An exchange-traded fund whose strategy was to track the stock picks of CNBC commentator Jim Cramer is throwing in the towel, having failed to attract investors.
The Long Cramer Tracker ETF (LJIM), from Tuttle Capital Management, will cease trading on Sept. 11, the brokerage said in a press release. The move comes after the fund attracted just $1.3 million in assets.
Since its debut in March, the fund has seen gains of only 2.2%.
While the shutdown of the Long Cramer Tracker ETF will make it harder for people to bet with Cramer, those who want to bet against the personality will still be able to buy into Tuttle’s Inverse Cramer Tracker ETF (SJIM).
That ETF is actually doing worse than the Long Cramer Tracker (it’s down about 4.4% since launch), but Tuttle said the whole point of the Long Cramer Tracker was to capture the TV personality’s attention, something it has failed to do.
“We started LJIM in order to facilitate a conversation with Jim Cramer around his stock picks as the other side to the short Cramer ETF,” said Matthew Tuttle, the fund’s advisor, in a statement. “Unfortunately, Mr. Cramer and CNBC have been unwilling to engage in dialogue and instead have chosen to ignore the funds. Therefore there is no reason to keep the long side going. Going forward we will just focus on the short side.”
The Long Cramer Tracker’s performance has been boosted by investments in Nvidia, whose stock hit all-time highs in early trading Thursday.
Tuttle is a bit of a rogue in the ETF world. Beyond his Cramer-focused funds, he also runs the AXS Short Innovation Daily ETF, which bets against Cathie Wood’s picks.