The Anti-Woke “God Bless America” ETF Just Launched

Yet another ETF launched this week, adding to a total of what feels like millions of new ETFs coming online each year. This one, trading under the symbol “YALL”, is called the “God Bless America” ETF.

The “anti-woke” ETF, being led by Portfolio Manager Adam Curran, will exclude companies that lean left politically. It started trading on the New York Stock Exchange this week. 

It marks the first ETF we have seen with an a clear message to “woke” companies and businesses that choose to publicly lean left politically.

Its prospectus, under “Investment Strategy”, reads: “From the initial investment universe, the Sub-Adviser eliminates companies that, in the Sub-Adviser’s assessment, have emphasized politically left and/or liberal political activism and social agendas at the expense of maximizing shareholder returns.”

The prospectus continues: “To determine whether a company emphasizes politically left and/or liberal political activism and social agendas the Sub-Adviser analyzes articles, websites, newspaper advertisements, press releases, TV appearances, other forms of mass communication and comments made by company spokespersons.”

“The Sub-Adviser will avoid investing in companies that make left-leaning public statements about political issues unrelated to the company’s business,” it continues.

The fund even has its own MAGA-esque-looking logo. 

Once a company clears the political hurdle, the fund then uses relatively simple valuation metrics to invest:

“In addition to evaluating a company’s political activity, the Sub-Adviser also analyzes information from company regulatory filings (e.g., annual reports), and evaluates each candidate company’s investment potential by analyzing well-recognized stock valuation metrics (e.g., relative dividend yields and price-to-earnings ratios). The Sub-Adviser will focus on companies with low price-to-earnings ratios (relative to industry peers) that have a multi-year track record of job growth.”

The fund will have about 30 to 40 companies and plans on investing “at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities listed on U.S. exchanges.”

The prospectus reads: “The Fund’s portfolio will, under normal market conditions, include securities from each of the following eleven market sectors: Energy, Materials, Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Health Care, Financials, Information Technology, Real Estate, Communication Services, and Utilities. The Fund’s portfolio holdings will generally be weighted in line with the market capitalization of the preceding market sectors relative to the Fund’s overall investment universe.”

LAUNCHING TODAY: The God Bless America ETF $YALL, which screens out cos that “have emphasized politically left and/or liberal political activism and social agendas” then filters for cos that have low PE ratios and multi-year job growth. Fee 65bps. Here’s the holdings: pic.twitter.com/5qFzhzOgdK

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 11, 2022