Toroso launches ‘anti-woke’ US equity ETF

Toroso Investments has launched a new actively managed US equity ETF that explicitly avoids companies with political or social agendas that are unrelated to their business operations.

The God Bless America ETF (YALL US) has been listed on NYSE Arca with an expense ratio of 0.65%.

The fund, which is sub-advised by Curran Financial Partners, invests in US-listed securities of companies with market capitalizations in excess of $1 billion.

Through analyzing regulatory filings, company communications, and related media reports, Curran screens out companies that it believes to have emphasized political activism and social agendas at the expense of maximizing shareholder returns.

For example, firms that make public statements about current political hot-button items unrelated to their business (such as companies that issue press releases in response to US Supreme Court rulings) will be ineligible for inclusion.

In particular, the fund seems to be aimed at the political right as its prospectus notes that Curran’s screening process eliminates companies that emphasized politically left and/or liberal political activism.

From the remaining pool of securities, Curran seeks to construct a portfolio of 30 to 40 companies with all 11 GICS sectors being represented. Stock selection is driven by well-recognized valuation metrics such as relative dividend yields and price-to-earnings ratios, while Curran will also favour firms with a track record of creating American jobs and incurring capital expenditures within the US.

Constituents will typically be weighted in line with the relative market capitalizations of the 11 GICS sectors.