Hurricane Beryl Sets Stage for FIXT ETF
An ETF that invests in natural disaster lifecycles.
With Hurricane Beryl making landfall along the Texas coast early Monday, the economic impact could ultimately benefit investors in ETFs exposed to industries called upon for various disaster recovery efforts.
At least one ETF, the Procure Disaster Recovery Strategy ETF (FIXT) was designed with natural disasters in mind.
With a June 2022 launch timed to the start of hurricane season, FIXT tracks an index of companies engaged before, during and after natural disasters.
Beyond just the obvious big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, which are in the ETF, FIXT is populated with “the kinds of companies that tend to get FEMA contracts,” said Andrew Chanin, chief executive officer of ProcureAM, the Levittown, Pa.-based ETF issuer.
The ETF, which has waived its 75-basis point expense ratio through October, has less than $3 million despite a respectable 12-month return of 24.5%.
Beryl Puts FIXT in Focus
Chanin said the genesis for FIXT dates to his experience as a student at Tulane University in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and then living in New York when Tropical Storm Sandy hit in 2012.
He talks about the “lifecycle of natural disasters” and the planning and engineering that can come into play. From having powerlines installed below ground to the construction of seawalls, Chanin said FIXT is a longer-term, bigger-picture investing strategy.
Contrary to a fund like the Direxion Daily Homebuilders & Supplies Bull 3X Shares (NAIL), which is an aggressive bet on resources that will be spent to rebuild storm-ravaged areas, FIXT veers closer to the environmental, social and governance investing category.
Chanin acknowledges that but adds that FIXT is less about feeling good than it is about investing in practical solutions.
“The thinking here is when my house is under 10-feet of water I don’t care that I’m banking with a low-carbon bank,” he said. “This isn’t saying the world is going into a massive temperature, climate and natural disaster era like never seen before, but the reality is we’ve amassed more assets and put them in coastal areas that are at risk of natural disasters.”