YieldMax AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax AMZN Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax BRK.B Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax COIN Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax META Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax GOOGL Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (
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YieldMax SQ Option Income Strategy ETF (
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listed on NYSE Arca, Inc.
PROSPECTUS
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has not approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY INFORMATION
The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Apple Inc. (“AAPL”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | |
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses(1) | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Apple Inc. (“AAPL”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to AAPL regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of AAPL, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of AAPL, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of AAPL. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of AAPL Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
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The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by AAPL. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of AAPL. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in AAPL’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in AAPL
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if AAPL shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if AAPL shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in AAPL. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any AAPL dividends. |
Additional information regarding AAPL is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of AAPL Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of AAPL.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of AAPL) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of AAPL, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of AAPL on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
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The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to AAPL, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of AAPL’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where AAPL call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. Synthetic Long Exposure
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to AAPL, the Fund will buy AAPL call options and, simultaneously, sell AAPL put options to try to replicate the price movements of AAPL. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of AAPL at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of AAPL for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. Covered Call Writing
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on AAPL to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own AAPL, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current AAPL share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the AAPL call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in AAPL’s stock price. If the stock price of AAPL increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if AAPL’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to AAPL and the sold (short) AAPL call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the AAPL stock price beyond a certain point.
3. U.S. Treasuries
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on AAPL as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of AAPL stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs AAPL
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of AAPL’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of AAPL, changes in the price of the AAPL options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All options are based on the value of AAPL) |
Investment Terms | Expected Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of AAPL at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of AAPL.
If the stock of AAPL increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of AAPL at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by AAPL. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts |
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of AAPL at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to AAPL equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearable and accessories, and sells a variety of related services. Apple Inc. is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”). The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of Apple Inc., as of March 25, 2022, the last business day of Apple Inc.’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $2.8 trillion.
Apple Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Apple Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-36743 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Apple Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
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This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to AAPL or other securities of Apple Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Apple Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Apple Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Apple 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 Apple Inc. (and therefore the price of Apple Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Apple Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of AAPL.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH APPLE INC.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to AAPL. As of the date of the Prospectus, AAPL is assigned to the computer manufacturing industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
AAPL Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of AAPL. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of AAPL, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of AAPL, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in AAPL Risk. Apple Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Apple Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of AAPL (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
AAPL Trading Risk. The trading price of AAPL may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of AAPL may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Apple Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Apple Inc. may additionally impact AAPL’s stock price due to Apple Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Apple Inc. in the past. While Apple Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Apple Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Apple Inc.’s attention and resources. If AAPL trading is halted, trading in Shares of the Fund may be impacted, either temporarily or indefinitely.
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Apple Inc. Performance Risk. Apple Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of AAPL to decline. Apple Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Apple Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Apple Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Apple Inc. could decline significantly.
Technology Industry Risk. The technology industry, including, in some instances, Apple Inc., is subject to intense media, political and regulatory scrutiny, which may expose Apple Inc. to increasing regulation, government investigations, legal actions and penalties.
From time to time, Apple Inc. has made changes to its App Store, including actions taken in response to competition, market and legal conditions. Apple Inc. may make further business changes in the future. New legislative initiatives, such as the proposed EU Digital Markets Act, could, if enacted, require further changes. These changes could include how and to what extent Apple Inc. charges developers for access to its platforms and manages distribution of apps outside of the App Store.
Apple Inc. is also currently subject to antitrust investigations in various jurisdictions around the world, which can result in legal proceedings and claims against Apple Inc. that could, individually or in the aggregate, have a materially adverse impact on Apple Inc.’s business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, Apple Inc. is the subject of investigations in Europe and other jurisdictions relating to App Store terms and conditions. If such investigations result in adverse findings against Apple Inc., it could be exposed to significant fines and may be required to make changes to its App Store business, all of which could materially adversely affect Apple Inc.’s business, results of operations and financial condition. Apple Inc. is also subject to litigation relating to the App Store, which has resulted in changes to Apple Inc.’s business practices, and may in the future result in further changes.
Further, Apple Inc. has commercial relationships with other companies in the technology industry that are or may become subject to investigations and litigation that, if resolved against those other companies, could adversely affect Apple Inc.’s commercial relationships with those business partners and materially adversely affect Apple Inc.’s business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, Apple Inc. earns revenue from licensing arrangements with other companies to offer their search services on Apple Inc.’s platforms and apps, and certain of these arrangements are currently subject to government investigations and legal proceedings.
There can be no assurance Apple Inc.’s business will not be materially adversely affected, individually or in the aggregate, by the outcomes of such investigations, litigation or changes to laws and regulations in the future. Changes to Apple Inc.’s business practices to comply with new laws and regulations or in connection with other legal proceedings could negatively impact the reputation of Apple Inc.’s products for privacy and security and otherwise adversely affect the experience for users of Apple Inc.’s products and services, and result in harm to Apple Inc.’s reputation, loss of competitive advantage, poor market acceptance, reduced demand for products and services, and lost sales.
Global Events Risk. Apple Inc.’s business can be impacted by political events, trade and other international disputes, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues, industrial accidents and other business interruptions. Political events, trade and other international disputes, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues, industrial accidents and other business interruptions can harm or disrupt international commerce and the global economy, and could have a material adverse effect on Apple Inc. and its customers, suppliers, contract manufacturers, logistics providers, distributors, cellular network carriers and other channel partners.
Apple Inc. has a large, global business with sales outside the U.S. representing a majority of Apple Inc.’s total net sales, and Apple Inc. believes that it generally benefits from growth in international trade. Substantially all of Apple Inc.’s manufacturing is performed in whole or in part by outsourcing partners located primarily in Asia, including China mainland, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Trade policies and disputes and other international conflicts can result in tariffs, sanctions and other measures that restrict international trade, and can materially adversely affect Apple Inc.’s business, particularly if these measures occur in regions where Apple Inc. derives a significant portion of its revenues and/or has significant supply chain operations. For example, tensions between the U.S. and China have led to a series of tariffs being imposed by the U.S. on imports from China mainland, as well as other business restrictions. Tariffs increase the cost of Apple Inc.’s products and the components and raw materials that go into making them. These increased costs can adversely impact the gross margin that Apple Inc. earns on its products. Tariffs can also make Apple Inc.’s products more expensive for customers, which could make Apple Inc.’s products less competitive and reduce consumer demand. Countries may also adopt other measures, such as controls on imports or exports of goods, technology or data, that could adversely impact Apple Inc.’s operations and supply chain and limit Apple Inc.’s ability to offer its products and services as designed. These measures can require Apple Inc. to take various actions, including changing suppliers, restructuring business relationships, and ceasing to offer third-party applications on its platforms. Changing Apple Inc.’s operations in accordance with new or changed trade restrictions can be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to Apple Inc.’s operations. Such restrictions can be announced with little or no advance notice and Apple Inc. may not be able to effectively mitigate all adverse impacts from such measures. If disputes and conflicts further escalate in the future, actions by governments in response could be significantly more severe and restrictive and could materially adversely affect Apple Inc.’s business. Political uncertainty surrounding trade and other international disputes could also have a negative effect on consumer confidence and spending, which could adversely affect Apple Inc.’s business.
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Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of AAPL and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of AAPL. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to AAPL through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
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Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by AAPL over the Call Period. This means that if AAPL experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform AAPL over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by AAPL over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by AAPL over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of AAPL. The degree of participation in AAPL gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of AAPL, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of AAPL and the remaining time to the options' expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of AAPL changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of AAPL. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the AAPL will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by AAPL.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of AAPL and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of AAPL will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of AAPL, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the AAPL share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period AAPL had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of AAPL and its returns will depend not only on the price of AAPL but also on the path that AAPL takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as AAPL’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with AAPL. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
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Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (AAPL), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
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Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Amazon.com, Inc. (“AMZN”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | |
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses(1) | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Amazon.com, Inc. (“AMZN”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to AMZN regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of AMZN, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of AMZN, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of AMZN. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of AMZN Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by AMZN. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of AMZN. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in AMZN’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in AMZN
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if AMZN shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if AMZN shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in AMZN. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any AMZN dividends. |
Additional information regarding AMZN is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of AMZN Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of AMZN.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of AMZN) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of AMZN, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of AMZN on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to AMZN, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of AMZN’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where AMZN call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. Synthetic Long Exposure
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to AMZN, the Fund will buy AMZN call options and, simultaneously, sell AMZN put options to try to replicate the price movements of AMZN. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of AMZN at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of AMZN for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. Covered Call Writing
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on AMZN to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own AMZN, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current AMZN share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the AMZN call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in AMZN’s stock price. If the stock price of AMZN increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if AMZN’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to AMZN and the sold (short) AMZN call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the AMZN stock price beyond a certain point.
3. U.S. Treasuries
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on AMZN as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of AMZN stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs AMZN
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of AMZN’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of AMZN, changes in the price of the AMZN options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax AMZN Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All options are based on the value of AMZN) |
Investment Terms | Expected Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of AMZN at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of AMZN.
If the stock of AMZN increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of AMZN at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by AMZN. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts |
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of AMZN at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to AMZN equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. is an e-commerce company that operates retail websites and offers programs that enable third parties to sell products on their websites. Amazon.com, Inc. is listed on Nasdaq. The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of Amazon.com, Inc. as of June 30, 2021 was approximately $1.5 trillion.
Amazon.com, Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Amazon.com, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 000-22513 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Amazon.com, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to AMZN or other securities of Amazon.com, Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Amazon.com, Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Amazon.com, Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Amazon.com, 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 Amazon.com, Inc. (and therefore the price of Amazon.com, Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Amazon.com, Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
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None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of AMZN.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH AMAZON.COM, INC.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to AMZN. As of the date of the Prospectus, AMZN is assigned to the catalog/specialty distribution industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
AMZN Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of AMZN. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of AMZN, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of AMZN, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in AMZN Risk. Amazon.com, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Amazon.com, Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of AMZN (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
AMZN Trading Risk. The trading price of AMZN may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of AMZN may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Amazon.com, Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Amazon.com, Inc. may additionally impact AMZN’s stock price due to Amazon.com, Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Amazon.com, Inc. in the past. While Amazon.com, Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Amazon.com, Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Amazon.com, Inc.’s attention and resources. If AMZN trading is halted, trading in Shares of the AMZN Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
Amazon.com, Inc. Performance Risk. Amazon.com, Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of AMZN to decline. Amazon.com, Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Amazon.com, Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Amazon.com, Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Amazon.com, Inc. could decline significantly.
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Internet & Direct Marketing Retail Risk. Companies, such as Amazon.com, Inc., that operate via the internet or direct marketing (e.g., online consumer services, online retail, travel) segments are subject to fluctuating consumer demand. Unlike traditional brick and mortar retailers, online marketplaces and retailers must assume shipping costs or pass such costs to consumers. Consumer access to price information for the same or similar products may cause companies that operate in the online marketplace, retail and travel segments to reduce profit margins in order to compete. Due to the nature of their business models, companies that operate in the online marketplace, retail, and travel segments may also be subject to heightened cybersecurity risk, including the risk of theft or damage to vital hardware, software, and information systems. The loss or public dissemination of sensitive customer information or other proprietary data may negatively affect the financial performance of such companies to a greater extent than traditional brick and mortar retailers. As a result of such companies being web-based and the fact that they process, store, and transmit large amounts of data, including personal information, for their customers, failure to prevent or mitigate data loss or other security breaches, including breaches of vendors’ technology and systems, could expose companies that operate via the internet or direct marketing retail to a risk of loss or misuse of such information, adversely affect their operating results, result in litigation or potential liability, and otherwise harm their businesses.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of AMZN and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of AMZN. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to AMZN through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
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Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by AMZN over the Call Period. This means that if AMZN experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform AMZN over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by AMZN over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by AMZN over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of AMZN. The degree of participation in AMZN gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of AMZN, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of AMZN and the remaining time to the options' expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of AMZN changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of AMZN. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the AMZN will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by AMZN.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of AMZN and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of AMZN will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of AMZN, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the AMZN share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period AMZN had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of AMZN and its returns will depend not only on the price of AMZN but also on the path that AMZN takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as AMZN’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with AMZN. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
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Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (AMZN), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
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Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (“BRK.B”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | |
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses(1) | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (“BRK.B”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to BRK.B regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of BRK.B, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of BRK.B, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of BRK.B. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of BRK.B Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by BRK.B. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of BRK.B. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in BRK.B’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in BRK.B
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if BRK.B shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if BRK.B shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in BRK.B. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any BRK.B dividends. |
Additional information regarding BRK.B is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of BRK.B Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of BRK.B.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of BRK.B) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of BRK.B, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of BRK.B on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to BRK.B, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of BRK.B’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where BRK.B call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. Synthetic Long Exposure
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to BRK.B, the Fund will buy BRK.B call options and, simultaneously, sell BRK.B put options to try to replicate the price movements of BRK.B. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of BRK.B at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of BRK.B for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. Covered Call Writing
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on BRK.B to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own BRK.B, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current BRK.B share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the BRK.B call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in BRK.B’s stock price. If the stock price of BRK.B increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if BRK.B’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to BRK.B and the sold (short) BRK.B call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the BRK.B stock price beyond a certain point.
3. U.S. Treasuries
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on BRK.B as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of BRK.B stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs BRK.B
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of BRK.B’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of BRK.B, changes in the price of the BRK.B options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax BRK.B Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All options are based on the value of BRK.B) |
Investment Terms | Expected Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of BRK.B at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of BRK.B.
If the stock of BRK.B increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts |
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of BRK.B at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by BRK.B. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts |
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of BRK.B at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to BRK.B equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in numerous diverse business activities. The most important of these are insurance businesses conducted on both a primary basis and a reinsurance basis, a freight rail transportation business and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses. Berkshire also owns and operates numerous other businesses engaged in a variety of manufacturing, services, retailing and other activities. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as of June 30, 2021 was approximately $504 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-14905 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
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This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to BRK.B or other securities of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Berkshire Hathaway 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 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (and therefore the price of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Berkshire Hathaway Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of BRK.B.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in (or substantially exposed to) the same industries as that assigned to BRK.B. As of the date of the Prospectus, BRK.B is assigned to the insurance, freight rail transportation, and utility industries.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
BRK.B Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of BRK.B. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of BRK.B, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of BRK.B, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in BRK.B Risk. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of BRK.B (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
BRK.B Trading Risk. The trading price of BRK.B may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of BRK.B may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may additionally impact BRK.B’s stock price due to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in the past. While Berkshire Hathaway Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Berkshire Hathaway Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s attention and resources. If BRK.B trading is halted, trading in Shares of the BRK.B Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Performance Risk. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of BRK.B to decline. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Berkshire Hathaway Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. could decline significantly.
Diversified Financial Services Industry Risk. The diversified financial services industry is comprised of financial services companies which have no dominant business line, but instead provide, or else hold interests in, a range of services which cross multiple financial industries. As such, investments in this industry may be subject to the same risks posed by investments in the preceding three industries, including adverse changes to interest rates, general economic conditions, market competition, and applicable regulations.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of BRK.B and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of BRK.B. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to BRK.B through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
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Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by BRK.B over the Call Period. This means that if BRK.B experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform BRK.B over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by BRK.B over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by BRK.B over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of BRK.B. The degree of participation in BRK.B gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of BRK.B, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of BRK.B and the remaining time to the options' expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of BRK.B changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of BRK.B. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the BRK.B will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by BRK.B.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of BRK.B and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of BRK.B will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of BRK.B, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the BRK.B share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period BRK.B had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of BRK.B and its returns will depend not only on the price of BRK.B but also on the path that BRK.B takes over time.
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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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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ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as BRK.B’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with BRK.B. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
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Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (BRK.B), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
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Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Coinbase Global, Inc. (“COIN”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | % | |||
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | ||||
Other Expenses(1) | % | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | % |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | ||
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Coinbase Global, Inc. (“COIN”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to COIN regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of COIN, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of COIN, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of COIN. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of COIN Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by COIN. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of COIN. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in COIN’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in COIN
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if COIN shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if COIN shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in COIN. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any COIN dividends. |
Additional information regarding COIN is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of COIN Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of COIN.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of COIN) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of COIN, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of COIN on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to COIN, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of COIN’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where COIN call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. | Synthetic Long Exposure |
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to COIN, the Fund will buy COIN call options and, simultaneously, sell COIN put options to try to replicate the price movements of COIN. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of COIN at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of COIN for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. | Covered Call Writing |
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on COIN to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own COIN, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current COIN share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the COIN call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in COIN’s stock price. If the stock price of COIN increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if COIN’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to COIN and the sold (short) COIN call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the COIN stock price beyond a certain point.
3. | U.S. Treasuries |
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on COIN as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of COIN stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs COIN
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of COIN’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of COIN, changes in the price of the COIN options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax COIN Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All
options are based on the |
Investment Terms | Expected
Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of COIN at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of COIN.
If the stock of COIN increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of COIN at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by COIN. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts
|
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of COIN at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to COIN equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Coinbase Global, Inc.
Coinbase Global, Inc. offers a variety of products and services that enable individuals, businesses, and developers to participate in the cryptoeconomy. It provides customers around the world with a platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital assets. Coinbase Global, Inc. is listed on Nasdaq. The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of Coinbase Global, Inc. on June 30, 2021, was approximately $33.5 billion based on the closing sales price of Coinbase Global, Inc.’s Class A common stock as reported on Nasdaq on that date.
Coinbase Global, Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Coinbase Global, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-04321 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Coinbase Global, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to COIN or other securities of Coinbase Global, Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Coinbase Global, Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Coinbase Global, Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Coinbase Global, 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 Coinbase Global, Inc. (and therefore the price of Coinbase Global, Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Coinbase Global, Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
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None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of COIN.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH COINBASE GLOBAL, INC.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to COIN. As of the date of the Prospectus, COIN is assigned to the electronic data processing services industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
COIN Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of COIN. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of COIN, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of COIN, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in COIN Risk. Coinbase Global, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Coinbase Global, Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of COIN (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
COIN Trading Risk. The trading price of COIN may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of COIN may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Coinbase Global, Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Coinbase Global, Inc. may additionally impact COIN’s stock price due to Coinbase Global, Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Coinbase Global, Inc. in the past. While Coinbase Global, Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Coinbase Global, Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Coinbase Global, Inc.’s attention and resources. If COIN trading is halted, trading in Shares of the COIN Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
Coinbase Global, Inc. Performance Risk. Coinbase Global, Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of COIN to decline. Coinbase Global, Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Coinbase Global, Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Coinbase Global, Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Coinbase Global, Inc. could decline significantly.
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Digital Assets Risk. While the Fund will not directly invest in digital assets, it will be subject to the risks associated with digital assets by virtue of its investments in options contracts that reference COIN. The technologies underpinning digital assets are highly disruptive, and the future successes of such technologies are highly uncertain. Further, because the development of digital asset technologies is in a nascent stage, digital asset companies may be rapidly eclipsed by newer and more disruptive technological advances that render current digital assets or technologies outdated or undesirable. Further, digital asset companies may be subject to the risks posed by conflicting intellectual property claims among digital assets, which may reduce confidence in the viability of a digital asset. Because of the uncertainty of digital asset technologies, the values of the securities of these companies may be highly volatile. Digital assets may be traded on exchanges that are unregulated and often located outside the United States. Digital asset exchanges may stop operating or permanently shut down due to fraud, theft, disruption, technical glitches, hackers, malware or security compromises or failures in the underlying blockchain, ledger or software. Digital Assets are also at risk of possible manipulation and vulnerabilities surrounding the use of third-party products, which may be subject to technical defects beyond a company’s control. Further, digital assets are not maintained in traditional custodial arrangements, and instead are typically held in “wallets,” which are public digital addresses accessible only by “private keys.” If a private key is stolen, lost, damaged or destroyed, the digital assets attributable to such private key may be irreversibly lost without the possibility of recovery. Over their short history, digital assets have experienced tremendous price volatility compared to traditional asset classes, and may experience significant illiquidity in stressed market conditions. The values of digital assets should not be expected to be connected or correlated to traditional economic or market forces, and the value of the investments in digital assets could decline rapidly, including to zero, as a digital asset may decline in popularity, acceptance or use, thereby impairing its price.
Financials Companies Risk. Financial companies, such as retail and commercial banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies and financial services companies, are especially subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, extensive government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentrations in geographic markets, industries or products (such as commercial and residential real estate loans) and competition from new entrants and blurred distinctions in their fields of business. The extent to which the Fund may invest in a company that engages in securities-related activities or banking is limited by applicable law. Governmental regulation may change frequently and may have significant adverse consequences for companies in the financials sector, including effects not intended by such regulation. The impact of changes in capital requirements, or recent or future regulation, on any financial company or on the financials sector as a whole cannot be predicted. The financials sector can be a target or cyberattacks, and may experience technology malfunctions and disruptions. These risks may be amplified for companies that operate online and digital platforms. In recent years, cyberattacks and technology malfunctions and failures have become increasingly frequent in this sector and have reportedly caused losses to companies in this sector.
Blockchain Related Company Risk. The performance of COIN, and consequently the Fund’s performance, is subject to the risks relating to companies engaged in blockchain related activities. The “blockchain” is a peer to peer, shared, digital ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use blockchain technology to record and secure every transaction. Blockchain technology is new and its uses are in many cases untested or unclear. Blockchain related companies involved in cryptocurrencies may face volatile rates of adoption and face intense competition and potentially rapid product obsolescence. These companies may also have significant exposure to fluctuations in the spot prices of digital assets, particularly to the extent that demand for a service may increase as the spot price of digital assets increase. Many blockchain companies currently operate under less regulatory scrutiny than traditional financial services companies and banks, but there is significant risk that regulatory oversight could increase in the future. Higher levels of regulation could increase costs and adversely impact the current business models of some blockchain related companies and could even result in the outright prohibition of certain business activities. Any further restrictions imposed by governments on crypto-currency related activities may adversely impact blockchain companies. In contrast, a higher level of certainty relating to governmental regulation could serve to enhance the performance of certain blockchain-related companies. In addition, many blockchain companies store sensitive consumer information and could be the target of cybersecurity attacks and other types of theft, which could have a negative impact on these companies. Access to a given blockchain may require a specific cryptographic key (in effect a string of characters granting unique access to initiate transactions related to specific digital assets) or set of keys, the theft, loss, or destruction of which, either by accident or as a result of the efforts of a third-party, could irrevocably impair a claim to the digital assets stored on that blockchain.
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Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of COIN and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of COIN. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to COIN through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
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Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by COIN over the Call Period. This means that if COIN experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform COIN over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by COIN over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by COIN over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of COIN. The degree of participation in COIN gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of COIN, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of COIN and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of COIN changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of COIN. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the COIN will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by COIN.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of COIN and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of COIN will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of COIN, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the COIN share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period COIN had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of COIN and its returns will depend not only on the price of COIN but also on the path that COIN takes over time.
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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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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ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as COIN’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with COIN. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
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Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (COIN), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
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Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Meta Platforms, Inc. (“META”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | % | |||
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | ||||
Other Expenses(1) | % | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | % |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | |||
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Meta Platforms, Inc. (“META”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to META regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of META, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of META, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of META. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of META Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by META. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of META. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in META’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in META
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if META shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if META shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in META. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any META dividends. |
Additional information regarding META is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of META Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of META.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of META) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of META, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of META on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to META, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of META’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where META call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. | Synthetic Long Exposure |
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to META, the Fund will buy META call options and, simultaneously, sell META put options to try to replicate the price movements of META. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of META at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of META for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. | Covered Call Writing |
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on META to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own META, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current META share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the META call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in META’s stock price. If the stock price of META increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if META’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to META and the sold (short) META call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the META stock price beyond a certain point.
3. | U.S. Treasuries |
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on META as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of META stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs META
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of META’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of META, changes in the price of the META options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax META Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All
options are based on the |
Investment Terms | Expected
Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of META at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of META.
If the stock of META increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of META at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by META. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts
|
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of META at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to META equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Meta Platforms, Inc. is an operating company that operates a social technology company. Meta Platforms, Inc. builds technology that helps people connect, find communities and grow businesses. Its products enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality (VR) headsets, wearables, and in-home devices. Meta Platforms, Inc. also helps people cover and learn about what is going on in the world around them, enable people to share their opinions, ideas, photos and videos, and other activities with audiences ranging from their closest family members and friends to the public at large, and stay connected everywhere by accessing its products. Meta Platforms, Inc. is listed on Nasdaq. The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of Meta Platforms, Inc. as of June 30, 2021, was approximately $857 billion based upon the closing price reported for such date on Nasdaq.
Meta Platforms, Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Meta Platforms, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-35551 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
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This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to META or other securities of Meta Platforms, Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Meta Platforms, Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Meta Platforms, 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 Meta Platforms, Inc. (and therefore the price of Meta Platforms, Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Meta Platforms, Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of META.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH Meta Platforms, Inc.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to META. As of the date of the Prospectus, META is assigned to the internet and information services industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
META Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of META. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of META, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of META, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in META Risk. Meta Platforms, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Meta Platforms, Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of META (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
META Trading Risk. The trading price of META may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of META may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Meta Platforms, Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Meta Platforms, Inc. may additionally impact META’s stock price due to Meta Platforms, Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Meta Platforms, Inc. in the past. While Meta Platforms, Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Meta Platforms, Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Meta Platforms, Inc.’s attention and resources. If META trading is halted, trading in Shares of the META Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
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Meta Platforms, Inc. Performance Risk. Meta Platforms, Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of META to decline. Meta Platforms, Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Meta Platforms, Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Meta Platforms, Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Meta Platforms, Inc. could decline significantly.
Communication Services Sector Risk. Communication services companies may be subject to specific risks associated with legislative or regulatory changes, adverse market conditions, intellectual property use and/or increased competition. Communication services companies are particularly vulnerable to rapid advancements in technology, the innovation of competitors, rapid product obsolescence and government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally. Additionally, fluctuating domestic and international demand, shifting demographics and often unpredictable changes in consumer tastes can drastically affect a communication services company’s profitability. While all companies may be susceptible to network security breaches, certain communication services companies may be particular targets of hacking and potential theft of proprietary or consumer information or disruptions in service, which could have a material adverse effect on their businesses.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of META and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of META. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to META through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
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Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by META over the Call Period. This means that if META experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform META over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by META over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by META over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of META. The degree of participation in META gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of META, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of META and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of META changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of META. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the META will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by META.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of META and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of META will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of META, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the META share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period META had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of META and its returns will depend not only on the price of META but also on the path that META takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
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Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as META’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with META. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
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Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (META), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
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Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the Class A common stock of Alphabet Inc. (“GOOGL”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | % | |||
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | ||||
Other Expenses(1) | % | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | % |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | ||
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the Class A common stock of Alphabet Inc. (“GOOGL”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to GOOGL regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of GOOGL, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of GOOGL, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of GOOGL. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of GOOGL Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by GOOGL. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of GOOGL. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in GOOG’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in GOOG
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if GOOGL shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if GOOGL shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in GOOGL. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any GOOGL dividends. |
Additional information regarding GOOGL is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of GOOGL Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of GOOGL.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of GOOG) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of GOOGL, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of GOOGL on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to GOOGL, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of GOOG’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where GOOGL call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. | Synthetic Long Exposure |
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to GOOGL, the Fund will buy GOOGL call options and, simultaneously, sell GOOGL put options to try to replicate the price movements of GOOGL. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of GOOGL at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of GOOGL for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. | Covered Call Writing |
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on GOOGL to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own GOOGL, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current GOOGL share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the GOOGL call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in GOOG’s stock price. If the stock price of GOOGL increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if GOOG’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to GOOGL and the sold (short) GOOGL call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the GOOGL stock price beyond a certain point.
3. | U.S. Treasuries |
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on GOOGL as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of GOOGL stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs GOOG
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of GOOG’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of GOOGL, changes in the price of the GOOGL options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax GOOGL Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All
options are based on the |
Investment Terms | Expected
Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of GOOGL at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of GOOGL.
If the stock of GOOGL increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of GOOGL at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by GOOGL. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts
|
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of GOOGL at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to GOOGL equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Alphabet Inc.
Alphabet Inc. is a holding company of a collection of businesses, the largest of which is Google. Alphabet Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides web-based search, advertisements, maps, software applications, mobile operating systems, consumer content, enterprise solutions, commerce, and hardware products. Alphabet Inc. reports in three segments: (i) Google Services, (ii) Google Cloud, and (iii) Other Bets (all other non-Google businesses). Alphabet Inc. is listed on Nasdaq. As of June 30, 2021, the aggregate market value of shares held by non-affiliates of Alphabet Inc. (based upon the closing sale prices of such shares on Nasdaq on June 30, 2021) was approximately $1,451 billion.
Alphabet Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Alphabet Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-37580 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Alphabet Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
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This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to GOOGL or other securities of Alphabet Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Alphabet Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Alphabet Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Alphabet 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 Alphabet Inc. (and therefore the price of Alphabet Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Alphabet Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of GOOGL.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH Alphabet Inc.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to GOOGL. As of the date of the Prospectus, GOOGL is assigned to the internet and information services industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
GOOGL Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of GOOGL. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of GOOGL, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of GOOGL, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in GOOGL Risk. Alphabet, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Alphabet, Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of GOOGL (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
GOOGL Trading Risk. The trading price of GOOGL may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of GOOGL may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the Class A common stock of Alphabet Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Alphabet Inc. may additionally impact GOOG’s stock price due to Alphabet Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Alphabet Inc. in the past. While Alphabet Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Alphabet Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Alphabet Inc.’s attention and resources. If GOOGL trading is halted, trading in Shares of the GOOGL Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
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Alphabet Inc. Performance Risk. Alphabet Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of GOOGL to decline. Alphabet Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Alphabet Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Alphabet Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Alphabet Inc. could decline significantly.
Communication Services Sector Risk. Communication services companies may be subject to specific risks associated with legislative or regulatory changes, adverse market conditions, intellectual property use and/or increased competition. Communication services companies are particularly vulnerable to rapid advancements in technology, the innovation of competitors, rapid product obsolescence and government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally. Additionally, fluctuating domestic and international demand, shifting demographics and often unpredictable changes in consumer tastes can drastically affect a communication services company’s profitability. While all companies may be susceptible to network security breaches, certain communication services companies may be particular targets of hacking and potential theft of proprietary or consumer information or disruptions in service, which could have a material adverse effect on their businesses.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of GOOGL and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of GOOGL. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to GOOGL through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
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Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by GOOGL over the Call Period. This means that if GOOGL experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform GOOGL over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by GOOGL over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by GOOGL over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of GOOGL. The degree of participation in GOOGL gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of GOOGL, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of GOOGL and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of GOOGL changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of GOOGL. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the GOOGL will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by GOOGL.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of GOOGL and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of GOOGL will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of GOOGL, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the GOOGL share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period GOOGL had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of GOOGL and its returns will depend not only on the price of GOOGL but also on the path that GOOGL takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
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Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as GOOG’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with GOOGL. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
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Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (GOOG), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
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Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Netflix, Inc. (“NFLX”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | |
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses(1) | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Netflix, Inc. (“NFLX”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to NFLX regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of NFLX, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of NFLX, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of NFLX. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of NFLX Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by NFLX. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of NFLX. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in NFLX’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in NFLX
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if NFLX shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if NFLX shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in NFLX. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any NFLX dividends. |
Additional information regarding NFLX is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of NFLX Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of NFLX.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of NFLX) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of NFLX, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of NFLX on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to NFLX, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of NFLX’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where NFLX call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. | Synthetic Long Exposure |
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to NFLX, the Fund will buy NFLX call options and, simultaneously, sell NFLX put options to try to replicate the price movements of NFLX. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of NFLX at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of NFLX for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. | Covered Call Writing |
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on NFLX to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own NFLX, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current NFLX share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the NFLX call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in NFLX’s stock price. If the stock price of NFLX increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if NFLX’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to NFLX and the sold (short) NFLX call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the NFLX stock price beyond a certain point.
3. | U.S. Treasuries |
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on NFLX as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of NFLX stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs NFLX
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of NFLX’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of NFLX, changes in the price of the NFLX options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax NFLX Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All options are based on the value of NFLX) |
Investment Terms | Expected Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of NFLX at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of NFLX.
If the stock of NFLX increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of NFLX at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by NFLX. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts
|
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of NFLX at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to NFLX equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Netflix, Inc.
Netflix, Inc. is an operating company that is one of the world’s leading entertainment services with TV series, documentaries, feature films and mobile games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Netflix, Inc. is a pioneer in the delivery of streaming entertainment. Netflix, Inc. is listed on Nasdaq. As of June 30, 2021 the aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of Netflix, Inc., based upon the closing sales price for the registrant’s common stock, as reported on Nasdaq, was approximately $230 billion.
Netflix, Inc. is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Netflix, Inc. pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 001-35727 through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, information regarding Netflix, Inc. may be obtained from other sources including, but not limited to, press releases, newspaper articles and other publicly disseminated documents.
This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to NFLX or other securities of Netflix, Inc. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Netflix, Inc. from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Netflix, Inc. None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation that such publicly available documents or any other publicly available information regarding Netflix, 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 Netflix, Inc. (and therefore the price of Netflix, Inc. at the time we price the securities) have been publicly disclosed. Subsequent disclosure of any such events or the disclosure of or failure to disclose material future events concerning Netflix, Inc. could affect the value received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
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None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of NFLX.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH Netflix, Inc.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to NFLX. As of the date of the Prospectus, NFLX is assigned to the consumer electronics/video chains industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
NFLX Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of NFLX. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of NFLX, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of NFLX, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in NFLX Risk. Netflix, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Netflix, Inc. but will be exposed to the performance of NFLX (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
NFLX Trading Risk. The trading price of NFLX may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of NFLX may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Netflix, Inc., further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Netflix, Inc. may additionally impact NFLX’s stock price due to Netflix, Inc. garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Netflix, Inc. in the past. While Netflix, Inc. continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Netflix, Inc., or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Netflix, Inc.’s attention and resources. If NFLX trading is halted, trading in Shares of the NFLX Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
Netflix, Inc. Performance Risk. Netflix, Inc. may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of NFLX to decline. Netflix, Inc. provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Netflix, Inc. provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Netflix, Inc.’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Netflix, Inc. could decline significantly.
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Entertainment Industry Risk. The entertainment industry, which is a separate industry within the communication services sector, is highly competitive and relies on consumer spending and the availability of disposable income for success. The prices of the securities of companies in the entertainment industry may fluctuate widely due to competitive pressures, heavy expenses incurred for research and development of products, problems related to bringing products to market, consumer preferences and rapid obsolescence of products. Legislative or regulatory changes and increased government supervision also may affect companies in the entertainment industry.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of NFLX and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of NFLX. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to NFLX through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
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Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by NFLX over the Call Period. This means that if NFLX experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform NFLX over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by NFLX over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by NFLX over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of NFLX. The degree of participation in NFLX gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of NFLX, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of NFLX and the remaining time to the options' expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of NFLX changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of NFLX. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the NFLX will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by NFLX.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of NFLX and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of NFLX will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of NFLX, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the NFLX share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period NFLX had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of NFLX and its returns will depend not only on the price of NFLX but also on the path that NFLX takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as NFLX’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with NFLX. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
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Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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.
Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (NFLX), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.
Tax Risk. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. As a RIC, the Fund will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the portion of its net investment income and net capital gain that it distributes to Shareholders, provided that it satisfies certain requirements of the Code. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed. To comply with the asset diversification test applicable to a RIC, the Fund will attempt to ensure that the value of options it holds is never 25% of the total value of Fund assets at the close of any quarter. If the Fund’s investments in options were to exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at the end of a tax quarter, the Fund, generally, has a grace period to cure such lack of compliance. If the Fund fails to timely cure, it may no longer be eligible to be treated as a RIC.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Management
Investment Adviser: Toroso Investments, LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
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Investment Sub-Adviser. ZEGA Financial, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
Mick Brokaw, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Jay Pestrichelli, Portfolio Manager for the Sub-Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Qiao Duan, CFA, Portfolio Manager for Toroso, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
Charles A. Ragauss, CFA, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2022.
CFA® is a registered trademark owned by the CFA Institute.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only Authorized Participants (Aps) (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.elevateshares.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek current income. The Fund’s secondary investment objective is to seek exposure to the share price of the common stock of Nvidia Corporation (“NVDA”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
Management Fee | |
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses(1) | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
(1) |
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks current income while maintaining the opportunity for exposure to the share price (i.e., the price returns) of the common stock of Nvidia Corporation (“NVDA”), subject to a limit on potential investment gains. The Fund will seek to employ its investment strategy as it relates to NVDA regardless of whether there are periods adverse market, economic, or other conditions and will not seek to take temporary defensive positions during such periods. As further described below, the Fund uses a synthetic covered call strategy to provide income and exposure to the share price returns of NVDA, subject to a limit on potential investment gains as a result of the nature of the options strategy it employs. The Fund’s options contracts provide:
● | exposure to the share price returns of NVDA, |
● | current income from the option premiums, and |
● | a limit on the Fund’s participation in gains, if any, of the share price returns of NVDA. |
For more information, see sections “The Fund’s Use of NVDA Option Contracts” and “Synthetic Covered Call Strategy” below.
The Fund’s investment adviser is Toroso Investments, LLC (“Toroso” or the “Adviser”) and the investment sub-adviser is ZEGA Financial, LLC (“ZEGA” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
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Why invest in the Fund?
● | The Fund seeks to participate in a portion of the gains experienced by NVDA. |
● | The Fund seeks to generate monthly income, which is not dependent on the price appreciation of NVDA. |
That is, although the Fund may not fully participate in gains in NVDA’s stock price, the Fund’s portfolio is designed to generate income.
An Investment in the Fund is not an investment in NVDA
● | The Fund’s strategy will cap its potential gains if NVDA shares increase in value. |
● | The Fund’s strategy is subject to all potential losses if NVDA shares decrease in value, which may not be offset by income received by the Fund. |
● | The Fund does not invest directly in NVDA. |
● | Fund shareholders are not entitled to any NVDA dividends. |
Additional information regarding NVDA is also set forth below.
The Fund’s Use of NVDA Option Contracts
As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy, the Fund will purchase and sell a combination of standardized exchange-traded and FLexible EXchange® (“FLEX”) call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the price returns of NVDA.
● | In general, an option contract gives the purchaser of the option contract the right to purchase (for a call option) or sell (for a put option) the underlying asset (like shares of NVDA) at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | The seller of an option contract obligates the holder to deliver shares (for a sold or “short” call) or buy shares (for a sold or “short” put) of the underlying asset at a specified price (the “strike price”). |
● | Options contracts must be exercised or traded to close within a specified time frame, or they expire. See the chart in section “Fund Portfolio” below for a description of the option contracts utilized by the Fund. |
Standardized exchange-traded options include standardized terms. FLEX options are also exchange-traded, but they allow for customizable terms (e.g., the strike price can be negotiated). For more information on FLEX options, see “Additional Information about the Funds – Exchange Traded Options Portfolio.”
The Fund’s options contracts are based on the value of NVDA, which gives the Fund the right or obligation to receive or deliver shares of NVDA on the expiration date of the applicable option contract in exchange for the stated strike price, depending on whether the option contract is a call option or a put option, and whether the Fund purchases or sells the option contract.
Synthetic Covered Call Strategy
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund will implement a “synthetic covered call” strategy using the standardized exchange-traded and FLEX options described above.
● | A traditional covered call strategy is an investment strategy where an investor (the Fund) sells a call option on an underlying security it owns. |
● | A synthetic covered call strategy is similar to a traditional covered call strategy in that the investor sells a call option that is based on the value of the underlying security. However, in a synthetic covered call strategy, the investor (the Fund) does not own the underlying security, but rather seeks to synthetically replicate 100% of the price movements of the underlying security through the use of various investment instruments. |
The Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy consists of the following three elements, each of which is described in greater detail farther below:
● | Synthetic long exposure to NVDA, which allows the Fund to seek to participate in the changes, up or down, in the price of NVDA’s stock. |
● | Covered call writing (where NVDA call options are sold against the synthetic long portion of the strategy), which allows the Fund to generate income. |
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● | U.S. Treasuries, which are used for collateral for the options, and which also generate income. |
1. | Synthetic Long Exposure |
To achieve a synthetic long exposure to NVDA, the Fund will buy NVDA call options and, simultaneously, sell NVDA put options to try to replicate the price movements of NVDA. The call options purchased by the Fund and the put options sold by the Fund will generally have six-month to one-year terms and strike prices that are approximately equal to the then-current share price of NVDA at the time the contracts are purchased and sold, respectively. The combination of the long call options and sold put options provides the Fund with investment exposure equal to approximately 100% of NVDA for the duration of the applicable options exposure.
2. | Covered Call Writing |
As part of its strategy, the Fund will write (sell) call option contracts on NVDA to generate income. Since the Fund does not directly own NVDA, these written call options will be sold short (i.e., selling a position it does not currently own). The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an expiration of one month or less (the “Call Period”) and a strike price that is approximately 5%-15% above the then-current NVDA share price at the time of such sales.
It is important to note that the sale of the NVDA call option contracts will limit the Fund’s participation in the appreciation in NVDA’s stock price. If the stock price of NVDA increases, the above-referenced synthetic long exposure alone would allow the Fund to experience similar percentage gains. However, if NVDA’s stock price appreciates beyond the strike price of one or more of the sold (short) call option contracts, the Fund will lose money on those short call positions, and the losses will, in turn, limit the upside return of the Fund’s synthetic long exposure. As a result, the Fund’s overall strategy (i.e., the combination of the synthetic long exposure to NVDA and the sold (short) NVDA call positions) will limit the Fund’s participation in gains in the NVDA stock price beyond a certain point.
3. | U.S. Treasuries |
The Fund will hold short-term U.S. Treasury securities as collateral in connection with the Fund’s synthetic covered call strategy.
Fund’s Monthly Distributions
The Fund will seek to provide monthly income in the form of distributions. The Fund will seek to generate such income in the following ways:
● | Writing (selling) call option contracts on NVDA as described above. The income, in the form of option premiums received from such option sales, will be primarily influenced by the volatility of NVDA stock, although other factors, including interest rates, will also impact the level of income. |
● | Investing in short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The income generated by these securities will be influenced by interest rates at the time of investment. |
Fund’s Return Profile vs NVDA
For the reasons stated above, the Fund’s performance will differ from that of NVDA’s stock price. The performance differences will depend on, among other things, the price of NVDA, changes in the price of the NVDA options contracts the Fund has purchased and sold, and changes in the value of the U.S. Treasuries.
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Fund Portfolio
The Fund’s principal holdings are described below:
YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF – Principal Holdings | ||
Portfolio Holdings (All options are based on the value of NVDA) |
Investment Terms | Expected Target Maturity |
Purchased call option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of NVDA at the time of purchase) to provide exposure to positive price returns of NVDA.
If the stock of NVDA increases, these options will generate corresponding increases to the Fund. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold put option contracts
|
“at-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is equal to the then-current share price of NVDA at the time of sale).
They are sold to help pay for the purchased call options described above.
However, the sold put option contracts provide exposure to the full extent of any share price losses experienced by NVDA. |
6-month to one-year expiration dates |
Sold (short) call option contracts
|
“out-of-the-money” (i.e., the strike price is approximately 5%-15% more than the then-current share price of NVDA at the time of sale).
They generate current income. However, they also limit some potential positive returns that the Fund may have otherwise experienced. |
1-month or less expiration dates |
U.S Treasury Securities and Cash |
Multiple series of U.S. Treasury Bills supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
These instruments are used as collateral for the Fund’s derivative investments.
They will also generate income. |
6-month to 2-year maturities |
The market value of the cash and treasuries held by the Fund are expected to be between 50% and 100% of the Fund’s net assets and the market value of the options package is expected to be between 0% and 50% of the Fund’s net assets. The combination of these investment instruments provides investment exposure to NVDA equal to at least 100% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.
Nvidia Corporation
Nvidia Corporation is a technology company that designs graphics processing units (“GPUs”). Nvidia Corporation has created GPU-based visual computing and accelerated computing platforms that address four separate markets: gaming, professional visualization, data center, and automotive. Nvidia Corporation is listed on Nasdaq. The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of Nvidia Corporation as of July 30, 2021 was approximately $467 billion (based on the closing sales price of Nvidia Corporation 's common stock as reported by Nasdaq on July 30, 2021).
Nvidia Corporation is registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Information provided to or filed with the SEC by Nvidia Corporation pursuant to the Exchange Act can be located by reference to the SEC file number 000-23985 through the SEC’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.
This document relates only to the securities offered hereby and does not relate to NVDA or other securities of Nvidia Corporation. The Fund has derived all disclosures contained in this document regarding Nvidia Corporation from the publicly available documents. In connection with the offering of the securities, none of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates has participated in the preparation of such documents or made any due diligence inquiry with respect to Nvidia Corporation None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their 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 Nvidia Corporation (and therefore the price of Nvidia Corporation at the time we price the securities) 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 received with respect to the securities and therefore the value of the securities.
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None of the Fund, the Trust, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates makes any representation to you as to the performance of NVDA.
THE FUND, TRUST, ADVISER, AND SUB-ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH Nvidia Corporation.
Due to the Fund’s investment strategy, the Fund’s investment exposure is concentrated in the same industry as that assigned to NVDA. As of the date of the Prospectus, NVDA is assigned to the semiconductors industry.
The
principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
NVDA Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of NVDA. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of NVDA, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s investments in options contracts that are based on the value of NVDA, the Fund may also be subject to the following risks:
Indirect Investment in NVDA Risk. Nvidia Corporation is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way and has no obligation to consider your Shares in taking any corporate actions that might affect the value of Shares. Investors in the Fund will not have voting rights and will not be able to influence management of Nvidia Corporation. but will be exposed to the performance of NVDA (the underlying stock). Investors in the Fund will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the underlying stock but will be subject to declines in the performance of the underlying stock.
NVDA Trading Risk. The trading price of NVDA may be highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In particular, a large proportion of NVDA may be traded by short sellers which may put pressure on the supply and demand for the common stock of Nvidia Corporation, further influencing volatility in its market price. Public perception and other factors outside of the control of Nvidia Corporation may additionally impact NVDA’s stock price due to Nvidia Corporation garnering a disproportionate degree of public attention, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies such as these. Moreover, stockholder litigation like this has been filed against Nvidia Corporation in the past. While Nvidia Corporation continues to defend such actions, any judgment against Nvidia Corporation, or any future stockholder litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of the management of Nvidia Corporation’s attention and resources. If NVDA trading is halted, trading in Shares of the NVDA Fund may be impacted, either temporarily of indefinitely.
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Nvidia Corporation Performance Risk. Nvidia Corporation may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of NVDA to decline. Nvidia Corporation provides guidance regarding its expected financial and business performance, such as projections regarding sales and production, as well as anticipated future revenues, gross margins, profitability and cash flows. Correctly identifying key factors affecting business conditions and predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and the guidance Nvidia Corporation provides may not ultimately be accurate and has in the past been inaccurate in certain respects, such as the timing of new product manufacturing ramps. The guidance is based on certain assumptions such as those relating to global and local economic conditions, anticipated production and sales volumes (which generally are not linear throughout a given period), average sales prices, supplier and commodity costs, and planned cost reductions. If Nvidia Corporation’s guidance is not accurate or varies from actual results due to its inability to meet the assumptions or the impact on its financial performance that could occur as a result of various risks and uncertainties, the market value of common stock issued by Nvidia Corporation could decline significantly.
NVDA’s accelerated computing platforms address four large markets: Gaming, Data Center, Professional Visualization, and Automotive. These markets experience rapid changes in technology, customer requirements, new product introductions and enhancements, and industry standards.
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.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the value of NVDA and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested. In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. For the Fund in particular, the value of the options contracts in which it invests are substantially influenced by the value of NVDA. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate at the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain exposure to NVDA through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses.
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Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members. In cleared derivatives positions, the Fund will make payments (including margin payments) to and receive payments from a clearing house through their accounts at clearing members. Customer funds held at a clearing organization in connection with any options contracts are held in a commingled omnibus account and are not identified to the name of the clearing member’s individual customers. As a result, assets deposited by the Fund with any clearing member as margin for options may, in certain circumstances, be used to satisfy losses of other clients of the Fund’s clearing member. In addition, although clearing members guarantee performance of their clients’ obligations to the clearing house, there is a risk that the assets of the Fund might not be fully protected in the event of the clearing member’s bankruptcy, as the Fund would be limited to recovering only a pro rata share of all available funds segregated on behalf of the clearing member’s customers for the relevant account class. The Fund is also subject to the risk that a limited number of clearing members are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf, which heightens the risks associated with a clearing member’s default. This risk is greater for the Fund as it seeks to hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts, which may limit the number of clearing members that are willing to transact on the Fund’s behalf. If a clearing member defaults the Fund could lose some or all of the benefits of a transaction entered into by the Fund with the clearing member. If the Fund cannot find a clearing member to transact with on the Fund’s behalf, the Fund may be unable to effectively implement its investment strategy.
Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by NVDA over the Call Period. This means that if NVDA experiences an increase in value above the strike price of the sold call options during a Call Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and may significantly underperform NVDA over the Call Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in increases in value experienced by NVDA over each Call Period, but has full exposure to any decreases in value experienced by NVDA over the Call Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given time period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the performance of NVDA. The degree of participation in NVDA gains the Fund will experience will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold call option contracts and will vary from Call Period to Call Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of NVDA, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of NVDA and the remaining time to the options' expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the price of NVDA changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Call Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of NVDA. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact of the potential options contract income on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the price of the NVDA will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than that experienced by NVDA.
Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current monthly income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given month. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, the monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
NAV Erosion Risk Due to Distributions. When the Fund makes a distribution, the Fund’s NAV will typically drop by the amount of the distribution on the related ex-dividend date. The repeated payment of distributions by the Fund, if any, may significantly erode the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.
Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of NVDA and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer time periods. If, for example, each month the Fund were to sell 7% out-of-the-money call options having a one-month term, the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of NVDA will be capped at 7% in any given month. However, over a longer period (e.g., 5 months), the Fund should not be expected to participate fully in the first 35% (i.e., 5 months x 7%) of the positive price returns of NVDA, or the Fund may even lose money, even if the NVDA share price has appreciated by at least that much over such period, if during any month over that period NVDA had a return less than 7%. This example illustrates that both the Fund’s participation in the positive price returns of NVDA and its returns will depend not only on the price of NVDA but also on the path that NVDA takes over time.
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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 issuers of securities in which the Fund invests or the Fund’s third-party service providers, such as its administrator, transfer agent, custodian, or sub-advisor, as applicable, can also subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. Although the Fund has established risk management systems designed to reduce the risks associated with cyber security, 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.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. Additionally, there may be brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that may be imposed on the Fund in connection with a cash redemption that may not have occurred if the Fund had made a redemption in-kind. These costs could decrease the value of the Fund to the extent they are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. In managing the Fund’s investment portfolio, the portfolio managers will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not produce the desired result. There can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
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Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for the Shares will develop or be maintained or that the Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. This risk may be greater for the Fund as it seeks to have exposure to a single underlying stock as opposed to a more diverse portfolio like a traditional pooled investment. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. Shares trade on the Exchange at market price that may be below, at or above the Fund’s NAV. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. In the event of an unscheduled market close for options contracts that reference a single stock, such as NVDA’s securities being halted or a market wide closure, settlement prices will be determined by the procedures of the listing exchange of the options contracts. As a result, the Fund could be adversely affected and be unable to implement its investment strategies in the event of an unscheduled closing.
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses. Frequent trading may also cause adverse tax consequences for investors in the Fund due to an increase in short-term capital gains.
Infectious Illness Risk. An outbreak of an infectious respiratory illness, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus has resulted in travel restrictions, disruption of healthcare systems, prolonged quarantines, cancellations, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer demand, layoffs, ratings downgrades, defaults and other significant economic impacts. Certain markets have experienced temporary closures, extreme volatility, severe losses, reduced liquidity and increased trading costs. These events will have an impact on the Fund and its investments and could impact the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell securities or cause elevated tracking error and increased premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV. Other infectious illness outbreaks in the future may result in similar impacts.
Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. This risk is greater for the Fund as it will hold options contracts on a single security, and not a broader range of options contracts. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions, such as market rules related to short sales, may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with NVDA. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments, including money market funds, may lose money through fees or other means.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
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Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational 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 relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund, Adviser, and Sub-Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
Recent Market Events Risk. U.S. and international markets have experienced significant periods of volatility in recent years and months due to a number of economic, political and global macro factors including the impact of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, which has resulted in a public health crisis, disruptions to business operations and supply chains, stress on the global healthcare system, growth concerns in the U.S. and overseas, staffing shortages and the inability to meet consumer demand, and widespread concern and uncertainty. The global recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at slower than expected rates due to the emergence of variant strains and may last for an extended period of time. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. As a result 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, inc