ETF Launches: SPRX

FEATURED ETF
SPRX  New fund has echoes of ARK’s flagship ETF, but with an industrial focus.

In early August, an ETF newcomer launched a fund that has echoes of ARK’s disruptive innovation focus, with some key differences. The SPEAR Alpha ETF (SPRX) relies heavily on in-house research and analysis to select companies that seem likely to “benefit from breakthrough innovation in industrial technology,” according to its prospectus, or that could “transform” the industrial sector.

SPRX comes with an expense ratio of 0.75% and lists on the Nasdaq stock market.

Basically, the fund is looking for disruptive innovation opportunities in the industrial sector, with the categories including environmental focus and decarbonization; manufacturing digitalization; robotics and industrial automation; photonics and additive manufacturing; space exploration; and artificial intelligence.

“Although SPRX invests in innovative industrial technologies, we believe the real value comes from finding under-the-radar opportunities across the supply chain,” Ivana Delevska, SPEAR Invest’s founder and SPRX’s manager, said in a press release.

SPRX’s universe includes about 120 securities that fall under the identified themes. From there, the firm looks at aspects like competitive positioning, financial performance, management quality and ESG criteria to winnow the securities down to a high-conviction portfolio of roughly 25 holdings. Notably, SPRX only held three components in common with the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) when it launched.

Source: ETF.com. Data and information as of 8/31/2021.
The above sidebar covers launches and closures for the month of August 2021.