Mike Loukas - TrueShares

In a recent episode of Behind the Ticker, Mike Loukas, CEO of TrueShares, shared insights into the firm’s journey and the unique approach behind their ETFs, including their latest launches, QBUL and QBER. Loukas, with over 30 years of experience in the financial industry, founded TrueMark Investments in 2019 with the purpose of establishing TrueShares as a solutions-based ETF platform. TrueShares aims to take traditional active strategies and institutional hedging techniques and incorporate them into ETFs that offer investors smarter portfolio construction tools.

Loukas explained that TrueShares’ ETF lineup started with fundamental active management products and expanded to include thematic and structured outcome ETFs. Their defined outcome or buffered ETFs have been popular among investors seeking downside protection while maintaining exposure to equity growth. Most recently, the firm launched QBUL and QBER, two quarterly resetting hedged equity ETFs designed to offer principal protection with directional market exposure.

QBUL aims to capture market gains beyond a 5% threshold within a quarter while maintaining treasury-level downside protection. In contrast, QBER generates positive returns when the market drops by more than 5%. Both funds use a structure where principal is invested in treasuries, and the yield is used to purchase out-of-the-money call options (for QBUL) or put options (for QBER). This approach ensures low risk exposure with the potential for asymmetric returns based on market movements.

Loukas highlighted the flexibility of these ETFs within a portfolio, explaining that they can be used as standalone investments or blended with other asset classes to create diversified, risk-adjusted strategies. Advisors can use QBUL in bullish markets to enhance upside potential while maintaining principal security, and QBER in bearish markets to hedge against significant declines without taking on the risks associated with shorting the market.