Everyday British investors will for the first time be able to invest in Cathie Woods’s Ark and Warren Buffet’s best-known funds for a fraction of the price.
London-based provider Leverage Shares has today launched a suite of exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext, providing access to the strategies.
It brings the total number of its ETPs, which track popular stocks like Tesla, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, to 145.
Investors can now bet on or against three of Cathie Woods’ Ark Invest funds
Among the products making their debut today are three of Woods’ Ark Investor funds: the $12.2billion Innovation, $3billion Next Generation Internet and $4billion Genomic Revolution strategies.
The investment firm, which was launched in 2014 by Woods, has made aggressive bets on disruptive tech firms, not least Tesla, but is facing pressure as some of its holdings slip amid the looming prospect of rising interest rates.
Ark’s Innovation ETF has generated average annual gains of around 40 per cent over the past five years but is down 25 per cent this year.
The Next Generation and Genomic Revolution funds are down 14 and 36 per cent respectively.
Professionals can already bet against Ark using derivatives but the new Leveraged Shares products will give retail investors the chance to bet on or against Woods’ firm. The funds are available in either short, neutral or leveraged formats.
Alongside the Ark products, Leverage Shares is launching 42 ETPs on the London Stock Exchange, covering growth areas like healthcare, airlines and financials at an entry point of £5.
Among these include a Berkshire Hathaway product, giving investors the chance to invest in Buffet’s firm for a fraction of the $430,000 price it is currently trading at.
Those who are particularly bullish on Buffet’s investments can invest in the 2x Long Berkshire Hathaway strategy.
‘At Leverage Shares we are determined to democratise access to some of the biggest and most successful businesses in the investment universe,’ said chief operating officer Dr Dobormir Kamburov.
‘For this reason, we have pursued an offering of trackers that give investors partial shares in a security. We already have these on offer for big names such as Tesla, Netflix and Microsoft and wanted to add some diversification to big tech through Berkshire Hathaway, some healthcare names, airlines and other growth stock trackers.’
The new tracker ETPs will invest in physical shares in the US-listed ETFs and will charge fees of 0.35 per cent for single stock, unleveraged products and 0.75 per cent for short and leveraged ETPs.
