income” (which includes dividends,
interest, and net short-term capital gains) and 90% of its net exempt interest
income.
As
a regulated investment company, each Fund generally will not have to pay
corporate-level federal income taxes on any ordinary income or capital gains
that it distributes to its Shareholders. If a Fund fails to qualify as a
regulated investment company for any year (subject to certain curative measures
allowed by the Code) the Fund will be subject to regular corporate-level income
tax in that year on all of its taxable income, regardless of whether the Fund
makes any distributions to its Shareholders. In addition, distributions will be
taxable to Shareholders generally as ordinary dividends to the extent of a
Fund’s current and accumulated earnings and profits, possibly eligible for, (i)
in the case of an individual Shareholder, treatment as qualified dividend income
subject to tax at preferential rates or, (ii) in the case of a corporate
Shareholder, a dividend received deduction.
A
Fund may be required to recognize taxable income in advance of receiving the
related cash payment. For example, if a Fund invests in original issue discount
obligations (such as zero coupon debt instruments or debt instruments with
payment-in-kind interest), the Fund will be required to include in income each
year a portion of the original issue discount that accrues over the term of the
obligation, even if the related cash payment is not received by the Fund until a
later year. Under the “wash sale” rules, a Fund may not be able to deduct a loss
on a disposition of a portfolio security. As a result, a Fund may be required to
make an annual income distribution greater than the total cash actually received
during the year. Such distribution may be made from the cash assets of the Fund
or by selling portfolio securities. A Fund may realize gains or losses from such
sales, in which event its Shareholders may receive a larger capital gain
distribution than they would in the absence of such transactions.
A
Fund will be subject to a 4% excise tax on certain undistributed income if the
Fund does not distribute to its Shareholders in each calendar year at least 98%
of its ordinary income for the calendar year plus 98.2% of its capital gain net
income for the twelve months ended October 31 of such year, as well as 100% of
any previously undistributed income from prior years. Each Fund intends to make
distributions necessary to avoid the 4% excise tax.
Tax
Treatment of the Shareholders
Fund
Distributions.
In general, Fund distributions are subject to federal income tax when paid,
regardless of whether they consist of cash or property or are re-invested in
Shares. However, any Fund distribution declared in October, November, or
December of any calendar year and payable to Shareholders of record on a
specified date during such month will be deemed to have been received by each
Shareholder on December 31 of such calendar year, provided such dividend is
actually paid during January of the following calendar year.
Distributions
of a Fund’s net investment income (except, as discussed below, qualifying
dividend income) and net short-term capital gains are taxable as ordinary income
to the extent of the Fund’s current or accumulated earnings and profits.
Distributions of a Fund’s net long-term capital gains in excess of net
short-term capital losses are taxable as long-term capital gain to the extent of
the Fund’s current or accumulated earnings and profits, regardless of a
Shareholder’s holding period in the Shares. Distributions of qualifying dividend
income are taxable as long-term capital gain to an individual Shareholder to the
extent of the Fund’s current or accumulated earnings and profits, provided that
the Shareholder meets certain holding period and other requirements with respect
to its Shares and the Fund meets certain holding period and other requirements
with respect to its dividend-paying stocks.
Each
Fund intends to distribute its long-term capital gains at least annually.
However, by providing written notice to its Shareholders no later than 60 days
after its year-end, a Fund may elect to retain some or all of its long-term
capital gains and designate the retained amount as a “deemed distribution”. In
that event, the Fund pays income tax on the retained long-term capital gain, and
each Shareholder recognizes a proportionate share of the Fund’s undistributed
long-term capital gain. In addition, each Shareholder can claim a refundable tax
credit for the Shareholder’s proportionate share of the Fund’s income taxes paid
on the undistributed long-term capital gain and increase the tax basis of the
Shares by an amount equal to the Shareholder’s proportionate share of the Fund’s
undistributed long-term capital gains, reduced by the amount of the
Shareholder’s tax credit.
Long-term
capital gains of non-corporate Shareholders (i.e.,
individuals, trusts, and estates) are taxed at a maximum rate of
20%.
In
addition, high-income individuals (and certain other trusts and estates) are
subject to a 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on net investment income (which
generally includes all Fund distributions and gains from the sale of Shares) in
addition to otherwise applicable federal income tax. Please consult your tax
adviser regarding this tax.
Investors
considering buying Shares just prior to a distribution should be aware that,
although the price of the Shares purchased at such time may reflect the
forthcoming distribution, such distribution nevertheless may be taxable (as
opposed to a non-taxable return of capital).
(ASYMmetric
Smart Income ETF only)
The Fund may invest in REITs. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act treats “qualified REIT
dividends” (i.e., ordinary REIT dividends other than capital gain dividends and
portions of REIT dividends designated as qualified dividend income eligible for
capital gain tax rates) as eligible for a 20% deduction by non-corporate
taxpayers. This deduction, if allowed in full, equates to a maximum effective
tax rate of 29.6% (37% top rate applied to income after 20% deduction). Treasury
Regulations provide that distributions by the Fund to its shareholders that are
attributable to qualified REIT dividends received by the Fund and which the Fund
properly reports as “section 199A dividends,” are treated as “qualified REIT
dividends” in the hands of non-corporate shareholders. A section 199A dividend
is treated as a qualified REIT dividend only if the shareholder receiving such
dividend holds the dividend-paying RIC shares for at least 46 days of the 91-day
period beginning 45 days before the shares become ex-dividend, and is not under
an obligation to make related payments with respect to a position in
substantially similar or related property. The Fund is permitted to report such
part of its dividends as section 199A dividends as are eligible, but is not
required to do so.
Sales
of Shares.
Any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Shares is treated generally as
a long-term gain or loss if the Shares have been held for more than one year.
Any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Shares held for one year or
less is generally treated as a short-term gain or loss, except that any capital
loss on the sale of Shares held for six months or less is treated as long-term
capital loss to the extent that capital gain dividends were paid with respect to
the Shares.
Creation
Unit Issues and Redemptions.
On an issue of Shares of a Fund as part of a Creation Unit where the creation is
conducted in-kind, an Authorized Participant recognizes capital gain or loss
equal to the difference between (1) the fair market value (at issue) of the
issued Shares (plus any cash received by the Authorized Participant as part of
the issue) and (2) the Authorized Participant’s aggregate basis in the exchanged
securities (plus any cash paid by the Authorized Participant as part of the
issue). On a redemption of Shares as part of a Creation Unit where the
redemption is conducted in-kind, an Authorized Participant recognizes capital
gain or loss equal to the difference between (1) the fair market value (at
redemption) of the securities received (plus any cash received by the Authorized
Participant as part of the redemption) and (2) the Authorized Participant’s
basis in the redeemed Shares (plus any cash paid by the Authorized Participant
as part of the redemption). However, the IRS may assert, under the “wash sale”
rules or on the basis that there has been no significant change in the
Authorized Participant’s economic position, that any loss on creation or
redemption of Creation Units cannot be deducted currently.
In
general, any capital gain or loss recognized upon the issue or redemption of
Shares (as components of a Creation Unit) is treated either as long-term capital
gain or loss if the deposited securities (in the case of an issue) or the Shares
(in the case of a redemption) have been held for more than one year, or
otherwise as short-term capital gain or loss. However, any capital loss on a
redemption of Shares held for six months or less is treated as long-term capital
loss to the extent that capital gain dividends were paid with respect to such
Shares.
Back-Up
Withholding.
A Fund or applicable intermediary (such as a broker) may be required to report
certain information on a Shareholder to the IRS and withhold federal income tax
(“backup withholding”) at a 24% rate from all taxable distributions and
redemption proceeds payable to the Shareholder if the Shareholder fails to
provide the Fund or applicable intermediary (such as a broker) with a correct
taxpayer identification number (in the case of a U.S. individual, a social
security number) or a completed exemption certificate (e.g.,
an IRS Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, as applicable, in the case of a foreign
Shareholder) or if the IRS notifies the Fund or intermediary hat the Shareholder
is otherwise subject to backup withholding. Backup withholding is not an
additional tax and any amount withheld may be credited against a Shareholder’s
federal income tax liability.
Special
Issues for Foreign Shareholders.
If a Shareholder is not a U.S. citizen or resident or if a Shareholder is a
foreign entity, a Fund’s ordinary income dividends (including distributions of
amounts that would not be subject to U.S. withholding tax if paid directly to
foreign Shareholders) will be subject, in general, to withholding tax at a rate
of 30% (or at a lower rate established under an applicable tax treaty). However,
interest-related dividends and short-term capital gain dividends generally will
not be subject to withholding tax; provided that the foreign Shareholder
furnishes the Fund or applicable intermediary with a completed IRS Form W-8BEN
or W-8BEN-E, as applicable, (or acceptable substitute documentation)
establishing the Shareholder’s status as foreign and the Fund or applicable
intermediary does not have actual knowledge or reason to know that the foreign
Shareholder would be subject to withholding tax if the foreign Shareholder were
to receive the related amounts directly rather than as dividends from each
Fund.
The
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) subjects certain foreign Shareholders
to U.S. withholding tax of 30% on all U.S. source income (including all
dividends from a Fund), unless they comply with certain reporting requirements.
Complying with such requirements will require the Shareholder to provide and
certify certain information about itself and (where applicable) its beneficial
owners, and foreign financial institutions generally will be required to enter
in an agreement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or a tax authority in the
institution’s own country to provide certain information regarding such
Shareholder’s account holders. Please consult your tax adviser regarding this
tax.
To
claim a credit or refund for any Fund-level taxes on any undistributed long-term
capital gains (as discussed above) or any taxes collected through back-up
withholding, a foreign Shareholder must obtain a U.S. taxpayer identification
number and file a federal income tax return even if the foreign Shareholder
would not otherwise be required to obtain a U.S. taxpayer identification number
or file a U.S. income tax return.
For
a more detailed tax discussion regarding an investment in each Fund, please see
the section of the SAI entitled “Taxation.”
CODES
OF ETHICS
The
Trust and the Adviser and Subadviser each have adopted a code of ethics under
Rule 17j-1 of the 1940 Act that is designed to prevent affiliated persons of the
Trust, Adviser and Subadviser from engaging in deceptive, manipulative, or
fraudulent activities in connection with securities held or to be acquired by
each Fund (which may also be held by persons subject to a code). There can be no
assurance that the codes will be effective in preventing such activities. The
codes permit personnel subject to them to invest in securities, including
securities that may be held or purchased by each Fund. The codes are on file
with the SEC and are available to the public.
PORTFOLIO
HOLDINGS INFORMATION
A
description of the Trust’s policies and procedures with respect to the
disclosure of each Fund’s portfolio securities is available in the Funds’
Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”). Each Fund discloses its portfolio
holdings daily at www.asymshares.com. Fund fact sheets provide information
regarding each Fund’s top holdings and may be requested by calling 1-866-ASYM777
(1-866-279-6777).
HOUSEHOLDING
It
is the policy of the Funds to mail only one copy of the prospectus, annual
report, semi-annual report and proxy statements to all shareholders who share
the same mailing address and share the same last name. You are deemed to consent
to this policy unless you specifically revoke this policy and request that
separate copies of such documents be mailed to you. In such case, you will begin
to receive your own copies within 30 days after our receipt of the revocation.
You may request that separate copies of these disclosure documents be mailed to
you by writing to us at: ASYMmetric ETFs Trust, c/o ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC 158
East 126th Street, Suite 304, New York, NY 10035.
INDEX
PROVIDER AND DISCLAIMERS
ASYMmetric
Investment Solutions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASYMmetric Holdings,
Inc., and affiliate of the Adviser, is the Index Provider for the Trust (the
“Index Provider”). The Index Provider has entered into an index licensing
agreement with the Adviser to allow the Adviser’s use of each Index for the
operation of each Fund. The Adviser has entered into a sub-licensing agreement
with the Trust to allow each Fund to utilize its Index.
The
Index Provider has entered into an agreement with Solactive AG to calculate,
publish and disseminate each Index. Each Fund is not sponsored, promoted, sold
or supported in any other manner by Solactive AG nor does Solactive AG offer any
express or implicit guarantee or assurance either with regard to the results of
using each Index and/or Index trade mark or the Index Price at any time or in
any other respect. Solactive AG uses its best efforts to ensure that each Index
is calculated correctly. Irrespective of its obligations towards the Adviser,
Solactive AG has no obligation to point out errors in each Index to third
parties including but not limited to investors and/or financial intermediaries
of each Fund. Neither publication of each Index by Solactive AG nor the
licensing of each Index or Index trade mark for the purpose of use in connection
with each Fund constitutes a recommendation by Solactive AG to invest capital in
said Fund nor does it in any way represent an assurance or opinion of Solactive
AG with regard to any investment in the Funds.
The
Adviser does not guarantee the accuracy or the completeness of any Index or any
data included therein and the Adviser shall have no liability for any errors,
omissions or interruptions therein. The Adviser makes no warranty, express or
implied, to the owners of shares of the Funds or to any other person or entity,
as to results to be obtained by the Funds from the use of an Index or any data
included therein. The Adviser makes no express or implied warranties and
expressly disclaims all warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose or use with respect to an Index or any data included therein.
Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall the Adviser have any
liability for any special, punitive, direct, indirect or consequential damages
(including lost profits), even if notified of the possibility of such
damages.
FINANCIAL
HIGHLIGHTS
Financial
information is not available because the Funds have not commenced operations
prior to the date of this Prospectus.
PRIVACY
POLICY
The
Trust is committed to respecting the privacy of personal information you entrust
to us in the course of doing business with us.
Each
Fund collects non-public information about you from the following
sources:
● Information
we receive about you on applications or other forms;
● Information
you give us orally; and/or
● Information
about your transactions with us or others.
We
do not disclose any non-public personal information about our customers or
former customers without the customer’s authorization, except as permitted by
law or in response to inquiries from governmental authorities. We may share
information with affiliated and unaffiliated third parties with whom we have
contracts for servicing the Funds. We will provide unaffiliated third parties
with only the information necessary to carry out their assigned
responsibilities. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to
guard your non-public personal information and require third parties to treat
your personal information with the same high degree of
confidentiality.
In
the event that you hold Shares of the Funds through a financial intermediary,
including, but not limited to, a broker-dealer, bank, or trust company, the
privacy policy of your financial intermediary would govern how your non-public
personal information would be shared by those entities with unaffiliated third
parties.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION
If
you would like more information about the Trust, each Fund, and the Shares, the
following documents are available free upon request:
Statement
of Additional Information
The
SAI provides additional details about the investments and techniques of each
Fund and certain other additional information. A current SAI is on file with the
SEC and is incorporated into this Prospectus by reference. This means that the
SAI is legally considered a part of this Prospectus even though it is not
physically within this Prospectus.
Annual
and Semi-Annual Reports
Additional
information about each Fund can be found in the annual and semi-annual reports
to shareholders. The annual report explains the market conditions and investment
strategies affecting each Fund’s performance during the preceding fiscal
year.
The
SAI and Shareholder Reports will be available free of charge on the Funds’
website at www.asymshares.com.
Information regarding each Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and
bid-ask spreads will be available on such Fund’s website.
Paper
copies of the Funds’ shareholder reports will not be sent by mail, as you may be
accustomed to. Instead, the reports will be made available at the Funds’ website
and you will be notified and provided with a link each time a report is posted
to the website. However, you may request to receive paper reports from the Funds
or from your financial intermediary, free of charge, at any
time.
You
can obtain a free copy of the SAI and Shareholder Reports, request other
information, or make general inquiries about the Funds by calling the Funds
(toll-free) at 1-866-ASYM777 (1-866-279-6777) or by writing to:
ASYMmetric
ETFs Trust
c/o
ASYMmetric ETFs, LLC
158
East 126th Street, Suite 304
New
York, NY 10035
Website:
www.asymshares.com
You
may review and copy information about the Funds, including the SAI and
Shareholder Reports, by:
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Accessing
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Electronic
request, after paying a duplicating fee, at the following e-mail address:
[email protected] |
No
person is authorized to give any information or to make any representations
about the Funds and Shares not contained in this Prospectus and you should not
rely on any other information. This Prospectus does not constitute an offering
by the Funds in any jurisdiction where such an offering is not lawful. Read and
keep the Prospectus for future reference.
The
Trust may enter into contractual arrangements with various parties, including
among others, the Funds’ investment adviser, distributor, custodian, and
transfer agent who provide services to the Funds. Shareholders are not parties
to any such contractual arrangements or intended beneficiaries of those
contractual arrangements, and those contractual arrangements are not intended to
create in any shareholder any right to enforce them against the service
providers or to seek any remedy under them against the service providers, either
directly or on behalf of the Trust.
This
Prospectus provides information concerning the Funds that you should consider in
determining whether to purchase Shares. Neither this Prospectus nor the SAI is
intended, or should be read, to be or give rise to an agreement or contract
between the Trust or the Funds and any investor, or to give rise to any rights
in any shareholder or other person other than any rights under federal or state
law that may not be waived.
The
Trust’s Investment Company Act file number is 811-23622