Kevin Paffrath, a 30-year-old real estate broker, investment advisor, and Youtube influencer, has introduced an actively managed ETF on NYSE Arca.
Paffrath’s Youtube channel “Meet Kevin” offers a mix of real estate and general investment advice and boasts more than 1.8 million subscribers.
The channel’s most popular videos are currently “How to Buy Your First Rental Property (Noob vs Pro)”, 1.9 million views; “How to Retire in 7 Years Starting w/ $100 [The Rule of 200]”, 1.6 million views; and “How I Turned $10,500 into $210,000 at 19 (in 90 days) [Beginner Real Estate]”, also 1.6 million views.
While Kevin Paffrath has a devoted following, he has also drawn criticism, most notably for promoting the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX for which he received compensation.
FTX, which was valued at around $32 billion at the start of November, completely imploded over a period of ten days with the firm filing for bankruptcy protection on 11 November. The catalyst of FTX’s downfall was a report highlighting potential leverage and solvency concerns which led to a liquidity crisis on the exchange as customers rapidly tried to withdraw their money.
The ETF
The Meet Kevin Pricing Power ETF (PP US), which has been brought to market in partnership with Toroso Investments, invests primarily in US-listed companies developing and utilizing disruptive technologies to displace mature industries.
Disruptive technology has been one of the most popular investment themes for ETF product developers in recent years. Themes that fit this profile typically include artificial intelligence, autonomous and electric vehicles, climate change technologies, cloud computing, cybersecurity, e-commerce, online education, fintech, 5G and the internet of things, healthcare innovation, robotics, artificial intelligence, social media, and video games and e-sports, among others.
The ETF seeks out companies aligned with disruptive technology themes such as these, investing in firms that are considered to possess significant pricing power compared to their competitors.
According to the fund’s prospectus, the ETF may also invest up to 30% of its assets in ETFs that are designed to offer protection against certain macroeconomic risks such as inflation or interest rates.
The ETF comes with an expense ratio of 0.77%.