ProShares Launches ‘Transformational Change’ ETF

Today, ProShares rolled out an ETF focused on paradigm shifts in how we work and live, largely caused or accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. The ProShares MSCI Transformational Changes ETF (ANEW) focuses on four areas of “transformational change”: the future of work, the digital consumer, the food revolution and genomics & telehealth.

The fund comes with an expense ratio of 0.45% and lists on the NYSE Arca.

“Consider the big picture: use of commercial robots almost tripled to 2.7 million over the past decade, the cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped 99% in 15 years, and e-commerce grew at an annualized rate of 82% in 2020—these are dramatic changes,” said ProShares’ Executive Director of Thematic Investing Scott Helfstein.

About The ETF

The fund tracks an index from MSCI that uses artificial intelligence to select components. Companies are given a relevance score that is based on keyword searches related to the ETF’s four core areas of focus, with the highest scoring companies selected for the index. Each of the four groups is weighted at 25% and weights are based on a company’s relevance score and market capitalization, according to the prospectus.

As of the beginning of June, the index included 144 securities. At launch, the largest components were Deere, Apple and Alibaba. The fund is dominated by the U.S., which has a weighting of nearly 77% in the index, with China at 7.63% and Switzerland at 4.05%.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]