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PROSPECTUS

 

AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: TSLQ
)
AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: TSLU
)
AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: NVDS
)
AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: NVDB
)
AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: COPQ
)
AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: COPL
)
AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: BAS
)
AXS 1.25X BA Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: BAT
)
AXS 1.5X PYPL Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: PYPS
)
AXS 1.5X PYPL Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: PYPT
)
AXS 1.25X WFC Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: WFCS
)
AXS 1.25X WFC Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: WFCT
)
AXS 2X PFE Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: PFES
)
AXS 2X PFE Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: PFEL
)
AXS 1.5X CRM Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: CRMS
)
AXS 1.5X CRM Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: CRML
)
AXS 2X NKE Bear Daily ETF
(Ticker: NKEQ
)
AXS 2X NKE Bull Daily ETF
(Ticker: NKEL
)

  

 

 

July 11, 2022

 

Each of the above funds (each a “Fund” and collectively the “Funds”), is a series of Investment Managers Series Trust II (the “Trust”), and each intends to list and principally trade its shares on Nasdaq (the “Exchange”). Shares of the Funds trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the respective Fund’s net asset value.

 

The Funds are not suitable for all investors and are designed to be utilized only by sophisticated investors who understand the risks associated with the use of derivatives, are willing to assume a high degree of risk, and intend to actively monitor and manage their investments in the Fund.

 

 

Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission has approved or disapproved these securities or passed upon the accuracy or
adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

  

The Funds seek daily inverse, inverse leveraged or long leveraged investment results and are intended to be used as short-term trading vehicles. Each Fund with “Bull” in its name attempts to provide daily investment results that correspond to the respective long leveraged multiple of the performance of an underlying security and are collectively referred to as the “Bull Funds.” Each Fund with “Bear” in its name attempts to provide daily investment results that correspond to the inverse (or opposite), or respective inverse leveraged multiple of the performance of an underlying security and are collectively referred to as the “Bear Funds.”

 

The Funds are not intended to be used by, and are not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. The Funds are very different from most mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Investors should note that:

 

(1) The Funds that seek daily inverse leveraged or long leveraged investment objectives are riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Funds magnify the performance of their underlying security.

 

(2) Each Bear Fund pursues a daily investment objective that is inverse to the performance of its underlying security, a result opposite of most mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

 

(3) The pursuit of daily investment objectives means that the return of a Fund for a period longer than a full trading day will be the product of a series of daily inverse or leveraged returns for each trading day during the relevant period. As a consequence, especially in periods of market volatility, the volatility of the underlying security may affect a Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of the underlying security. Further, the return for investors that invest for periods less than a full trading day will not be the product of the return of a Fund’s stated daily long leveraged, inverse or inverse leveraged investment objective and the performance of the underlying security for the full trading day. During periods of high volatility, the Funds may not perform as expected and the Funds may have losses when an investor may have expected gains if the Funds are held for a period that is different than one trading day.

 

The Funds are not suitable for all investors. The Funds are designed to be utilized only by sophisticated investors, such as traders and active investors employing dynamic strategies. Investors in the Funds should:

 

(a) understand the risks associated with the use of inverse strategies and leverage;

 

(b) understand the consequences of seeking daily inverse and leveraged investment results; and

 

(c) intend to actively monitor and manage their investments.

 

Investors who do not understand the Funds, or do not intend to actively manage their funds and monitor their investments, should not buy the Funds.

 

There is no assurance that any Fund will achieve its investment objective and an investment in a Fund could lose money. No single Fund is a complete investment program.

 

The Funds’ investment adviser, AXS Investments, LLC, will not attempt to position each Fund’s portfolio to ensure that a Fund does not gain or lose more than a maximum percentage of its net asset value on a given trading day. As a consequence, if a Fund’s underlying security moves more than 50%(for a Fund seeking two times daily performance), 67%(for a Fund seeking one and a half times daily performance) or 80%(for a Fund seeking one and a quarter times daily performance), as applicable, on a given trading day in a direction adverse to the Fund, the Fund’s investors would lose all of their money.

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents  

 

AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 1
AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 13
AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 25
AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 38
AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 50
AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 63
AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 75
AXS 1.25X BA Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 87
AXS 1.5X PYPL Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 99
AXS 1.5X PYPL Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 111
AXS 1.25X WFC Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 123
AXS 1.25X WFC Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 135
AXS 2X PFE Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 147
AXS 2X PFE Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 159
AXS 1.5X CRM Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 171
AXS 1.5X CRM Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 183
AXS 2X NKE Bear Daily ETF - Summary Information 195
AXS 2X NKE Bull Daily ETF - Summary Information 207
Additional Information About the Funds’ Principal Investment Strategies 219
Additional Risks of Investing in the Funds 243
Management of the Funds 259
Buying and Selling Fund Shares 261
Dividends, Distributions and Taxes 263
Distributor 265
Fund Service Providers 265
Additional Information 266
Financial Highlights 267

 

 

 

AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF

 

The AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily inverse investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not seek daily inverse investment results because the Fund’s objective is the inverse (-100%) daily performance of the common shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) (“TSLA”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be -100% of the performance of TSLA for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from -100% of the return of TSLA for that period. Longer holding periods and higher volatility of TSLA increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher TSLA volatility, the volatility of TSLA may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of TSLA.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily inverse (-100%) investment results and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if TSLA’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if TSLA’s performance decreases over a period longer than a single day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to the inverse (-100%) of the daily performance of the common shares of Tesla, Inc. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.

1 

 

(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

 

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide inverse exposure to the daily performance of TSLA. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, -100% performance of TSLA for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on TSLA. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

 

The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on TSLA. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing TSLA. The Adviser expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily in an attempt to maintain short exposure for the Fund equal to -100% of TSLA. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to TSLA (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide inverse exposure to the industry assigned to TSLA). As of the date of this prospectus, TSLA is assigned to the automotive industry.

 

Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

2 

 

 

Tesla, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles and electric vehicle powertrain components. TSLA is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Tesla, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Tesla, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Tesla, Inc. from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Tesla, Inc. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Tesla, Inc. is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of TSLA have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Tesla, Inc. could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to TSLA and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of TSLA.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

 

Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost.

 

Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in over-the-counter (“OTC”) markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, as amended (the “Commodity Exchange Act”) in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if TSLA has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if TSLA reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

3 

 

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily inverse performance for the Fund. 

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from -100% of the daily return of TSLA for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on funds that are inverse and that rebalance daily. This effect becomes more pronounced as TSLA volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) TSLA volatility; (b) TSLA performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with inverse exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — TSLA volatility and TSLA performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of TSLA volatility and TSLA performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, TSLA and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain inverse exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

 

Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than -100% of the performance of TSLA and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than -100% of the performance of TSLA. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

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Estimated Fund Returns

  

One
Year
TSLA
-100% One Year TSLA Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% 60% 148.55% 134.42% 95.28% 43.98% -5.83%
-50% 50% 99.13% 87.77% 56.26% 15.23% -24.77%
-40% 40% 66.08% 56.57% 30.21% -4.08% -37.57%
-30% 45% 42.43% 34.25% 11.56% -17.98% -46.76%
-20% 20% 24.67% 17.47% -2.47% -28.38% -53.72%
-10% 10% 10.83% 4.44% -13.28% -36.52% -58.79%
0% 0% -0.25% -6.04% -22.08% -42.90% -63.23%
10% -10% -9.32% -14.64% -29.23% -48.27% -66.67%
20% -20% -16.89% -21.75% -35.24% -52.72% -69.67%
30% -30% -23.29% -27.84% -56.41% -71.94% -71.94%
40% -40% -28.78% -33.01% -44.63% -59.81% -74.23%
50% -50% -33.55% -37.52% -48.57% -62.60% -76.19%
60% -60% -37.72% -41.51% -51.96% -65.19% -78.12%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of TSLA volatility and TSLA performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a -20% return on a yearly basis if TSLA return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with TSLA volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return -35.24% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

TSLA’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 69.76%. TSLA’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 157.27%. TSLA’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 59.73%. Historical TSLA volatility and performance are not indications of what TSLA volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of TSLA may differ from the volatility of TSLA.

 

Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with TSLA, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from -100% of the percentage change of TSLA on such day.

 

In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with TSLA, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to TSLA may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with TSLA and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by TSLA’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect -100% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when TSLA is volatile, particularly when TSLA is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

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A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with TSLA, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with TSLA. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to TSLA. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of TSLA. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and TSLA and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day.

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to TSLA that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although Tesla, Inc.’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in Tesla, Inc.’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

 

Counterparty Risk. Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

 

Short Sale Exposure Risk. The Fund will seek inverse or “short” exposure through financial instruments, which would cause the Fund to be exposed to certain risks associated with selling short. These risks include, under certain market conditions, an increase in the volatility and decrease in the liquidity of the instruments underlying the short position, which may lower the Fund’s return, result in a loss, have the effect of limiting the Fund’s ability to obtain inverse exposure through financial instruments, or require the Fund to seek inverse exposure through alternative investment strategies that may be less desirable or more costly to implement. To the extent that, at any particular point in time, the instruments underlying the short position may be thinly traded or have a limited market, including due to regulatory action, the Fund may be unable to meet its investment objective due to a lack of available securities or counterparties. During such periods, the Fund’s ability to issue additional Creation Units may be adversely affected. Obtaining inverse exposure through these instruments may be considered an aggressive investment technique. Any income, dividends or payments by any assets underlying the Fund’s short positions, if any, would negatively impact the Fund.

 

Inverse Correlation Risk. Short (inverse) positions are designed to profit from a decline in the price of a particular reference asset. Investors will lose money when TSLA rises, which is the opposite result from that of traditional funds. A single day or intraday increase in the performance of TSLA may result in the total loss or almost total loss of an investor’s investment, even if TSLA subsequently moves lower. Like leveraged funds, inverse funds may be considered to be aggressive. Such instruments may experience imperfect negative correlation between the price of the investment and the underlying security or index. The use of inverse instruments may expose the Fund to additional risks that it would not be subject to if it invested only in “long” positions.

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Indirect Investment Risk. Tesla, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of Tesla, Inc. in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of Tesla, Inc.

 

Intraday Price Performance Risk. The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to TSLA until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of TSLA.

 

Automotive Companies Risk. The automotive industry can be highly cyclical, and companies in the industry may suffer periodic operating losses. Automotive companies can be significantly affected by labor relations and fluctuating component prices. Developments in automotive technologies (e.g., autonomous vehicle technologies) may require significant capital expenditures that may not generate profits for several years, if ever. Automotive companies may be significantly subject to government policies and regulations regarding imports and exports of automotive products. Governmental policies affecting the automotive industry, such as taxes, tariffs, duties, subsidies, and import and export restrictions on automotive products can influence industry profitability. In addition, such companies must comply with environmental laws and regulations, for which there may be severe consequences for non-compliance. While most of the major automotive manufacturers are large companies, certain others may be non-diversified in both product line and customer base and may be more vulnerable to certain events that may negatively impact the automotive industry.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with TSLA.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

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Valuation Risk. The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to Tesla, Inc. (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide inverse exposure to the industry assigned to Tesla, Inc.). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries. 

 

Collateral Investments Risk. The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

 

Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price.

8 

 

 

Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

 

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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

 

Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

9 

 

 

Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

 

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an authorized participant (“AP”) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns.

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Premium/Discount Risk. The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares.

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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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

 

Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”) Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

 

Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

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Security Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

 

Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

 

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

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Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

 

13 

 

AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF

 

The AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify (110%) the daily performance of the common shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) (“TSLA”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be 110% of the performance of TSLA for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from 110% of the return of TSLA for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of TSLA and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher TSLA volatility, the volatility of TSLA may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of TSLA.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged (110%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if TSLA’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if TSLA’s performance increases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if TSLA loses more than 91% in one day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS TSLA Bull Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to one and one tenth times (110%) the daily performance of the common shares of Tesla, Inc. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

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Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

 

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide one and one tenth times leveraged exposure to the daily performance of TSLA. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, 110% performance of TSLA for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on TSLA. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

 

The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on TSLA. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing TSLA. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to 110% of TSLA, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to TSLA (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to TSLA). As of the date of this prospectus, TSLA is assigned to the automotive industry.

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Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

 

Tesla, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles and electric vehicle powertrain components. TSLA is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Tesla, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Tesla, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Tesla, Inc. from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Tesla, Inc. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Tesla, Inc. is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of TSLA have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Tesla, Inc. could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to TSLA and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of TSLA.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

 

Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost.

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Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if TSLA has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if TSLA reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and TSLA. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of one and one tenth times (110%) TSLA, a single day movement in TSLA approaching 91% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if TSLA subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in TSLA, even if TSLA maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from 110% of the daily return TSLA for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as TSLA volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) TSLA volatility; (b) TSLA performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — TSLA volatility and TSLA performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of TSLA volatility and TSLA performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, TSLA and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

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Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than 110% of the performance of TSLA and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than 110% of the performance of TSLA. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

 

Estimated Fund Returns

 

One
Year
TSLA
110% One Year TSLA Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% -66% -60% -60% -61% -62% -64%
-50% -55% -51% -51% -53% -55% -56%
-40% -44% -41% -42% -43% -46% -48%
-30% -33% -32% -33% -34% -36% -40%
-20% -22% -22% -23% -24% -27% -32%
-10% -11% -11% -11% -14% -18% -22%
0% 0% 0% -1% -4% -7% -13%
10% 11% 11% 11% 8% 4% -4%
20% 22% 22% 22% 18% 15% 7%
30% 33% 33% 33% 29% 24% 16%
40% 44% 46% 45% 40% 35% 26%
50% 55% 57% 56% 53% 47% 36%
60% 66% 70% 69% 64% 57% 48%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of TSLA volatility and TSLA performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a 22% return on a yearly basis if TSLA return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with TSLA volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return 18% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

TSLA’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 69.76%. TSLA’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 157.27%. TSLA’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 59.73%. Historical TSLA volatility and performance are not indications of what TSLA volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of TSLA may differ from the volatility of TSLA.

 

Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with TSLA, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from 110% of the percentage change of TSLA on such day.

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In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with TSLA, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to TSLA may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with TSLA and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by TSLA’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect 110% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when TSLA is volatile, particularly when TSLA is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

 

A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with TSLA, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with TSLA. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to TSLA. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of TSLA. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and TSLA and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day.

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to TSLA that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although Tesla, Inc.’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in Tesla, Inc.’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Tesla, Inc.’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

 

Counterparty Risk. Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

 

Indirect Investment Risk. Tesla, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of Tesla, Inc. in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of Tesla, Inc.

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Intraday Price Performance Risk. The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to TSLA until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of TSLA.

 

Automotive Companies Risk. The automotive industry can be highly cyclical, and companies in the industry may suffer periodic operating losses. Automotive companies can be significantly affected by labor relations and fluctuating component prices. Developments in automotive technologies (e.g., autonomous vehicle technologies) may require significant capital expenditures that may not generate profits for several years, if ever. Automotive companies may be significantly subject to government policies and regulations regarding imports and exports of automotive products. Governmental policies affecting the automotive industry, such as taxes, tariffs, duties, subsidies, and import and export restrictions on automotive products can influence industry profitability. In addition, such companies must comply with environmental laws and regulations, for which there may be severe consequences for non-compliance. While most of the major automotive manufacturers are large companies, certain others may be non-diversified in both product line and customer base and may be more vulnerable to certain events that may negatively impact the automotive industry.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high leveraged correlation with TSLA.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

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Valuation Risk. The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to Tesla, Inc. (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to Tesla, Inc.). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries.

 

Collateral Investments Risk. The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

 

Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price.

 

Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

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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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

 

Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

 

Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

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Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an AP may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns.

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Premium/Discount Risk. The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares.

 

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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

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Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by Code. The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

 

Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

 

Security Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

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Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

  Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

 

Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

 

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

 

Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

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AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF

 

The AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily inverse leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify the inverse (-125%) daily performance of the common shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (“NVDA”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be -125% of the performance of NVDA for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from -125% of the return of NVDA for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of NVDA and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher NVDA volatility, the volatility of NVDA may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of NVDA.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily inverse leveraged (-125%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if NVDA’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if NVDA’s performance decreases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if NVDA gains more than 80% in one day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to one and a quarter times the inverse (-125%) of the daily performance of the common shares of NVIDIA Corporation. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

26 

 

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide one and a quarter times inverse leveraged exposure to the daily performance of NVDA. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, -125% performance of NVDA for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on NVDA. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

 

The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on NVDA. The gross return to be exchanged or "swapped" between the parties is calculated with respect to a "notional amount," e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing NVDA. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to -125% of NVDA, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to NVDA (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to NVDA). As of the date of this prospectus, NVDA is assigned to the semiconductor industry.

 

Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

27 

 

 

NVIDIA Corporation pioneers accelerated computing to help solve the most challenging computational problems. NVIDIA Corporation expanded its focus from personal computer graphics to include several other large and important computationally intensive field, such as artificial intelligence, data science, autonomous vehicles, robotics and augmented and virtual reality.  NVDA is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by NVIDIA Corporation pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding NVIDIA Corporation may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding NVIDIA Corporation from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to NVIDIA Corporation. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding NVIDIA Corporation is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of NVDA have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning NVIDIA Corporation could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to NDA and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of NVDA.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

 

Derivatives Risk.  The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost. 

 

Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if NVDA has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if NVDA reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

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The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and NVDA. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of negative one and a quarter times (-125%) NVDA, a single day movement in NVDA approaching 80% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if NVDA subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in NVDA, even if NVDA maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from -125% of the daily return of NVDA for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as NVDA volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) NVDA volatility; (b) NVDA performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — NVDA volatility and NVDA performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of NVDA volatility and NVDA performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, NVDA and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

 

Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than -125% of the performance of NVDA and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than -125% of the performance of NVDA. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

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Estimated Fund Returns

 

One
Year
NVDA
-125% One Year NVDA Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% 75% 210% 187.9% 121.2% 42.5% -23.0%
-50% 62.5% 134.5% 117.8% 67.3% 7.8% -41.7%
-40% 50% 86.7% 73.4% 33.2% -14.1% -53.6%
-30% 37.5% 54.0% 43.0% 9.9% -29.2% -61.7%
-20% 25% 30.3% 21.1% -7.0% -40.1% -67.6%
-10% 12.5% 12.5% 4.5% -19.7% -48.3% -72.0%
0% 0% -1.4% -8.4% -29.6% -54.7% -75.5%
10% -12.5% -12.5% -18.7% -37.5% -59.8% -78.2%
20% -25% -21.5% -27.1% -44.0% -63.9% -80.5%
30% -37.5% -29.0% -34.0% -49.3% -67.3% -82.3%
40% -50% -35.3% -39.9% -53.8% 70.2% -83.9%
50% -62.5% -40.6% -44.8% -57.6% -72.7% -85.2%
60% -75% -45.2% -49.1% -60.9% -74.8% -86.4%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of NVDA volatility and NVDA performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a -25% return on a yearly basis if NVDA return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with NVDA volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return -44% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

NVDA’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 47.44%. NVDA’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 105%. NVDA’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 37.60%. Historical NVDA volatility and performance are not indications of what NVDA volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of NVDA may differ from the volatility of NVDA.

 

Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with NVDA, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from -125% of the percentage change of NVDA on such day.

 

In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with NVDA, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to NVDA may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with NVDA and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by NVDA’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect -125% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when NVDA is volatile, particularly when NVDA is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

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A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with NVDA, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with NVDA. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to NVDA. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of NVDA. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and NVDA and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day. 

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to NVDA that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although NVIDIA Corporation’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

 

Counterparty Risk.  Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

 

Short Sale Exposure Risk.  The Fund will seek inverse or “short” exposure through financial instruments, which would cause the Fund to be exposed to certain risks associated with selling short. These risks include, under certain market conditions, an increase in the volatility and decrease in the liquidity of the instruments underlying the short position, which may lower the Fund’s return, result in a loss, have the effect of limiting the Fund’s ability to obtain inverse exposure through financial instruments, or require the Fund to seek inverse exposure through alternative investment strategies that may be less desirable or more costly to implement. To the extent that, at any particular point in time, the instruments underlying the short position may be thinly traded or have a limited market, including due to regulatory action, the Fund may be unable to meet its investment objective due to a lack of available securities or counterparties. During such periods, the Fund’s ability to issue additional Creation Units may be adversely affected. Obtaining inverse exposure through these instruments may be considered an aggressive investment technique. Any income, dividends or payments by any assets underlying the Fund’s short positions, if any, would negatively impact the Fund. 

 

Inverse Correlation Risk.  Short (inverse) positions are designed to profit from a decline in the price of a particular reference asset. Investors will lose money when NVDA rises, which is the opposite result from that of traditional funds. A single day or intraday increase in the performance of NVDA may result in the total loss or almost total loss of an investor’s investment, even if NVDA subsequently moves lower.  Like leveraged funds, inverse funds may be considered to be aggressive. Inverse positions may also be leveraged. Such instruments may experience imperfect negative correlation between the price of the investment and the underlying security or index. The use of inverse instruments may expose the Fund to additional risks that it would not be subject to if it invested only in “long” positions.

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Indirect Investment Risk. NVIDIA Corporation is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of NVIDIA Corporation in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of NVIDIA Corporation.

 

Intraday Price Performance Risk.  The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to NVDA until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of NVDA.

 

Semiconductor Company Risk. Competitive pressures may have a significant effect on the financial condition of semiconductor companies and, as product cycles shorten and manufacturing capacity increases, these companies may become increasingly subject to aggressive pricing, which hampers profitability. Reduced demand for end-user products, under-utilization of manufacturing capacity, and other factors could adversely impact the operating results of companies in the semiconductor sector. Semiconductor companies typically face high capital costs and may be heavily dependent on intellectual property rights. The semiconductor sector is highly cyclical, which may cause the operating results of many semiconductor companies to vary significantly. The stock prices of companies in the semiconductor sector have been and likely will continue to be extremely volatile.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high leveraged correlation with NVDA.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk.  The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value.  Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

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Valuation Risk.  The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to NVIDIA Corporation (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to NVIDIA Corporation). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries.

 

Collateral Investments Risk.  The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

 

Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price. 

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Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

 

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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

 

Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

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Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

 

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an authorized participant (“AP”) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns. 

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Premium/Discount Risk.  The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares. 

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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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

 

Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by Code. The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

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Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

 

Security Issuer Risk.  Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

  Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

 

Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

 

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

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Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

 

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AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF

 

The AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify (125%) the daily performance of common shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (“NVDA”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be 125% of the performance NVDA for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from 125% of the return of NVDA for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of NVDA and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher NVDA volatility, the volatility of NVDA may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of NVDA.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged (125%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if NVDA’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if NVDA’s performance increases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if NVDA loses more than 80% in one day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS 1.25X NVDA Bull Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to one and a quarter times (125%) the daily performance of the common shares of NVIDIA Corporation. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

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Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

  

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide one and a quarter times leveraged exposure to the daily performance of NVDA. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, 125% performance of NVDA for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on NVDA. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

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The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on NVDA. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing NVDA. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to 125% of NVDA, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to NVDA (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to NVDA).  As of the date of this prospectus, NVDA is assigned to the semiconductor industry.

 

Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

 

NVIDIA Corporation pioneers accelerated computing to help solve the most challenging computational problems. NVIDIA Corporation expanded its focus from PC graphics to include several other large and important computationally intensive field. NVDA is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by NVIDIA Corporation pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding NVIDIA Corporation may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding NVIDIA Corporation from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to NVIDIA Corporation. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding NVIDIA Corporation is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of NVDA have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning NVIDIA Corporation could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to NVDA and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of NVDA.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

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Derivatives Risk.  The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost. 

 

Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if NVDA has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if NVDA reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and NVDA. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of one and a quarter times (125%) NVDA, a single day movement in NVDA approaching 80% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if NVDA subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in NVDA, even if NVDA maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from 125% of the daily return NVDA for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as NVDA volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) NVDA volatility; (b) NVDA performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — NVDA volatility and NVDA performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of NVDA volatility and NVDA performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, NVDA and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

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Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than 125% of the performance of NVDA and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than 125% of the performance of NVDA. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

 

Estimated Fund Returns

One
Year
NVDA
125% One Year NVDA Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% -75% -68.2% -68.5% -69.4% -70.9% -72.8%
-50% -62.5% -58.0% -58.4% -59.6% -61.5% -64.0%
-40% -50% -47.3% -47.7% -49.2% -51.6% -54.8%
-30% -37.5% -36.1% -36.6% -38.4% -41.4% -45.2%
-20% -25% -24.5% -25.1% -27.2% -30.7% -35.3%
-10% -12.5% -12.5% -13.2% -15.7% -19.7% -25.0%
0% 0% -0.2% -1.0% -3.8% -8.4% -14.5%
10% 12.5% 12.5% 11.6% 8.3% 3.2% -3.6%
20% 25% 25.4% 24.4% 20.8% 15.0% 7.4%
30% 37.5% 38.6% 37.5% 33.5% 27.1% 18.7%
40% 50% 52.0% 50.8% 46.5% 39.5% 30.3%
50% 62.5% 65.7% 64.4% 59.6% 52.0% 42.0%
60% 75% 79.7% 78.2% 73.1% 64.8% 53.9%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of NVDA volatility and NVDA performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a 25% return on a yearly basis if NVDA return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with NVDA volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return 20.8% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

NVDA’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 47.44%. NVDA’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 105%. NVDA’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 37.60%. Historical NVDA volatility and performance are not indications of what NVDA volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of NVDA may differ from the volatility of NVDA.

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Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with NVDA, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from 125% of the percentage change of NVDA on such day.

 

In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with NVDA, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to NVDA may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with NVDA and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by NVDA’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect 125% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when NVDA is volatile, particularly when NVDA is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

 

A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with NVDA, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with NVDA. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to NVDA. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of NVDA. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and NVDA and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day. 

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to NVDA that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its  investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although NVIDIA Corporation’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in NVIDIA Corporation’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

 

Counterparty Risk.  Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

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Indirect Investment Risk. NVIDIA Corporation is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of NVIDIA Corporation in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of NVIDIA Corporation.

 

Intraday Price Performance Risk.  The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to NVDA until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of NVDA.

 

Semiconductor Company Risk. Competitive pressures may have a significant effect on the financial condition of semiconductor companies and, as product cycles shorten and manufacturing capacity increases, these companies may become increasingly subject to aggressive pricing, which hampers profitability. Reduced demand for end-user products, under-utilization of manufacturing capacity, and other factors could adversely impact the operating results of companies in the semiconductor sector. Semiconductor companies typically face high capital costs and may be heavily dependent on intellectual property rights. The semiconductor sector is highly cyclical, which may cause the operating results of many semiconductor companies to vary significantly. The stock prices of companies in the semiconductor sector have been and likely will continue to be extremely volatile.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high leveraged correlation with NVDA.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk.  The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

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Valuation Risk.  The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to NVIDIA Corporation (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to NVIDIA Corporation). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries.

 

Collateral Investments Risk.  The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment.

 

The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

 

Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price.

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Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

 

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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

 

Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

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Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

 

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an AP may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns. 

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Premium/Discount Risk.  The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares. 

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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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

 

Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by Code. The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

  

Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

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Security Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

  Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

 

Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

 

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

 

Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

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Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

 

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AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF

 

The AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily inverse leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify the inverse (-200%) daily performance of the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company (NYSE: COP) (“COP”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be -200% of the performance of COP for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from -200% of the return of COP for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of COP and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher COP volatility, the volatility of COP may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of COP.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily inverse leveraged (-200%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if COP’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if COP’s performance decreases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if COP gains more than 50% in one day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS 2X COP Bear Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times the inverse (-200%) of the daily performance of the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

 

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Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide two times inverse leveraged exposure to the daily performance of COP. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, -200% performance of COP for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on COP. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

 

The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on COP. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing COP. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to -200% of COP, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to COP (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to COP). As of the date of this prospectus, COP is assigned to the energy industry.

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Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

 

ConocoPhillips Company operates in 14 countries and is the world’s largest independent E&P company. ConocoPhillips Company offers a diverse, low cost of supply portfolio including: resource-rich unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, and Asia LNG developments; oil sands in Canada; and an inventory of global conventual and unconventional exploration prospects. COP is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by ConocoPhillips Company pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding ConocoPhillips Company may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding ConocoPhillips Company from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to ConocoPhillips Company. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding ConocoPhillips Company is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of COP have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning ConocoPhillips Company could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to COP and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of COP.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

 

Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost.

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  Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if COP has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if COP reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and COP. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of negative two times (-200%) COP, a single day movement in COP approaching 50% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if COP subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in COP, even if COP maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from -200% of the daily return of COP for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as COP volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) COP volatility; (b) COP performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — COP volatility and COP performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of COP volatility and COP performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, COP and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

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Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than -200% of the performance of COP and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than -200% of the performance of COP. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

 

Estimated Fund Returns

 

One

Year

COP

-200%

One

Year COP

Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% 120% 506.5% 418.1% 195.2%  15.6% -68.9%
-50% 100% 288.2% 231.6%  88.9% -26.0% -80.1%
-40% 80% 169.6% 130.3%  31.2% -48.6% -86.2%
-30% 60%  98.1%  69.2%  -3.6% -62.2% -89.8%
-20% 40%  51.6%  29.5%  -26.2% -71.1% -92.2%
-10% 20%  19.8%  2.3%  -41.7% -77.2% -93.9%
0% 0%  -3.0%  -17.1%  -52.8% -81.5% -95.0%
10% -20%  -19.8%  -31.5%  -61.0% -84.7% -95.9%
20% -40%  -32.6%  -42.4%  -67.2% -87.2% -96.5%
30% -60%  -42.6%  -50.9%  -72.0% -89.1% -97.1%
40% -80%  -50.5%  -57.7%  -75.9% -90.6% -97.5%
50% -100%  -56.9%  -63.2%  -79.0% -91.8% -97.8%
60% -120%  -62.1%  -67.6%  -81.5% -92.8% -98.1%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of COP volatility and COP performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a -40% return on a yearly basis if COP return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with COP volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return -67.2% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

COP’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 41.73%. COP’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 151.76%. COP’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 21.46%. Historical COP volatility and performance are not indications of what COP volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of COP may differ from the volatility of COP.

 

Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with COP, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from -200% of the percentage change of COP on such day.

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In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with COP, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to COP may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with COP and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by COP’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect -200% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when COP is volatile, particularly when COP is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

 

A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with COP, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with COP. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to COP. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of COP. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and COP and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day.

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to COP that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although ConocoPhillips Company’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

 

Counterparty Risk. Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

 

Short Sale Exposure Risk. The Fund will seek inverse or “short” exposure through financial instruments, which would cause the Fund to be exposed to certain risks associated with selling short. These risks include, under certain market conditions, an increase in the volatility and decrease in the liquidity of the instruments underlying the short position, which may lower the Fund’s return, result in a loss, have the effect of limiting the Fund’s ability to obtain inverse exposure through financial instruments, or require the Fund to seek inverse exposure through alternative investment strategies that may be less desirable or more costly to implement. To the extent that, at any particular point in time, the instruments underlying the short position may be thinly traded or have a limited market, including due to regulatory action, the Fund may be unable to meet its investment objective due to a lack of available securities or counterparties. During such periods, the Fund’s ability to issue additional Creation Units may be adversely affected. Obtaining inverse exposure through these instruments may be considered an aggressive investment technique. Any income, dividends or payments by any assets underlying the Fund’s short positions, if any, would negatively impact the Fund.

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Inverse Correlation Risk. Short (inverse) positions are designed to profit from a decline in the price of a particular reference asset. Investors will lose money when COP rises, which is the opposite result from that of traditional funds. A single day or intraday increase in the performance of COP may result in the total loss or almost total loss of an investor’s investment, even if COP subsequently moves lower. Like leveraged funds, inverse funds may be considered to be aggressive. Inverse positions may also be leveraged. Such instruments may experience imperfect negative correlation between the price of the investment and the underlying security or index. The use of inverse instruments may expose the Fund to additional risks that it would not be subject to if it invested only in “long” positions.

 

Indirect Investment Risk. ConocoPhillips Company is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of ConocoPhillips Company in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company.

 

Intraday Price Performance Risk. The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to COP until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of COP.

 

Energy Companies Risk. The success of energy companies may be cyclical and highly dependent on energy prices. The market value of securities issued by energy companies may decline for many reasons, including, among other things, changes in the levels and volatility of global energy prices, energy supply and demand, capital expenditures on exploration and production of energy sources, exchange rates, interest rates, economic conditions, tax treatment, energy conservation efforts, increased competition and technological advances. Energy companies may be subject to substantial government regulation and contractual fixed pricing, which may increase the cost of doing business and limit the earnings of these companies. A significant portion of the revenues of energy companies may depend on a relatively small number of customers, including governmental entities and utilities. As a result, governmental budget constraints may have a material adverse effect on the stock prices of energy companies. Energy companies may also operate in, or engage in transactions involving, countries with less developed regulatory regimes or a history of expropriation, nationalization or other adverse policies. Energy companies also face a significant risk of liability from accidents resulting in injury or loss of life or property, pollution or other environmental problems, equipment malfunctions or mishandling of materials and a risk of loss from terrorism, political strife or natural disasters.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high leveraged correlation with COP.

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Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Valuation Risk. The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to ConocoPhillips Company (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to ConocoPhillips Company). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries. 

 

Collateral Investments Risk. The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

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Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price.

 

Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

 

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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

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Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

 

Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

 

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an authorized participant (“AP”) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns.

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

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Premium/Discount Risk. The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares.

 

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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

 

Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by Code. The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

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Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

 

Security Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

  Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

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Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

 

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

 

Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

 

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AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF

 

The AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify (200%) the daily performance of the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company (NYSE: COP) (“COP”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be 200% of the performance of COP for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from 200% of the return of COP for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of COP and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher COP volatility, the volatility of COP may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of COP.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged (200%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if COP’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if COP’s performance increases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if COP loses more than 50% in one day.

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Investment Objective

 

The AXS 2X COP Bull Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (200%) the daily performance of the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

 

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

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Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide two times leveraged exposure to the daily performance of COP. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, 200% performance of COP for a single say, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on COP. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

 

The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on COP. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing COP. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to 200% of COP, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to COP (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to COP). As of the date of this prospectus, COP is assigned to the energy industry.

 

Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

 

ConocoPhillips Company operates in 14 countries and is the world’s largest independent E&P company. ConocoPhillips Company offers a diverse, low cost of supply portfolio including: resource-rich unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, and Asia LNG developments; oil sands in Canada; and an inventory of global conventual and unconventional exploration prospects. COP is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by ConocoPhillips Company pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding ConocoPhillips Company may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding ConocoPhillips Company from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to ConocoPhillips Company. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding ConocoPhillips Company is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of COP have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning ConocoPhillips Company could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to COP and therefore the value of the Fund.

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Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of COP.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

 

Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost.

 

  Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if COP has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if COP reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and COP. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of two times (200%) COP, a single day movement in COP approaching 50% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if COP subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in COP, even if COP maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

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Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from 200% of the daily return COP for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as COP volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) COP volatility; (b) COP performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — COP volatility and COP performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of COP volatility and COP performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, COP and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

 

Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than 200% of the performance of COP and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than 200% of the performance of COP. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

 

Estimated Fund Returns

 

One
Year
COP

200%

One Year

COP

Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% -120% -84.2% -85.0% -87.5% -90.9% -94.1%
-50% -100% -75.2% -76.5% -80.5% -85.8% -90.8%
-40% -80% -64.4% -66.2% -72.0% -79.5% -86.8%
-30% -60% -51.5% -54.0% -61.8% -72.1% -82.0%
-20% -40% -36.6% -39.9% -50.2% -63.5% -76.5%
-10% -20% -19.8% -23.9% -36.9% -53.8% -70.2%
0% 0% -1.0% -6.1% -22.1% -43.0% -63.2%
10% 20% 19.8% 13.7% -5.8% -31.1% -55.5%
20% 40% 42.6% 35.3% 12.1% -18.0% -47.0%
30% 60% 67.3% 58.8% 31.6% -3.7% -37.8%
40% 80% 94.0% 84.1% 52.6% 11.7% -27.9%
50% 100% 122.8% 111.4% 75.2% 28.2% -17.2%
60% 120% 153.5% 140.5% 99.4% 45.9% -5.8%

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The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of COP volatility and COP performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example, the Fund may incorrectly be expected to achieve a 40% return on a yearly basis if COP return were 20%, absent the effects of compounding. As the table shows, with COP volatility of 50%, the Fund could be expected to return –5.8% under such a scenario. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown above as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Principal Risks — Correlation Risk” below.

 

COP’s annualized historical volatility rate for the five- year period ended December 31, 2021 was 41.73%. COP’s highest volatility rate for any one calendar year during the five-year period was 151.76%. COP’s annualized total return performance for the five-year period ended December 31, 2021 was 21.46%. Historical COP volatility and performance are not indications of what COP volatility and performance will be in the future. The volatility of U.S. exchange-traded securities or instruments that reflect the value of COP may differ from the volatility of COP.

 

Correlation Risk. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with COP, and there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, and the percentage change of the Fund’s NAV each day may differ, perhaps significantly in amount, and possibly even direction, from 200% of the percentage change of COP on such day.

 

In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with COP, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its investment objective. Being materially under- or overexposed to COP may prevent the Fund from achieving a high degree of correlation with COP and may expose the Fund to greater leverage risk. Market disruptions or closure, regulatory restrictions, market volatility, illiquidity in the markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, and other factors will adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by COP’s movements, including intraday movements. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Fund will have perfect 200% exposure during the day or at the end of each day and the likelihood of being materially under- or overexposed is higher on days when COP is volatile, particularly when COP is volatile at or near the close of the trading day.

 

A number of other factors may also adversely affect the Fund’s correlation with COP, including fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of derivatives, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or financial instruments in which the Fund invests. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions in order to improve tax efficiency, comply with regulatory restrictions, or for other reasons, each of which may negatively affect the Fund’s correlation with COP. The Fund may also be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being under- or overexposed to COP. Additionally, the Fund’s underlying investments and/or reference assets may trade on markets that may not be open on the same day as the Fund, which may cause a difference between the changes in the daily performance of the Fund and changes in the performance of COP. Any of these factors could decrease correlation between the performance of the Fund and COP and may hinder the Fund’s ability to meet its daily investment objective on or around that day.

 

Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to COP that is significantly greater or less than its stated multiple. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Trading Halt Risk. Although ConocoPhillips Company’s shares are listed for trading on an exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will be available at all times and the exchange may halt trading of such shares in certain circumstances. A halt in trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s shares is expected, in turn, to result in a halt in the trading in the Fund’s shares. Trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares on the exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the exchange, make trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in ConocoPhillips Company’s and/or Fund’s shares on an exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to exchange “circuit breaker” rules.” In the event of a trading halt for an extended period of time, the Fund may be unable to execute arrangements with swap counterparties that are necessary to implement the Fund’s investment strategy.

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Counterparty Risk. Investing in derivatives involves entering into contracts with third parties (i.e., counterparties). The use of derivatives involves risks that are different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The Fund will be subject to credit risk (i.e., the risk that a counterparty is or is perceived to be unwilling or unable to make timely payments or otherwise meet its contractual obligations) with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to derivatives and repurchase agreements entered into by the Fund. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or fails to perform its obligations, or if any collateral posted by the counterparty for the benefit of the Fund is insufficient or there are delays in the Fund’s ability to access such collateral, the value of an investment in the Fund may decline.

 

Indirect Investment Risk. ConocoPhillips Company is not affiliated with the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliates thereof and is not involved with this offering in any way, and has no obligation to consider the Fund in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. The Advisor has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of ConocoPhillips Company in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights or rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the common shares of ConocoPhillips Company.

 

Intraday Price Performance Risk. The intraday performance of shares of the Fund traded in the secondary market generally will be different from the performance of the Fund when measured from one NAV calculation-time to the next. When shares are bought intraday, the performance of the Fund’s Shares relative to COP until the Fund’s next NAV calculation time will generally be greater than or less than the Fund’s stated multiple times the performance of COP.

 

Energy Companies Risk. The success of energy companies may be cyclical and highly dependent on energy prices. The market value of securities issued by energy companies may decline for many reasons, including, among other things, changes in the levels and volatility of global energy prices, energy supply and demand, capital expenditures on exploration and production of energy sources, exchange rates, interest rates, economic conditions, tax treatment, energy conservation efforts, increased competition and technological advances. Energy companies may be subject to substantial government regulation and contractual fixed pricing, which may increase the cost of doing business and limit the earnings of these companies. A significant portion of the revenues of energy companies may depend on a relatively small number of customers, including governmental entities and utilities. As a result, governmental budget constraints may have a material adverse effect on the stock prices of energy companies. Energy companies may also operate in, or engage in transactions involving, countries with less developed regulatory regimes or a history of expropriation, nationalization or other adverse policies. Energy companies also face a significant risk of liability from accidents resulting in injury or loss of life or property, pollution or other environmental problems, equipment malfunctions or mishandling of materials and a risk of loss from terrorism, political strife or natural disasters.

 

Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. For example, regulation limiting the ability of certain financial institutions to invest in certain financial instruments would likely reduce the liquidity of those instruments. These situations may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high leveraged correlation with COP.

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Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may incur high portfolio turnover to manage the Fund’s investment exposure. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares may cause more frequent creation or redemption activities that could, in certain circumstances, increase the number of portfolio transactions. High levels of portfolio transactions increase brokerage and other transaction costs and may result in increased taxable capital gains. Each of these factors could have a negative impact on the performance of the Fund.

 

Market Risk. The value of a particular security, or Shares of the Fund in general, may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. For example, because of continuing political tensions and armed conflicts, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. The war has contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so. In addition, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe impacts, on markets worldwide. While the development of vaccines has slowed the spread of the virus and allowed for the resumption of normal business activity in the United States, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the spread. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease. As this global pandemic illustrated, such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. These events also adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s Shares and result in increased market volatility. During any such events, the Fund’s Shares may trade at increased premiums or discounts to their net asset value. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Valuation Risk. The Fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. The Fund’s ability to value investments may be impacted by technological issues or errors by pricing services or other third-party service providers.

 

Concentration Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to ConocoPhillips Company (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to ConocoPhillips Company). A portfolio concentrated in a particular industry may present more risks than a portfolio broadly diversified over several industries.

 

Collateral Investments Risk. The Fund’s use of Collateral Investments may include obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities, including bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, money market funds, short term bond ETFs and corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper.

 

Some securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. Government-sponsored instrumentalities may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, in which case the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the security for ultimate repayment, and may not be able to assert a claim against the United States itself in the event that the agency or instrumentality does not meet its commitment. The U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate. Although the Fund may hold securities that carry U.S. Government guarantees, these guarantees do not extend to shares of the Fund.

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Money market funds are subject to management fees and other expenses. Therefore, investments in money market funds will cause the Fund to bear indirectly a proportional share of the fees and costs of the money market funds in which it invests. At the same time, the Fund will continue to pay its own management fees and expenses with respect to all of its assets, including any portion invested in the shares of the money market fund. It is possible to lose money by investing in money market funds.

 

Short term bond ETFs will generally invest in short-term instruments (i.e., duration of less than one year). The amount of time until a fixed-income security matures can lead to various risks, including changes in interest rates over the life of a bond. Short-term fixed income securities generally provide lower returns than longer-term fixed income securities. The average maturity of an ETF’s investments will affect the volatility of the ETF’s share price.

 

Corporate debt securities such as commercial paper generally are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it is due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade generally are considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities.

 

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.

 

Call Risk. Some debt securities may be redeemed, or “called,” at the option of the issuer before their stated maturity date. In general, an issuer will call its debt securities if they can be refinanced by issuing new debt securities which bear a lower interest rate. The Fund is subject to the possibility that during periods of falling interest rates an issuer will call its high yielding debt securities. The Fund would then be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

 

Large Capitalization Company Risk. Large-capitalization companies may be less able than smaller capitalization companies to adapt to changing market conditions. Large-capitalization companies may be more mature and subject to more limited growth potential compared with smaller capitalization companies. During different market cycles, the performance of large capitalization companies has trailed the overall performance of the broader securities markets.

 

Volatility Risk. Volatility is the characteristic of a security or other asset, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. The value of the Fund’s investments in swaps – and therefore the value of an investment in the Fund – could decline significantly and without warning, including to zero. If you are not prepared to accept significant and unexpected changes in the value of the Fund and the possibility that you could lose your entire investment in the Fund, you should not invest in the Fund.

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Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising market interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Duration is a reasonably accurate measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates and a common measure of interest rate risk. Duration measures a debt security’s expected life on a present value basis, taking into account the debt security’s yield, interest payments and final maturity. In general, duration represents the expected percentage change in the value of a security for an immediate 1% change in interest rates. For example, the price of a debt security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Therefore, prices of debt securities with shorter durations tend to be less sensitive to interest rate changes than debt securities with longer durations. As the value of a debt security changes over time, so will its duration.

 

Cyber Security Risk. The Fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. A breach in cyber security refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Fund to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Cyber security breaches may involve unauthorized access to the Fund’s digital information systems through “hacking” or malicious software coding, but may also result from outside attacks such as denial-of-service attacks through efforts to make network services unavailable to intended users. In addition, cyber security breaches of the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, or custodian, as applicable, or issuers in which the Fund invests, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Additionally, there is no guarantee that such efforts will succeed, especially because the Fund does not directly control the cyber security systems of issuers or third-party service providers.

 

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an AP may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as APs on an agency basis (i.e. on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other AP is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and its performance reflects investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Fund. Such judgments about the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. If the investments selected and the strategies employed by the Fund fail to produce the intended results, the Fund could underperform as compared to other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies, or could have negative returns.

 

Active Market Risk. Although the Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained. Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices that may be below, at or above the Fund’s net asset value. Securities, including the Shares, are subject to market fluctuations and liquidity constraints that may be caused by such factors as economic, political, or regulatory developments, changes in interest rates, and/or perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments.

 

Premium/Discount Risk. The market price of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s net asset value as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The Adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their net asset value because the Shares trade on the Exchange at market prices and not at net asset value. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related, but not identical, to the same forces influencing the prices of the holdings of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. However, given that Shares can only be purchased and redeemed in Creation Units, and only to and from broker-dealers and large institutional investors that have entered into participation agreements (unlike shares of closed-end funds, which frequently trade at appreciable discounts from, and sometimes at premiums to, their net asset value), the Adviser believes that large discounts or premiums to the net asset value of Shares should not be sustained. During stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the market for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which could in turn lead to differences between the market price of the Fund’s Shares and their net asset value. Furthermore, the Fund may at times limit or suspend entirely the issuance of new Creation Units, which could have the effect of enhancing the premium or discount associated with the Fund’s Shares.

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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 and the Adviser 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.

 

Credit Risk. An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due. In addition, the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or unwillingness to make such payments.

 

Market Maker Risk. If the Fund has lower average daily trading volumes, it may rely on a small number of third-party market makers to provide a market for the purchase and sale of Shares. Any trading halt or other problem relating to the trading activity of these market makers could result in a dramatic change in the spread between the Fund’s net asset value and the price at which the Shares are trading on the Exchange, which could result in a decrease in value of the Shares. In addition, decisions by market makers or APs to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in Shares trading at a discount to net asset value and also in greater than normal intra-day bid-ask spreads for Shares.

 

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time. This impact may be positive or negative, depending on the direction of market movement during the period affected.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. As a result, the Fund is only limited as to the percentage of its assets which may be invested in the securities of any one issuer by the diversification requirements imposed by Code. The Fund seeks to achieve daily results that correspond to a multiple of the daily performance of a single issuer by entering into one or more swap agreements. In seeking this objective, the Fund may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in swap agreements with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. As a result, the Fund may experience increased volatility and be more susceptible to a single economic or regulatory occurrence affecting the issuer or one or more of the counterparties.

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Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear, particularly because the Fund’s investment objective focuses on the performance of the stock of a single issuer. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.

 

Security Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause a security held by the Fund to be more volatile than the market generally. The value of an individual security or particular type of security may be more volatile than the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of the market as a whole.

 

The Shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective.

 

Performance

 

As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and therefore does not have a performance history. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible on the Fund’s website at www.axsinvestments.com and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser

 

AXS Investments LLC (“AXS Investments” or the “Adviser”)

 

Portfolio Managers

 

The following persons serve as portfolio managers of the Fund.

 

  Matthew Tuttle, Portfolio Manager

 

  Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager

 

Each of the portfolio managers is primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund and has served in such capacity since the Fund’s inception in 2022.

 

Purchase and Sale of Shares

 

The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at net asset value, only in large blocks of shares called “Creation Units.” Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.

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Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Since Shares of the Fund trade on securities exchanges in the secondary market at their market price rather than their net asset value, the Fund’s Shares may trade at a price greater than (premium) or less than (discount) the Fund’s net asset value. 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”). Recent information, including the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at www.axsinvestments.com.

 

Tax Information

 

The Fund’s distributions will generally be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), AXS Investments and IMST Distributors, LLC, the Fund’s distributor, may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. 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.

 

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AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF

 

Important Information About the AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF

 

The AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily inverse leveraged investment results and is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. As a result, the Fund may be riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund’s objective is to magnify the inverse (-125%) daily performance of the common shares of Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) (“BA”). The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be -125% of the performance of BA for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return over the period, which will very likely differ from -125% of the return of BA for that period. Longer holding periods, higher volatility of BA and leverage increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher BA volatility, the volatility of BA may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of BA.

 

The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily inverse leveraged (-125%) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if BA’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if BA’s performance decreases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day if BA gains more than 50% in one day.

 

Investment Objective

 

The AXS 1.25X BA Bear Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to one and a quarter times the inverse (-125%) of the daily performance of the common shares of Boeing Company. The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day.

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Fees and Expenses of the Fund

 

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Investors may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example set forth below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fees 0.95%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses(1) 0.62%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) 1.57%
Fee Waiver and Expense Reimbursement(3) (0.42%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and Reimbursement (1),(2),(3) 1.15%
(1) “Other Expenses” are estimates based on the expenses the Fund expects to incur for the current fiscal year.
(2) The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. The total indirect cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is estimated to be 0.20% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
(3) AXS Investments LLC (“AXS”) has contractually agreed to waive its fees and/or pay for operating expenses of the Fund to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses (exclusive of any (i) leverage interest, (ii) brokerage fees and commission, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses, (iv) fees and expenses associated with instruments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example options and swap fees and expenses), (v) interest and dividend expense on short sales, (vi) taxes, (vii) other fees related to underlying investments (such as option fees and expenses or swap fees and expenses), (viii) expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or (ix) extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 1.15%. This agreement is effective until July 31, 2023 and it may be terminated before that date only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees. AXS is permitted to seek reimbursement from the Fund, subject to certain limitations, of fees waived or payments made by AXS to the Fund for a period ending three years after the date of the waiver or payment. Such reimbursement may be requested from the Fund if the reimbursement will not cause the Fund’s annual expense ratio to exceed the lesser of (a) the expense limitation in effect at the time such fees were waived or payments made, or (b) the expense limitation in effect at the time of the reimbursement. Reimbursements of fees waived or payments made will be made on a “first in, first out” basis so that the oldest fees waived or payments are satisfied first.

 

Example

 

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

 

This 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 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that investors may pay to buy and sell Shares.

 

  1 Year 3 Years
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, your costs, based on these assumptions, would be: $117 $455

 

Portfolio Turnover

 

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it purchases and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover will cause the Fund to incur additional transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, may affect the Fund’s performance. At the date of this prospectus, the Fund does not have an operating history and turnover data therefore is not available.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Under normal market circumstances, the Fund will maintain at least 80% exposure to financial instruments that provide one and a quarter times inverse leveraged exposure to the daily performance of BA. The Fund is an actively-managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve on a daily basis, before fees and expenses, -125% performance of BA for a single day, not for any other period, by entering into one or more swap agreements on BA. A “single day” is measured from the time the Fund calculates its net asset value (“NAV”) to the time of the Fund’s next NAV calculation.

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The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with major global financial institutions for a specified period ranging from a day to more than one year whereby the Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on BA. The gross return to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing BA. The Adviser attempts to consistently apply leverage to increase the Fund’s exposure to -125% of BA, and expects to rebalance the Fund’s holdings daily to maintain such exposure. As a result of its investment strategies, the Fund will be concentrated in the industry assigned to BA (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to the industry assigned to BA). As of the date of this prospectus, BA is assigned to the aviation industry.

 

Additionally, the Fund may invest between 40-80% of the Fund’s portfolio depending on the amount of collateral required by the Fund’s counterparties in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality (“Collateral Investments”).

 

Boeing Company is one of the world’s major aerospace firms. BA is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Boeing Company pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission file number 001-34756 through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Boeing Company may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.

 

The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Boeing Company from the publicly available documents described above. In connection with the offering of the Fund’s securities, neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Boeing Company. Neither the Fund, the Trust nor the Advisor or any of its respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Boeing Company is accurate or complete. Furthermore, the Fund cannot give any assurance that all events occurring prior to the date hereof (including events that would affect the accuracy or completeness of the publicly available documents described above) that would affect the trading price of BA have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Boeing Company could affect the value of the Fund’s investments with respect to BA and therefore the value of the Fund.

 

Neither the Trust, the Fund nor any of its respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of BA.

 

Principal Risks

 

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the Fund’s investment objectives will be achieved.

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Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may be considered aggressive and may expose the Fund to greater risks and larger losses or smaller gains than investing directly in the reference asset(s) underlying those derivatives. A derivative refers to any financial instrument whose value is derived, at least in part, from the price of an underlying security, asset, rate or index. The use of derivatives presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying security, asset, rate or index. Gains or losses in a derivative may be magnified and may be much greater than the derivative’s original cost.

 

  Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund expects to use swap agreements as a means to achieve its investment objective. Swap agreements are generally traded in OTC markets and have only recently become subject to regulation by the CFTC. CFTC rules, however, do not cover all types of swap agreements. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the Commodity Exchange Act in connection with the Fund’s swap agreements. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Unlike in futures contracts, the counterparty to uncleared OTC swap agreements is generally a single bank or other financial institution, rather than a clearing organization backed by a group of financial institutions. As a result, the Fund is subject to increased counterparty risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared swaps. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, the Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in the Fund may decline. OTC swaps of the type that may be utilized by the Fund are less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. Swaps are also subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the value of the reference asset underlying the swap and the swap. Leverage inherent in derivatives will tend to magnify the Fund’s gains and losses. Moreover, with respect to the use of swap agreements, if BA has a dramatic intraday move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if BA reverses all or a portion of its intraday move by the end of the day. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning.

 

The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.

 

Leverage Risk. Leverage increases the risk of a total loss of an investor’s investment, may increase the volatility of the Fund, and may magnify any differences between the performance of the Fund and BA. Because the Fund includes a multiplier of negative one and a quarter times (-125%) BA, a single day movement in BA approaching 80% at any point in the day could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund, even if BA subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the earlier movement. This would be the case with any such single day movements in BA, even if BA maintains a level greater than zero at all times.

 

Compounding Risk. The Fund has a single day investment objective, and the Fund’s performance for any other period is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period. The performance of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from -125% of the daily return of BA for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. Compounding affects all investments, but has a more significant impact on a leveraged fund. This effect becomes more pronounced as BA volatility and holding periods increase. Fund performance for a period longer than a single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: (a) BA volatility; (b) BA performance; (c) period of time; (d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and (e) other Fund expenses. The chart below illustrates the impact of two principal factors — BA volatility and BA performance — on Fund performance. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of BA volatility and BA performance over a one-year period. Actual volatility, BA and Fund performance may differ significantly from the chart below. Performance shown in the chart assumes: (a) no Fund expenses; and (b) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of zero percent. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/ lending rates were reflected, the Fund’s performance would be lower than shown.

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Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than -125% of the performance of BA and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than -125% of the performance of BA. The Fund’s actual returns may be significantly better or worse than the returns shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in “Correlation Risk” below.

 

Estimated Fund Returns

 

One
Year
BA
-125% One Year BA Volatility Rate
Return Return 10% 25% 50% 75% 100%
-60% 75% 210% 187.9% 121.2% 42.5% -23.0%
-50% 62.5% 134.5% 117.8% 67.3% 7.8% -41.7%
-40% 50% 86.7% 73.4% 33.2% -14.1% -53.6%
-30% 37.5% 54.0% 43.0% 9.9% -29.2% -61.7%
-20% 25% 30.3% 21.1% -7.0% -40.1% -67.6%
-10% 12.5% 12.5% 4.5% -19.7% -48.3% -72.0%
0% 0% -1.4% -8.4% -29.6% -54.7% -75.5%
10% -12.5% -12.5% -18.7% -37.5% -59.8% -78.2%
20% -25% -21.5% -27.1% -44.0% -63.9% -80.5%
30% -37.5% -29.0% -34.0% -49.3% -67.3% -82.3%
40% -50% -35.3% -39.9% -53.8% 70.2% -83.9%
50% -62.5% -40.6% -44.8% -57.6% -72.7% -85.2%
60% -75% -45.2% -49.1% -60.9% -74.8% -86.4%

 

The foregoing table is intended to isolate the effect of BA volatility and BA performance on the return of the Fund and is not a representation of actual returns. For example