The Canadian ETF Industry reached a new record high of $178.7-billion in assets under management at the end of April. Three new ETFs were added to the product line during the month.
APRIL ETF LAUNCHES:
With the reintroduction of the STATES Act in the United States, which would protect states’ rights to determine their own policies on marijuana and limit cannabis prohibition at the federal level, cannabis investing is at another turning point. Two ETF providers want to exploit this untapped market by introducing U.S. Marijuana ETFs.
Evolve ETFs launched the Evolve U.S. Marijuana ETF (“USMJ”). USMJ seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation by actively investing in a diversified mix of equity securities of issuers that are involved in the U.S. marijuana industry where state and local laws regulate and permit such activities. Evolve ETFs’ other marijuana-focused fund, the Evolve Marijuana Fund (“SEED”), was Canada’s Top Performing Equity ETF listed on the TSX over the past year with one year total return of 71.37%1 as of April 30, 2019.
After launching the world’s first marijuana ETF, which attracted over $920-million in assets under management, Horizons ETFs added to the suite of Cannabis-focused ETFs with the introduction of the Horizons U.S. Marijuana Index ETF (“HMUS”). HMUS seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the U.S. Marijuana Companies Index. The underlying index is designed to provide exposure to the performance of a basket of North American publicly-listed life sciences companies having significant business activities in, or significant exposure to, the United States marijuana or hemp industries. The ETF is also available in U.S. dollar under the ticker HMUS.U.
Both the Evolve U.S. Marijuana ETF and the Horizons U.S. Marijuana Index ETF trade on Aequitas NEO Exchange.