Cambria Investments, begun trading a new Tail Risk ETF, the Cambria Tail Risk ETF (Bats: TAIL), on Thursday, April 06, 2017. Here is a synopsis of the new ETF:

FUND INFORMATION:

FUND OBJECTIVE:
The Cambria Tail Risk ETF is an actively managed fund which seeks to provide income and capital appreciation from investments in the U.S. market while protecting against significant downside risk.
The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in cash and U.S. government bonds, and utilizing a put option strategy to manage the risk of a significant negative movement in the value of domestic equities (commonly referred to as tail risk) over rolling one-month periods. To hedge against sharp declines in the U.S. stock market, each month, the Fund purchases U.S. exchange-listed protective “out of the money” put options on U.S. stock indices. The Fund’s investment adviser, Cambria Investment Management, L.P., intends to spend approximately 1% of the Fund’s total assets per month to purchase put options. Cambria generally targets put options in the 0% to 30% out of the money range. Buying a put option provides the purchaser the right to sell the underlying index to the put seller at a specified price within a specified time period. There is an associated cost (premium), but in the event the underlying index declines in value, ownership of the put may reduce the downside risk. In the event the market rises, the cost of the option might be lost. For example, if the Fund purchases a put option on the S&P 500 Index (SPX Put), the Fund pays a premium to the option seller, which decreases the Fund’s return. If, however, the value of the S&P 500 Index falls below the SPX Put’s strike price, the option finishes “in-the-money” and the option seller pays the Fund the difference between the strike price and the value of the S&P 500 Index. By employing the put option strategy, the Adviser seeks growth with reduced volatility as compared to the cash and U.S. bonds.

The Adviser has implemented the put option strategy to attempt to provide protection from significant market declines on a month-by-month basis. The bulk of this protection comes in the form of put options on indices that track the performance of U.S. equity securities. The Adviser generally intends to re-initiate new options positions that make up the put option position each month and reinvest any gains from these activities into U.S. bonds. The Adviser also may, at its discretion, liquidate and establish new option positions intra-month, or liquidate option positions without establishing new positions. The put option strategy only includes exchange-listed put options.

Fund Top Holdings (04/20/17):

Useful Links:
TAIL Home Page