Ramaswamy’s Strive Launches ‘FAANG’ ETF, With Gold, Fuel Focus

Strive expects a poorer, less connected and more dangerous world.

Strive Asset Management, the financial firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, launched an ETF that invests in stock themes such as deglobalization, inflation and geopolitical tension. 

The Ohio-based firm launched the Strive FAANG 2.0 ETF (FTWO), repurposing the FAANG title that usually stands for “Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google” and instead applying it to “Fuel, Aerospace, Agriculture, Nuclear and Gold.” The firm is betting those industries will do well over the next 20 years of investing.  

Strive is basing the fund on three trends: a decrease in international trade, annual inflation averaging about 4% and increased international tensions. Each is meant to boost one or more of FTWO’s investing themes in the next two decades, just as low interest rates and the rise of the internet propelled the original FAANG stocks over the past 20 years. 

“Deglobalization increases costs, which leads to inflation, and lowered trade makes nations rely on each other less, leading to more geopolitical tensions,” Strive CEO and Chief Investment Officer Matt Cole said in an interview. 

Ramaswamy’s Strive and Fossil Fuel Demand 

Cole believes growing fossil fuel demand and underinvestment have created a “supply crunch” that will create higher inflation and profits for oil and gas companies. As prices rise, Cole said agriculture stocks will benefit because people will always need to eat, and thus these firms can pass on costs effectively. 

Aerospace and defense specifically would profit from increased government spending if geopolitical tensions rise. According to Cole, inflation will drive demand for new energy sources. He said this will benefit nuclear power stocks, which he believes provide the most scalable clean energy source.  

Finally, Cole contended that gold mining stocks will get a boost due to the demand for gold jumping during periods of higher inflation and fear, the latter heightened by strained relations between states.  

The fund has an expense ratio of 0.49% and will be Strive’s 11th ETF. The firm’s other 10 funds have slightly less than $1 billion in assets among them and an average expense ratio of 0.28%. 

 
Contact Gabe Alpert at [email protected]