SUBJECT TO
COMPLETION
Dated April 25, 2025
THE INFORMATION HEREIN IS NOT COMPLETE AND MAY BE CHANGED. WE MAY NOT SELL THESE SECURITIES UNTIL THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT FILED WITH THE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION IS EFFECTIVE. THIS PROSPECTUS IS NOT AN OFFER TO SELL THESE SECURITIES AND IS NOT SOLICITING AN OFFER TO BUY THESE SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE OFFER OR SALE IS NOT PERMITTED.

Defiance 2X Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF ([QPUX])
listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC
PROSPECTUS
[ ], 2025
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has not approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The Fund seeks daily leveraged investment results and is intended to be used as a short-term trading vehicle.
The Fund attempts to provide daily investment results that correspond to two times (200%) the share price performance of an actively-managed group of equity securities (the “Target Portfolio”).
The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. The Fund is very different from most mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Investors should note that:
(1) The Fund pursues a daily leveraged investment objective, which means that the Fund is riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund magnifies the performance of the Target Portfolio.
(2) Seeking to replicate the daily leveraged performances of the Target Portfolio’s market value means that the return of the Fund for a period longer than a full trading day will be the product of a series of daily returns for each trading day during such period held.
As a consequence, especially in periods of market volatility, the volatility of the market value of the Target Portfolio may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the Target Portfolio’s return. The performance of the Fund for periods longer or shorter than a single day will very likely differ in amount, and possibly even direction, from 200% of the daily return of the Target Portfolio’s market value for the same period, before accounting for fees and expenses. The Fund may not perform as expected.
The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by sophisticated investors, such as traders and active investors employing dynamic strategies. Investors in the Fund should:
(a) understand the risks associated with the use of leverage;
(b) understand the consequences of seeking daily leveraged investment results; and
(c) intend to actively monitor and manage their investments.
Investors who do not understand the Fund, or do not intend to actively manage their funds and monitor their investments, should not buy shares of the Fund.
There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective and an investment in the Fund could lose a substantial amount of money over a short period of time. The Fund is not a complete investment program.
The Fund’s investment adviser will not attempt to position the Fund’s derivatives portfolio to ensure that the Fund does not gain or lose more than a maximum percentage of its net asset value on a given trading day.
As a consequence, if the Target Portfolio’s market value decreases by more than 50% on a given trading day, the Fund’s investors could lose all of their money.
DEFIANCE 2X DAILY LONG PURE QUANTUM ETF – FUND SUMMARY
Important Information About the Fund
The Defiance 2X Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF (the “Fund”) seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2X) the performance of an actively-managed group of generally between five and ten “pure quantum” company securities (described below) for a single day (the group of equity securities is referred to as the “Target Portfolio”). Each trading day, the Target Portfolio is generally rebalanced to ensure equal weighting of its underlying securities. At least quarterly, the Target Portfolio is either reaffirmed or replaced with a new portfolio of different underlying securities.
Because the Fund seeks daily leveraged investment results, it is very different from most other exchange-traded funds. It is also riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage.
The return for investors that invest for periods longer or shorter than a trading day should not be expected to be 2x of the performance of the Target Portfolio for the period. The return of the Fund for a period longer than a trading day will be the result of each trading day’s compounded return during such period held, which will very likely differ from 2x the return of the Target Portfolio for that period. Holding shares of the Fund for longer than a single day and higher volatility of the Target Portfolio increase the impact of compounding on an investor’s returns, which may have a negative or positive impact on an investor’s returns. During periods of higher Target Portfolio volatility, the volatility of the Target Portfolio may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of the Target Portfolio. The impact of compounding will impact each shareholder differently depending on the period of time an investment in the Fund is held and the volatility of the Target Portfolio during a shareholder’s holding period of an investment in the Fund. See “Principal Investment Risks – Compounding and Market Volatility Risk” below for an example of how volatility of the Target Portfolio may affect the Fund’s return as much as, or more than, the return of the Target Portfolio.
The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged (2x) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage, and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if the Target Portfolio’s performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if the Target Portfolio’s market value increases over a period longer than a single day. An investor could lose the full principal value of his/her investment within a single day.
Investment Objective
The Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2X) the performance of an actively-managed group of ““pure quantum” company securities (described below) for a single day (the group of equity securities is referred to as the “Target Portfolio”).
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
| Annual Fund Operating Expenses(1) (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||
| Management Fee | [ ] | % | ||
| Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | None | |||
| Other Expenses(2) | [ ] | % | ||
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(3) | [ ] | % |
| (1) | The Fund’s investment adviser, Tidal Investments LLC (the “Adviser”), a Tidal Financial Group company, will pay all expenses incurred by the Fund (except for advisory fees ) excluding interest charges on any borrowings made for investment purposes, dividends and other expenses on securities sold short, taxes, brokerage commissions and other expenses incurred in placing orders for the purchase and sale of securities and other investment instruments, acquired fund fees and expenses, accrued deferred tax liability, distribution fees and expenses paid by the Fund under any distribution plan adopted pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), and litigation expenses and other non-routine or extraordinary expenses. |
| (2) | Based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year. |
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| (3) | The cost of investing in swaps, including the embedded cost of the swap and the operating expenses of the referenced assets, is an indirect expense that is not included in the above fee table and is not reflected in the expense example. |
Expense Example
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then hold or redeem all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years |
| $[ ] | $[ ] |
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund is newly organized, portfolio turnover information is not yet available.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks daily leveraged investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2X) the performance of an actively managed group of “pure quantum” company securities (described below)(the “Target Portfolio”). The Fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day. The terms “daily,” “day,” and “trading day,” refer to the period from the close of the markets on one trading day to the close of the markets on the next trading day, generally 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The Fund seeks to gain leveraged 2X exposure to the Target Portfolio securities primarily through swap agreements or listed options strategies (described below).
The Fund defines “pure quantum” company securities as equity securities of companies that demonstrate a core commitment to quantum computing technologies. This includes companies engaged in:
| ● | The development of quantum hardware and software solutions; |
| ● | Advancing communication systems leveraging quantum principles; |
| ● | Innovating technologies enabling quantum and traditional computational interactions; or |
| ● | Producing enabling components, such as quantum sensors or advanced quantum materials. |
The term “quantum computing” refers to a type of computing that uses the principles of physics involving subatomic particles to process information faster and in more flexible ways than traditional computers. In traditional computing, a bit is limited to storing only a zero or a one, while a subatomic particle can store and process an infinite number of values at the same time, allowing it to solve large and complex problems much faster By taking advantage of quantum properties like superposition (the ability of a quantum system to exist in multiple states at once) and entanglement (a connection between particles where the state of one instantly influences the state of another, even at a distance), quantum computers may lead to progress in a wide range of fields, including data security, scientific research, advanced manufacturing, and next-generation technologies.
If the Fund is unable to obtain the necessary exposure to the pure quantum securities through swaps or other derivatives, or encounters other constraints (e.g., market or regulatory), the Fund may not always achieve investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2x) the daily performance of the Target Portfolio, and may return substantially less during such periods.
Target Portfolio Selection
The Adviser employs a thematic and qualitative approach to identify and select a focused portfolio of generally between 5 and 10 companies aligned with the Fund’s quantum computing investment theme. The selection process emphasizes companies that demonstrate meaningful participation in the quantum computing technologies and adjacent fields, prioritizing innovation and leadership within this emerging sector.
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The Adviser evaluates companies using a combination of thematic criteria, including:
| ● | Core Quantum Activities: Companies must identify quantum computing as a primary operational focus, demonstrated through stated objectives, product development efforts, or industry collaborations. |
| ● | Industry Leadership: Emphasis is placed on companies recognized for innovation, ownership of significant patents, or participation in prominent quantum computing research and development initiatives. |
| ● | Emerging Potential: Priority is given to companies achieving substantial advancements or demonstrating momentum in quantum computing applications, reflecting their potential for a growing impact within the industry. |
| ● | Secondary Technology Companies: If there are insufficient pure quantum computing companies that meet the criteria, additional technology firms involved in the development, support, or application of quantum computing may be included as secondary selections. |
Based on a proprietary evaluation framework, the Adviser constructs the Fund’s portfolio with generally between 5 and 10 holdings. The Fund invests in derivative instruments that provide exposure to the securities that comprise the Target Portfolio, and does not invest directly in the securities of the Target Portfolio companies. The number of Fund portfolio holdings may be influenced by the availability of eligible pure quantum companies, the suitability of secondary selections, and on the Fund’s ability to source the required leverage for each security. Each trading day, the Target Portfolio will generally be rebalanced so that each underlying security is equally weighted. To manage overall portfolio risk, the Adviser may adjust individual weightings to mitigate exposure to securities exhibiting extreme volatility, high correlations, or other characteristics that could disproportionately affect performance. Additionally, if regulatory constraints arise from the Target Portfolio’s composition prevent the Fund’s derivatives portfolio from achieving 2X returns, the Adviser may adjust the Target Portfolio to enhance the Fund’s ability to achieve its investment objective.
The Fund generally employs an equal-weighting methodology across its holdings. Adjustments may be made to account for liquidity constraints, market conditions, or specific company risk factors.
To maintain alignment with advancements in quantum computing technologies, shifts in company focus, and emerging opportunities, the Adviser will, at least quarterly, either reconfirm the construction of the Target Portfolio or establish a new Target Portfolio with different underlying securities.
The Adviser may, at its discretion, make adjustments to the Target Portfolio at any time, including between scheduled rebalancing periods. These adjustments may include adding or removing securities based on developments deemed material by the Adviser, including companies making significant breakthroughs, announcing material developments, or benefiting from advancements in the quantum sector. Additionally, if regulatory constraints arise from the Target Portfolio’s composition that prevent the Fund’s derivatives portfolio from achieving 2X returns, the Adviser may adjust the Target Portfolio to enhance the Fund’s ability to achieve its investment objective.
Each trading day, the Fund’s current portfolio holdings will be published on the Fund’s website at www.defianceetfs.com.
Derivatives Portfolio Selection
The Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with financial institutions for a specified period, which may range from one day to longer than a year. Through each swap agreement, the Fund and the financial institution will agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on a particular security’s share price. The gross return (meaning the return before deducting any fees or expenses) to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties is calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” (meaning the face amount of the instrument) e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing the underlying security in the Target Portfolio. If the Fund is unable to obtain the necessary exposure through swaps or other derivatives, or encounters other constraints (e.g., market or regulatory), the Fund may not always achieve investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2x) the daily performance of Fund’s Target Portfolio, and may return substantially less during such periods.
At the end of each day, the Fund’s swaps are valued using market valuations and the Fund’s investment adviser rebalances the Fund’s holdings in an attempt to maintain leveraged exposure of approximately 200% to the aggregate performance of the Fund’s Target Portfolio.
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For examples of a hypothetical investment in the Fund, see the prospectus section entitled “Additional Information About the Fund – Principal Investment Strategies.”
Fund performance for periods greater than one single day is primarily (but not solely) a function of the following factors: a) the volatility of the Target Portfolio; b) the performance of the Target Portfolio; c) period of time; d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and e) other Fund expenses.
The Fund may also utilize listed options to seek to achieve leveraged 2X exposure to the Target Portfolio securities. The Fund will primarily employ short-dated (a month or less) in-the-money call options (options with strike prices below the current market price of one or more Target Portfolio securities, offering immediate intrinsic value). A “strike price” is the predetermined price at which the holder of an option can buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying security. Additionally, the Fund may use other option strategies to produce similar exposure to the Target Portfolio securities, like buying calls and selling puts with identical strike prices. These options allow the Fund to adjust its leverage strategy in response to market conditions, liquidity constraints, or other factors that may affect the availability or pricing of swap agreements. The use of listed options provides additional flexibility in pursuing the Fund’s daily investment objective. See the provision in the Prospectus entitled “Additional Information About the Fund,” for more information about the Fund’s use of options.
Collateral
The Fund will hold assets to serve as collateral for the Fund’s derivatives transactions. For those collateral holdings, the Fund may invest in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond ETFs; and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality.
Fund Attributes
The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act. The Fund has adopted a policy of having at least 80% exposure to financial instruments with economic characteristics that should perform 2X the daily performance of the Target Portfolio securities.
The Fund will be concentrated in the quantum computing industry or group of industries.
Because of daily rebalancing and the compounding of each day’s return over time, the return of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which will very likely differ from 200% of the return of the Target Portfolio over the same period. The Fund will lose money if the Target Portfolio’s performance is flat over time, and because of daily rebalancing, the volatility of the Target Portfolio and the effects of compounding, the Fund may lose money over time while the Target Portfolio’s performance increases over a period longer than a single day. As a consequence, investors should not plan to hold shares of the Fund unmonitored for periods longer than a single trading day.
Principal Investment Risks
The principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below. As with any investment, there is a risk that you could lose all or a portion of your investment in the Fund. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) per Share, trading price, yield, total return, and/or ability to meet its investment objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the section in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Information About the Fund—Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund.”
An investment in the Fund entails risk. The Fund may not achieve its investment objective and there is a risk that you could lose all of your money invested in the Fund. The Fund is not a complete investment program. In addition, the Fund presents risks not traditionally associated with other ETFs. It is important that investors closely review all of the risks listed below and understand them before making an investment in the Fund.
Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears.
Compounding and Market Volatility Risk. The Fund has a daily leveraged investment objective and the Fund’s performance for periods greater than a trading day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which is very likely to differ from two times (200%) the Target Portfolio’s performance, before the Fund’s management fee and other expenses. Compounding affects all investments but has a more significant impact on funds that aim to replicate leveraged daily returns and that rebalance daily. For the Fund aiming to replicate two times the daily performance of the Target Portfolio, if adverse daily performance of the Target Portfolio reduces the amount of a shareholder’s investment, any further adverse daily performance will lead to a smaller dollar loss because the shareholder’s investment had already been reduced by the prior adverse performance. Equally, however, if favorable daily performance of the Target Portfolio increases the amount of a shareholder’s investment, the dollar amount lost due to future adverse performance will increase because the shareholder’s investment has increased.
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The effect of compounding becomes more pronounced as the Target Portfolio’s volatility and the holding period increase. The impact of compounding will impact each shareholder differently depending on the period of time an investment in the Fund is held and the volatility of the Target Portfolio during a shareholder’s holding period of an investment in the Fund.
The chart below provides examples of how the Target Portfolio’s volatility could affect the Fund’s performance. The chart illustrates the impact of two factors that affect the Fund’s performance – the Target Portfolio’s volatility and the Target Portfolio’s performance. The Target Portfolio’s performance shows the percentage change in the share price of the Target Portfolio over the specified time period, while the Target Portfolio’s volatility is a statistical measure of the magnitude of fluctuations in the returns during that time period. As illustrated below, even if the Target Portfolio’s performance over two equal time periods is identical, different Target Portfolio volatility (i.e., in magnitude of fluctuations in the share price of the Target Portfolio) during the two time periods could result in drastically different Fund performance for the two time periods because of compounding daily returns during the time periods.
Fund performance for periods greater than one single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: a) the Target Portfolio volatility; b) the Target Portfolio performance; c) period of time; d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and e) other Fund expenses. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of Target Portfolio volatility and Target Portfolio performance over a one-year period. Performance shown in the chart assumes that: (i) there were no Fund expenses; (ii) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of 0%. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/lending rates were reflected the estimated returns would be different than those shown. Particularly during periods of higher Target Portfolio volatility, compounding will cause results for periods longer than a trading day to vary from two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio.
As shown in the chart below, the Fund would be expected to lose 6.1% if there was no change in the share price of the Target Portfolio over a one-year period during which the Target Portfolio experienced annualized volatility of 25%. If the Target Portfolio’s annualized volatility were to rise to 75%, the hypothetical loss for a one-year period would widen to approximately -43%. At higher ranges of volatility, there is a chance of a significant loss of value in the Fund, even if there were no change in the share price of the Target Portfolio. For instance, if the Target Portfolio’s annualized volatility is 100%, the Fund would be expected to lose 63.2% of its value, even if the cumulative Target Portfolio change in the share price of the Target Portfolio for the year was 0%.
Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio. The Fund’s actual performance may be significantly better or worse than the performance shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in the “Daily Correlation/Tracking Risk” below.
| Estimated
Returns of 200% or Two Times Performance of the Target Portfolio |
|||||||
| Target Portfolio Performance | One Year Volatility Rate | ||||||
| One
Year Target Portfolio Performance |
2X
Times (200%) the One Year Performance |
10% | 25% | 50% | 75% | 100% | |
| -60% | -120% | -84.2% | -85.0% | -87.5% | -90.9% | -94.1% | |
| -50% | -100% | -75.2% | -76.5% | -80.5% | -85.8% | -90.8% | |
| -40% | -80% | -64.4% | -66.2% | -72.0% | -79.5% | -86.8% | |
| -30% | -60% | -51.5% | -54.0% | -61.8% | -72.1% | -82.0% | |
| -20% | -40% | -36.6% | -39.9% | -50.2% | -63.5% | -76.5% | |
| -10% | -20% | -19.8% | -23.9% | -36.9% | -53.8% | -70.2% | |
| 0% | 0% | -1.0% | -6.1% | -22.1% | -43.0% | -63.2% | |
| 10% | 20% | 19.8% | 13.7% | -5.8% | -31.1% | -55.5% | |
| 20% | 40% | 42.6% | 35.3% | 12.1% | -18.0% | -47.0% | |
| 30% | 60% | 67.3% | 58.8% | 31.6% | -3.7% | -37.8% | |
| 40% | 80% | 94.0% | 84.1% | 52.6% | 11.7% | -27.9% | |
| 50% | 100% | 122.8% | 111.4% | 75.2% | 28.2% | -17.2% | |
| 60% | 120% | 153.5% | 140.5% | 99.4% | 45.9% | -5.8% | |
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Since market volatility has negative implications for the Fund which rebalances its derivatives daily, investors should be sure to monitor and manage their investments in the Fund particularly in volatile markets. The negative implications of volatility in Table 1 can be combined with the recent volatility ranges of the then-current Target Portfolio’s historical volatility, which are expected to be high. Historical volatility and performance for the Target Portfolio are not likely indicative of future volatility and performance.
Daily Correlation/Tracking Risk. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of leveraged correlation to the Target Portfolio and therefore achieve its daily leveraged investment objective. To achieve a high degree of leveraged correlation with the Target Portfolio, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its daily leveraged investment objective. The possibility of the Fund being materially over- or under-exposed to the Target Portfolio increases on days when the Target Portfolio is volatile near the close of the trading day. Additionally, if securities within the Target Portfolio exhibit unexpected or heightened correlations, the Fund’s ability to achieve its daily investment objective may be adversely impacted as overlapping exposures may reduce potential diversification benefits and amplify the effects of market movements. Market disruptions, regulatory restrictions and extreme volatility will also adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to the required levels. If there is a significant intra-day market event and/or the Target Portfolio experiences a significant increase or decline, the Fund may not meet its investment objective, be able to rebalance its portfolio appropriately, or may experience significant premiums or discounts, or widened bid-ask spreads.
The Fund may have difficulty achieving its daily leveraged investment objective due to fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs related to the use of derivatives, investments in ETFs, directly or indirectly, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or derivatives held by the Fund. The Fund may also be impacted by large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being over- or under-exposed to the Target Portfolio. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions to improve the tax efficiency or to comply with various regulatory restrictions, either of which may negatively impact the Fund’s leveraged correlation to the Target Portfolio. Finally, during periods of high volatility, compounding effects and correlation shifts between securities in the Target Portfolio may cause the Fund’s returns to deviate materially from two times (2X) the daily performance of the Target Portfolio.
Leverage Risk. The Fund obtains investment exposure in excess of its net assets by utilizing leverage and may lose more money in market conditions that are adverse to its investment objective than a fund that does not utilize leverage. An investment in the Fund is exposed to the risk that a decline in the daily performance of the Target Portfolio will be magnified. This means that an investment in the Fund will be reduced by an amount equal to 2% for every 1% daily decline in the share price of the Target Portfolio, not including the costs of financing leverage and other operating expenses, which would further reduce its value. The Fund could theoretically lose an amount greater than its net assets in the event the share price of the Target Portfolio declines more than 50%. Leverage will also have the effect of magnifying any differences in the Fund performance’s correlation with the Target Portfolio’s share price.
Concentration Risk. The Fund’s investments will be concentrated in the quantum computing industry or group of industries. As a result, the value of Shares may rise and fall more than the value of shares that invest in securities of companies in a broader range of industries.
Quantum Computing Industry Risk. The quantum computing industry may be significantly affected by intense competition, aggressive pricing dynamics, rapid technological advancements, and the risk of product obsolescence. Companies in this industry face substantial competitive pressures, including competition for market share, the entry of new participants, and short innovation cycles driven by accelerated technological developments. These factors may result in limited earnings potential, declining profit margins, or both. Companies in the quantum computing sector are also exposed to the risk that their technologies, products, or services may fail to gain acceptance by consumers or businesses or may become rapidly outdated due to evolving advancements. The success of many quantum computing companies depends heavily on patent protection and intellectual property rights, making the cost of obtaining (or failing to obtain) patent approvals, litigating patent disputes, and the potential loss of patent protection critical factors affecting profitability. The expiration or invalidation of key patents can intensify pricing pressures and materially reduce profitability. Additionally, many companies in this sector have limited operating histories, adding to the uncertainty of their financial stability and long-term viability. Securities of quantum computing companies have historically demonstrated higher volatility compared to broader markets, particularly over shorter time frames, reflecting the speculative nature of the industry and the risks inherent in pioneering emerging technologies.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, leverage, imperfect daily correlations with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the share price of the Target Portfolio and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested.
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The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.
In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Swap Agreements. The use of swap transactions is a highly specialized activity, which involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. Whether the Fund will be successful in using swap agreements to achieve its investment goal depends on the ability of the Adviser to structure such swap agreements in accordance with the Fund’s investment objective and to identify counterparties for those swap agreements. If the Adviser is unable to enter into swap agreements that provide leveraged exposure to the Target Portfolio, the Fund may not meet its stated investment objective. Additionally, any financing, borrowing or other costs associated with using swap transactions may also have the effect of lowering the Fund’s return.
The swap agreements in which the Fund invests are generally traded in the over-the-counter market, which generally has less transparency than exchange-traded derivatives instruments. In a standard swap transaction, two parties agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on particular predetermined reference assets or underlying securities or instruments. The gross return to be exchanged or swapped between the parties is calculated based on a notional amount or the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount invested in a basket of securities.
If the Target Portfolio has a dramatic move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the swap transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This may prevent the Fund from achieving its leveraged investment objective, even if the Target Portfolio later reverses all or a portion of its movement.
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events. The value of the options contracts in which the Fund invests are substantially influenced by the value of the Target Portfolio. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate as the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain indirect exposure to the Target Portfolio through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience losses. The use of options to generate leverage introduces additional risks, including significant potential losses if the market moves unfavorably. The leverage inherent in options can amplify both gains and losses, leading to increased volatility and potential for substantial losses, particularly in periods of market uncertainty or low liquidity. Additionally, the Fund may incur losses if the value of the Target Portfolio moves against its positions, potentially resulting in a complete loss of the premium paid.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in derivatives which exposes the Fund to the risk that the counterparty will not fulfill its obligation to the Fund. Counterparty risk may arise because of the counterparty’s financial condition (i.e., financial difficulties, bankruptcy, or insolvency), market activities and developments, or other reasons, whether foreseen or not. A counterparty’s inability to fulfill its obligation may result in significant financial loss to the Fund and the Fund may be unable to recover its investment from such counterparty or may obtain a limited and/or delayed recovery.
In addition, the Fund may enter into swap agreements with a limited number of counterparties, which may increase the Fund’s exposure to counterparty credit risk. Further, there is a risk that no suitable counterparties will be willing to enter into, or continue to enter into, transactions with the Fund and, as a result, the Fund may not be able to achieve its investment objective.
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Intra-Day Investment Risk. The Fund seeks investment results from the close of the market on a given trading day until the close of the market on the subsequent trading day. The exact exposure of an investment in the Fund intraday in the secondary market is a function of the difference between the market value of the Target Portfolio at the market close on the first trading day and the market value of the Target Portfolio at the time of purchase. If the market value of the Target Portfolio rises, the Fund’s net assets will rise by approximately twice the amount as the Fund’s exposure. Conversely, if the market value of the Target Portfolio declines, the Fund’s net assets will decline by approximately two times the amount as the Fund’s exposure. Thus, an investor that purchases Shares intra-day may experience performance that is greater than, or less than, the Fund’s stated leveraged performance of the Target Portfolio.
If there is a significant intra-day market event and/or the securities of the Target Portfolio experience a significant increase or decrease, the Fund may not meet its investment objective or rebalance its portfolio appropriately.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. When the Fund invests in fixed income securities, the value of your investment in the Fund will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed income securities owned by the Fund. In general, the market price of fixed income securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. Other risk factors include credit risk (the debtor may default), extension risk (an issuer may exercise its right to repay principal on a fixed rate obligation held by the Fund later than expected), and prepayment risk (the debtor may pay its obligation early, reducing the amount of interest payments). These risks could affect the value of a particular investment by the Fund, possibly causing the Fund’s Share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments.
Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to the Target Portfolio that is significantly greater or less than its stated investment objective. As a result, the Fund may be exposed to leverage risk because it had not been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. The costs associated with cash redemptions may include brokerage costs that the Fund may not have incurred if it had made the redemptions in-kind. These costs could be imposed on the Fund, decreasing its NAV, to the extent these costs are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an authorized participant.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as [The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC] (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. This adverse effect on liquidity for the Fund’s shares may lead to wider bid-ask spreads and differences between the market price of the Fund’s shares and the underlying value of the shares.
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Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. These situations may have an impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s own shares.”
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. Daily rebalancing of the Fund’s holdings pursuant to its daily investment objective causes a much greater number of portfolio transactions when compared to most ETFs. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares on exchanges (such as the Exchange), could cause more frequent creation and redemption activities, which could increase the number of portfolio transactions. Frequent and active trading may lead to higher transaction costs because of increased broker commissions resulting from such transactions. In addition, there is the possibility of significantly increased short-term capital gains (which will be taxable to shareholders as ordinary income when distributed to them). The Fund calculates portfolio turnover without including the short-term cash instruments or derivative transactions that comprise the majority of the Fund’s trading. As such, if the Fund’s extensive use of derivative instruments were reflected, the calculated portfolio turnover rate would be significantly higher.
Tracking Error Risk. Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund’s performance from that of its investment objective which aims to replicate two times the daily percentage change in the price of the Target Portfolio. Tracking error may occur for a number of reasons. Tracking error may occur because of transaction costs, the Fund’s holding of cash, differences in accrual of dividends, being under- or overexposed to the Target Portfolio or the need to meet new or existing regulatory requirements. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of market volatility or other unusual market conditions such as market disruptions. The Fund may be required to deviate from its investment objectives, and therefore experience tracking error, as a result of market restrictions or other legal reasons, including regulatory limits or other restrictions on securities that may be purchased by the Adviser and its affiliates.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with the Target Portfolio. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Market Capitalization Risk.
Large-Capitalization Investing. The securities of large-capitalization companies may be relatively mature compared to smaller companies and therefore subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion. Large-capitalization companies may also be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.
Mid-Capitalization Investing. The securities of mid-capitalization companies may be more vulnerable to adverse issuer, market, political, or economic developments than securities of large-capitalization companies. The securities of mid-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than large-capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole.
Market Events Risk. The Fund’s investments are subject to changes in general economic conditions, general market fluctuations and the risks inherent in investment in securities and other financial instruments. Investment markets can be volatile and prices of investments can change substantially due to various factors including, but not limited to, economic growth or recession, changes in interest rates, inflation, changes in the actual or perceived creditworthiness of issuers, and general market liquidity. The Fund is subject to the risk that geopolitical events will disrupt securities and other financial markets and adversely affect global economies and markets. Local, regional or global events such as war, military conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on the Fund and its investments. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. Conflict, loss of life and disaster connected to ongoing armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia in Europe and between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East could have severe adverse effects on the related region, including significant adverse effects on the regional or global economies and the markets for certain securities. The U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. These conflicts have contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so.
Models and Data Risk. The composition of the Fund’s portfolio is heavily dependent on investment models as well as information and data supplied by third parties (“Models and Data”). When Models and Data prove to be incorrect or incomplete, any decisions made in reliance thereon may lead to the inclusion or exclusion of securities from the Fund’s portfolio that would have been excluded or included had the Models and Data been correct and complete. Errors in programming, data entry, system compatibility, or database integrity can result in the unintended inclusion or exclusion of securities in the Fund’s portfolio. Such errors, whether due to human or technological factors, could induce the Adviser to make investment choices that would not have been made with accurate and complete information, potentially leading to losses or missed gains for the Fund.
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Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments may lose money.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund. As a result, a decline in the value of an investment in a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers could cause the Fund’s overall value to decline to a greater degree than if the Fund held a more diversified portfolio.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational factors, including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund and the Fund’s investment advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.
Performance
Performance information for the Fund is not included because the Fund has not completed a full calendar year of operations as of the date of this Prospectus. When such information is included, this section will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance history from year to year and showing how the Fund’s average annual total returns compare with those of the Target Portfolio and a broad measure of market performance. Although past performance of the Fund is no guarantee of how it will perform in the future, historical performance may give you some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Updated performance information will be available on the Fund’s website at www.defianceetfs.com.
Management
Investment Adviser: Tidal Investments LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers:
The following individuals are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
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Michael Venuto, Chief Investment Officer for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2025.
Daniel Weiskopf, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2025.
Purchase and Sale of Shares
The Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in large blocks known as “Creation Units,” which only APs (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund generally issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash.
Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as the Exchange, and individual Shares may only be bought and sold in the secondary market through brokers at market prices, rather than NAV. Because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (the “bid” price) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (the “ask” price) when buying or selling Shares in the secondary market. This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “bid-ask spread.”
When available, information regarding the Fund’s NAV, market price, how often Shares traded on the Exchange at a premium or discount, and bid-ask spreads can be found on the Fund’s website at www.defianceetfs.com.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains (or a combination), unless an investment is in an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. Distributions on investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of assets from those accounts.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Adviser or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training, or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUND
Investment Objective
The investment objective of the Fund is to seek daily investment results, before fees and expenses, to two times (2X) the performance of a select group of “pure quantum” securities for a single day (the group of equity securities is referred to as the “Target Portfolio”).
An investment objective is fundamental if it cannot be changed without the consent of the holders of a majority of the outstanding Shares. The Fund’s investment objective has not been adopted as a fundamental investment policy and therefore the Fund’s investment objective may be changed without the consent of that Fund’s shareholders upon approval by the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of Tidal Trust II (the “Trust”) and at least 60 days’ written notice to shareholders.
The Fund seeks to provide a return of up to two times the daily performance of the market value of the Target Portfolio.
The Fund does not attempt to, and should not be expected to, achieve this daily percentage change for periods other than a single day. The Fund rebalances its implied exposure on a daily basis, increasing exposure to the Target Portfolio in response to that day’s gains or reducing exposure in the Target Portfolio in response to that day’s losses.
The exposure to the Target Portfolio received by an investor who purchases the Fund intra-day will differ from the Fund’s stated daily investment objective by an amount determined by the movement of the Target Portfolio from its market value at the end of the prior day. If the Target Portfolio’s market value moves in a direction favorable to the Fund between the close of the market on one trading day through the time on the next trading day when the investor purchases Fund Shares, the investor will receive less exposure to the Target Portfolio than the Fund’s stated daily investment objective. Conversely, if the Target Portfolio’s market value moves in a direction adverse to the Fund, the investor will receive more exposure to the Target Portfolio than the Fund’s stated daily investment objective.
As used in this Prospectus, the terms “daily,” “day,” and “trading day,” mean the period from the regular close of the markets on one trading day to the regular close of the markets on the next trading day.
The Fund is designed as a short-term trading vehicle. The Fund is intended to be used by investors who intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios.
Shares of the Fund upon commencement of operations will be listed and traded on the Exchange, where the market prices for the Shares may be different from the intra-day value of the Shares disseminated by the Exchange and from their NAV. Unlike conventional mutual funds, Shares are not individually redeemable directly with the applicable Fund. Rather, the Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis at NAV only in large blocks of Shares called “Creation Units.” Creation Units of the Fund is issued and redeemed for cash. As a result, retail investors generally will not be able to purchase or redeem Shares directly from, or with, the Fund. Most retail investors will purchase or sell Shares in the secondary market through a broker.
The Fund is not suitable for all investors. In particular, the Fund is not suitable for investors with longer-term investment objectives. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by sophisticated investors, such as traders and active investors employing dynamic strategies. Such investors are expected to monitor and manage their portfolios frequently. Investors in the Fund is should: (a) understand the consequences of seeking daily leveraged investment results and (b) understand the risks associated with the use of leverage. Investors who do not understand the Fund is or do not intend to actively manage their funds and monitor their investments should not buy the Fund.
There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective and an investment in the Fund could lose a substantial amount of money over a short period of time. No single fund is a complete investment program.
Principal Investment Strategies
In order to achieve the Fund’s investment objective, the Adviser invests in a manner that is designed to correspond to two times (200%) the daily performance of the market value of the Fund’s Target Portfolio.
The Fund has adopted a policy to have at least 80% exposure to financial instruments with economic characteristics that should perform 2X the daily performance of its Target Portfolio securities. The Fund’s 80% policy is non-fundamental and can be changed without shareholder approval. However, Fund shareholders would be given at least 60 days’ notice prior to any such change. To the extent swaps or options are used to meet the Fund’s 80% policy, the notional value of the swaps or options will be used when determining the Fund’s compliance.
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The Fund attempts to achieve its investment objective by investing a substantial amount of its assets in financial instruments that provide exposure to securities that comprise the Target Portfolio, such as swap agreements. At the end of each trading day, it is expected that for the 2X leveraged exposure the Fund seeks, the swap notional exposure against the Target Portfolio will be approximately equal to two times the Fund’s NAV.
To achieve a swap notional exposure equal two times the Fund’s NAV at the end of each trading day, the Adviser will adjust the swap notional exposure daily by sending orders to the swap provider(s) for execution at close. Such transactions will result in trading fees to be paid by the Fund.
The Fund will enter into swap agreements with major financial institutions for a specified period ranging from one day to more than one year whereby the respective Fund and the global financial institution will agree to exchange the return earned or realized on the Target Portfolio’s underlying securities. The gross returns to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties are calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” e.g., the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount representing an underlying security. Each trading day, the Adviser adjusts the Fund’s exposure to the Target Portfolio’s underlying securities consistent with the Fund’s daily leveraged investment objective. The impact of market movements during the day determines whether the derivatives portfolio needs to be repositioned. If the aggregate of market value of the underlying securities comprising the Target Portfolio has risen on a given day, the value of the Fund’s net assets should rise, meaning its exposure will typically need to be increased. Conversely, if aggregate of market value of the underlying securities comprising the Target Portfolio has fallen on a given day, the value of the Fund’s net assets should fall, meaning its exposure will typically need to be reduced.
The time and manner in which the Fund rebalances its derivatives portfolio may vary from day to day at the sole discretion of the Adviser depending upon market conditions and other circumstances. Generally, at or near the close of the market at each trading day, the Fund will position its derivatives portfolio to seek to ensure that the Fund’s exposure to the Target Portfolio is consistent with its stated investment objective. The Fund reviews its notional exposure under each of its swap agreements, which reflects the extent of the Fund’s total investment exposure under the swap, to seek to ensure that the Fund’s exposure is in-line with its stated investment objective. For each underlying security, the gross returns to be exchanged are calculated with respect to the notional amount and the underlying security market value returns to which the swap is linked. Swaps are typically closed out on a net basis. Thus, while the notional amount reflects the Fund’s total investment exposure under the swap, the net amount is the Fund’s current obligations (or rights) under the swap. That is the amount to be paid or received under the agreement based on the relative values of the positions held by each party to the agreement. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. As a result, the Fund may be more or less exposed to leverage risk than if it had been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective. To the extent that the Fund needs to “roll” its swap positions (i.e., enter into new swap positions with a later expiration date as the current positions approach expiration), it could be subjected to increased costs, which could negatively impact the Fund’s performance.
In addition to using swap agreements to achieve leveraged exposure, the Fund may also utilize listed options contracts as a tool to generate leverage and seek to achieve 2X exposure to the Target Portfolio securities. The Fund’s primary options strategy involves the use of short-dated (typically a month or less) in-the-money call options (contracts with strike prices below the current market price of the underlying securities, providing immediate intrinsic value). These options offer efficient leverage while aligning with the Fund’s daily investment objective.
Additionally, the Fund may employ other options strategies to seek to achieve similar leveraged exposure. For example, the Fund may simultaneously buy call options and sell put options with identical strike prices, creating a synthetic long position in Target Portfolio securities. This approach provides an alternative means of obtaining leveraged exposure while managing liquidity and market conditions that may impact the availability or pricing of swap agreements.
When utilizing listed options, the Fund will primarily engage in uncovered options transactions (positions not offset by ownership of the underlying asset). However, all such positions will be fully collateralized with cash to manage counterparty risk and to cap potential losses at the collateral amount.
The Fund will hold assets to serve as collateral for the Fund’s swap agreements. For those collateral holdings, the Fund may invest in (1) U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury; (2) money market funds; (3) short term bond exchange-traded fund (ETFs); and/or (4) corporate debt securities, such as commercial paper and other short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by businesses that are rated investment grade or of comparable quality.
Glossary of Financial Terms. This glossary provides concise definitions of many of the financial terms used throughout the Fund’s prospectus.
| ● | Average Daily Trading Volume (ADTV): The average number of shares traded per day over a specified period. |
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| ● | Beta: A measure of a security’s sensitivity to movements in the broader market or a specific sector. A high beta indicates higher volatility. |
| ● | Financing Rates: The costs associated with maintaining leveraged positions, including borrowing rates or the cost of derivative instruments like swaps or options. |
| ● | Implied Volatility: Reflects the market’s expectations of future price movements, derived from option prices. High implied volatility suggests the potential for significant price swings and is often associated with speculative trading activity. |
| ● | In-the-Money (ITM) Call Options: Call options with strike prices below the current market price of the underlying security. |
| ● | Intrinsic Value: The inherent value of an option if it were exercised immediately. For call options, this is the difference between the current market price of the underlying security and the option’s strike price, if positive. |
| ● | Leverage: The use of borrowed capital or derivatives to amplify returns (or losses). For the Fund, leveraged exposure targets 200% of the daily performance of the Target Portfolio. |
| ● | Listed Options: Standardized option contracts traded on exchanges. The Fund uses short-dated in-the-money call options (with intrinsic value) and other strategies to achieve leveraged exposure or adjust its investment strategy in response to market conditions. |
| ● | Market Capitalization: The total value of a company’s outstanding shares, calculated as the share price multiplied by the number of shares. |
| ● | Notional Value: The face value or total underlying value of a derivative contract, such as a swap or option, used to determine the payments or returns to be exchanged between parties. It represents a hypothetical amount and does not reflect the actual cash invested or at risk. |
| ● | Options Volume: The total number of options contracts traded in a given period. High or increasing options volume often reflects heightened speculative activity and investor interest in a security’s potential price movement. |
| ● | Realized Volatility: The actual price fluctuation a security experiences over a given period. High realized volatility indicates past price instability, which can attract traders seeking high reward opportunities despite associated risks. | |
| ● | Short-Dated Options: Options with expiration dates typically within one month or less. These are used by the Fund to seek to manage leverage and respond to market changes efficiently. |
| ● | Short Interest: The proportion of a security’s shares that have been sold short but not yet covered. Rising short interest may signal potential short squeezes, where rapid price increases force short sellers to cover their positions, further driving up the price. |
| ● | Strike Price: The predetermined price at which the holder of an option can buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying security. Strike prices are central to determining an option’s value. |
| ● | Volatility: A measure of the degree to which a security’s price fluctuates over time. High volatility indicates greater price swings. |
The Effects of Fees and Expenses on the Return of the Fund for a Single Trading Day
To create the necessary exposure, the Fund will enter into one or more swap agreements with financial institutions. The Fund will incur borrowing costs associated with the use of swaps. For instance, if the Target Portfolio returns 1% on a given day, the gross expected return of applicable 2X Fund would be 2%, but the net expected return, which factors in the cost of financing the portfolio and the impact of operating expenses, would be lower.
The Fund may have difficulty in achieving its daily leveraged investment objective due to fees, expenses, transaction costs, income items, accounting standards, significant purchase and redemption activity by Fund shareholders and/or disruptions or a temporary lack of liquidity in the markets for the securities held by the Fund.
The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio.
An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its derivatives portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.
If the Fund is unable to obtain sufficient exposure to the one or more of the underlying securities comprising the Target Portfolio due to the limited availability of necessary investments or financial instruments, the Fund could, among other things, fail to meet its daily investment objective or experience increased transaction fees. Under such circumstances, the Fund could trade at significant bid-ask spreads, premiums or discounts to its NAV and could experience substantial redemptions.
A Cautionary Note to Investor’s Regarding Dramatic Target Portfolio Movement. The Adviser will not attempt to position the Fund’s derivatives portfolio to ensure that the Fund does not gain or lose more than maximum percentage of its NAV on a given day. The Fund could lose an amount greater than its net assets in the event of a movement of the Target Portfolio’s value in excess of 50% in a direction adverse to the Fund (meaning a loss in the value of the Target Portfolio). As a result, the risk of total loss exists.
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If an underlying security’s market value has a dramatic loss that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of the Fund’s swap agreements may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the swap transaction. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, even if the underlying security later reverses all or a portion the move, and result in significant losses.
Examples
Examples of the Impact of Daily Compounding. Because the Fund’s exposure to the Target Portfolio’s value is repositioned on a daily basis, for a holding period longer than one day, the pursuit of the daily investment objective will result in daily compounding for the Fund. This means that the return of the Target Portfolio over a period of time greater than one day multiplied by the Fund’s daily investment objective (e.g., 200% of such return) generally will not equal the Fund’s performance over that same period. As a consequence, investors should not plan to hold shares of the Fund unmonitored for periods longer than a single trading day. This deviation increases with higher volatility in the Target Portfolio’s value and longer holding periods. Further, the return for investors that invest for periods less than a full trading day or for a period different than a trading day will not be the product of the return of the Fund’s stated daily leveraged investment objective and the performance of the Target Portfolio’s value for the full trading day. The actual exposure will largely be a function of the performance of the Target Portfolio’s value from the end of the prior trading day. The examples assume a full daily leveraged amount of exactly 2X to the Target Portfolio’s value.
Consider the following examples (each of which assumes the investor purchases and sells shares at NAV):
Example A
Amy is considering investments in two Funds, Funds A and B. Fund A is an actively managed ETF (the “Reference Fund”). Fund B is a leveraged ETF and seeks daily leveraged investment results (before fees and expenses) that correspond to 200% of the daily performance of the Reference Fund.
On Day 1, the Reference Fund’s market value increases in value from $100 to $105, a gain of 5%. On Day 2, the Reference Fund’s market value declines from $105 back to $100, a loss of 4.76%. In the aggregate, the market value of the Reference Fund has not moved.
An investment in Fund A (the Reference Fund) would be expected to gain 5% on Day 1 and lose 4.76% on Day 2, returning the investment its original value. The following example assumes a $100 investment in Reference Fund with a market value of $100:
| Day | Reference
Fund (Fund A) Market Value |
Target
Portfolio Performance |
Value
of Fund A Investment |
| $100.00 | |||
| 1 | $105.00 | 5.00% | $105.00 |
| 2 | $100.00 | -4.76% | $100.00 |
The same $100 investment in Fund B would be expected to gain 10% on Day 1 (200% of 5%) but decline 9.52% on Day 2.
| Day | Target Portfolio Performance | 200%
of Target Portfolio Performance |
Value
of Fund B Investment |
| $100.00 | |||
| 1 | 5.00% | 10.0% | $110.00 |
| 2 | -4.76% | -9.52% | $99.52 |
Although the percentage decline in Fund B is smaller on Day 2 than the percentage gain on Day 1, the loss is applied to a higher principal amount, so the investment in Fund B experiences a loss even when the market value of the underlying security for the two-day period has not declined (these calculations do not include the charges for fund fees and expenses).
As you can see, an investment in Fund B has additional risks due to the effects of leverage and compounding.
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An investor who purchases shares of the Fund intra-day will generally receive more, or less, than the applicable exposure to the Reference Fund’s market value from that point until the end of the trading day. The actual exposure will be largely a function of the performance of the Reference Fund from the end of the prior trading day. If the Fund’s shares are held for a period longer than a single trading day, the Fund’s performance is likely to deviate from the respective multiple return of the Reference Fund’s performance for the longer period. This deviation will increase with higher Reference Fund volatility and longer holding periods.
Examples of the Impact of Target Portfolio Volatility. The Fund rebalances its derivatives portfolio on a daily basis, increasing exposure in response to that day’s gains or reducing exposure in response to that day’s losses. Daily derivatives rebalancing will typically cause the Fund to lose money if the Target Portfolio’s shares experience volatility. A volatility rate is a statistical measure of the magnitude of fluctuations in the underlying security’s market value returns over a defined period. For periods longer than a trading day, volatility in the performance of the Target Portfolio’s market value from day to day is the primary cause of any disparity between the Fund’s actual returns and the returns of the market value of the Target Portfolio for such period. Volatility causes such disparity because it exacerbates the effects of compounding on the Fund’s returns. In addition, the effects of volatility are magnified in the Fund due to leverage. Consider the following three examples that demonstrate the effect of volatility on a hypothetical fund (each of which assumes the investor purchases and sells shares at NAV):
Example 1 – Target Portfolio Experiences Low Volatility
Amy invests $10.00 in a Hypothetical 2X Fund at the close of trading on Day 1. During Day 2, the hypothetical portfolio’s market value rises from 100 to 102, a 2% gain. Amy’s investment rises 4% to $10.40. Amy holds her investment through the close of trading on Day 3, during which the hypothetical portfolio’s market value rises from 102 to 104, a gain of 1.96%. Amy’s investment rises to $10.81, a gain during Day 3 of 3.92%. For the two-day period since Amy invested in the Hypothetical 2X Fund, the hypothetical portfolio gained 4% although Amy’s investment increased by 8.1%. Because the hypothetical portfolio’s market value continued to trend upwards with low volatility, Amy’s return closely correlates to the 200% return of the return of the hypothetical portfolio’s market value for the period.
Example 2 – Target Portfolio Experiences High Volatility
Now Amy invests $10.00 in a Hypothetical 2X Fund after the close of trading on Day 1. During Day 2, the hypothetical portfolio’s market value rises from 100 to 102, a 2% gain, and Amy’s investment rises 4% to $10.40. Amy continues to hold her investment through the end of Day 3, during which the hypothetical portfolio’s shares decline from 102 to 98, a loss of 3.92%. Amy’s investment declines by 7.84%, from $10.40 to $9.58. For the two-day period since Amy invested in the Hypothetical 2X Fund, the hypothetical portfolio lost 2% while Amy’s investment decreased from $10 to $9.58, a 4.2% loss. The volatility of the hypothetical portfolio’s shares affected the correlation between the hypothetical portfolio’s return for the two-day period and Amy’s return. In this situation, Amy lost more than two times the return of the hypothetical portfolio.
Example 3 – Intra-day Investment with Volatility
Examples 1 and 2 assumed that Amy purchased the Hypothetical 2X Fund at the close of trading on Day 1 and sold her investment at the close of trading on a subsequent day. However, if she made an investment intra-day, she would have received notional exposure to the underlying security’s shares determined by the performance of the underlying security’s shares from the end of the prior trading day until her time of purchase on the next trading day.
Consider the following example.
Amy invests $10.00 in a Hypothetical 2X Fund at 11 a.m. on Day 2. From the close of trading on Day 1 until 11 a.m. on Day 2, the hypothetical portfolio’s market value moved from 100 to 102, a 2% gain. In light of that gain, the Hypothetical 2X Fund beta at the point at which Amy invests is 196%. During the remainder of Day 2, the hypothetical portfolio’s market value rises from 102 to 110, a gain of 7.84%, and Amy’s investment rises 15.4% (which is the hypothetical portfolio gain of 7.84% multiplied by the 196% beta that she received) to $11.54. Amy continues to hold her investment through the close of trading on Day 3, during which the hypothetical portfolio’s market value declines from 110 to 90, a loss of 18.18%. Amy’s investment declines by 36.4%, from $11.54 to $7.34. For the period of Amy’s investment, the hypothetical portfolio’s market value declined from 102 to 90, a loss of 11.76%, while Amy’s investment decreased from $10.00 to $7.34, a 27% loss. The volatility of the hypothetical portfolio affected the correlation between the hypothetical portfolio’s return for period and Amy’s return. In this situation, Amy lost more than two times the return of the hypothetical portfolio. Amy was also hurt because she missed the first 2% move of the hypothetical portfolio and had a beta of 196% for the remainder of Day 2.
Market Volatility. The Fund seeks to provide a return which is two times the daily performance of a hypothetical portfolio’s market value. The Fund does not attempt to, and should not be expected to, provide returns which are two times the return of the portfolio’s market value for periods other than a single day. The Fund rebalances its derivatives portfolio on a daily basis, increasing exposure in response to that day’s gains or reducing exposure in response to that day’s losses.
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Daily rebalancing will impair the Fund’s performance if the hypothetical portfolio’s market value experience volatility. For instance, the Fund would be expected to lose 4% (as shown in Table 1 below) if the hypothetical portfolio’s market value provided no return over a one-year period and experienced annualized volatility of 20%. If the hypothetical portfolio’s annualized volatility were to rise to 40%, the hypothetical loss for a one-year period for the applicable Fund widens to approximately -15%.
| Table 1 | |
| Volatility | Fund |
| Range | Loss |
| 10% | -1% |
| 20% | -4% |
| 30% | -9% |
| 40% | -15% |
| 50% | -23% |
| 60% | -33% |
| 70% | -47% |
| 80% | -55% |
| 90% | -76% |
| 100% | -84% |
Note that at higher volatility levels, there is a chance of a complete loss of Fund assets even if the market value of the hypothetical portfolio is flat. For instance, if annualized volatility of the hypothetical portfolio were 90%, the Fund would be expected to lose 76%, even if the hypothetical portfolio returned 0% for the year.
Since market volatility has negative implications for the Fund which rebalances its derivatives daily, investors should be sure to monitor and manage their investments in the Fund particularly in volatile markets. The negative implications of volatility in Table 1 can be combined with the recent volatility ranges of the then-current Target Portfolio’s historical volatility, which are expected to be high. Historical volatility and performance for the Underlying Securities are not likely indicative of future volatility and performance.
The Projected Returns of the Fund for Intra-Day Purchases. Because the Fund rebalances its derivatives portfolio once daily, an investor who purchases Shares intra-day will likely have more, or less, than 200% investment exposure to the market value Target Portfolio. The exposure to the Target Portfolio’s market value received by an investor who purchases the Fund intra-day will differ from the Fund’s stated daily investment objective (e.g., 200%) by an amount determined by the movement of the Target Portfolio’s from its market value at the end of the prior day. If the Target Portfolio’s market value moves in a direction favorable to the Fund between the close of the market on one trading day through the time on the next trading day when the investor purchases Fund shares, the investor will receive less exposure to the Target Portfolio than the stated Fund’s daily investment objective (e.g., 200%). Conversely, if the Target Portfolio’s market value moves in a direction adverse to the funds, the investor will receive more exposure to the Target Portfolio than the stated fund daily leveraged investment objective (e.g., 200%).
Table 3 below indicates the hypothetical exposure to the market value of a portfolio that an intra-day purchase of the Hypothetical 2X Fund would be expected to provide based upon the movement in the market value of the portfolio from the close of the market on the prior trading day. Such exposure holds until a subsequent sale on that same trading day or until the close of the market on that trading day. For instance, if the portfolio’s market value has moved 5% in a direction favorable to a Hypothetical 2X Fund, the investor would receive exposure to the performance of the portfolio from that point until the investor sells later that day or the end of the day equal to approximately 191% of the investor’s investment.
Conversely, if the portfolio’s market value moves 5% in a direction unfavorable to the Hypothetical 2X Fund, an investor at that point would receive exposure to the performance of the portfolio from that point until the investor sells later that day or the end of the day equal to approximately 211% of the investor’s investment.
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The table below includes a range of hypothetical portfolio market value moves from 20% to -20% and the corresponding exposure for the Hypothetical 2X Fund. Movement of the market value of the portfolio beyond the range noted below will result in exposure further from the Hypothetical 2X Fund’s daily investment objective.
Table 3
|
Portfolio Market Value Move |
Resulting
Exposure for Hypothetical 2X Fund |
| -20% | 267% |
| -15% | 243% |
| -10% | 225% |
| -5% | 211% |
| 0% | 200% |
| 5% | 191% |
| 10% | 183% |
| 15% | 177% |
| 20% | 171% |
The Projected Returns of the Fund for Periods Other Than a Single Trading Day. The Fund seeks leveraged investment results on a daily basis — from the close of regular trading on one trading day to the close on the next trading day — which should not be equated with seeking an investment objective for any other period. For instance, if the Target Portfolio market value gains 10% for a week, the Fund should not be expected to provide a return of 20% for the week even if it meets its daily investment objective throughout the week. This is true because of the financing charges noted above but also because the pursuit of daily goals may result in daily compounding, which means that the return of the Target Portfolio over a period of time greater than one day multiplied by the Fund’s daily investment objective (e.g., 200%) will not generally equal the Fund’s performance over that same period. In addition, the effects of compounding become greater the longer shares of the Fund are held beyond a single trading day.
The following tables set out a range of hypothetical daily performances during a given 10 trading days for a Hypothetical 2X Fund compared to a portfolio and demonstrate how changes in the portfolio’s hypothetical performance would compare to the performance of a Hypothetical 2X Fund for a trading day and cumulatively up to, and including, the entire 10 trading day period. The charts are based on a hypothetical $100 investment in hypothetical funds at NAV over a 10-trading day period and do not reflect fees or expenses of any kind.
Table 4a – The Target Portfolio Lacks a Clear Trend
| Target Portfolio | Hypothetical 2X Fund | |||||
| NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance |
NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance | |
| $100.00 | $100.00 | |||||
| Day 1 | $105.00 | 5.00% | 5.00% | $110.00 | 10.00% | 10.00% |
| Day 2 | $110.00 | 4.76% | 10.00% | $120.48 | 9.52% | 20.47% |
| Day 3 | $100.00 | -9.09% | 0.00% | $ 98.57 | -18.18% | -1.43% |
| Day 4 | $90.00 | -10.00% | -10.00% | $ 78.86 | -20.00% | -21.14% |
| Day 5 | $85.00 | -5.56% | -15.00% | $ 70.10 | -11.12% | -29.91% |
| Day 6 | $100.00 | 17.65% | 0.00% | $ 94.83 | 35.30% | -5.17% |
| Day 7 | $95.00 | -5.00% | -5.00% | $ 85.35 | -10.00% | -14.65% |
| Day 8 | $100.00 | 5.26% | 0.00% | $ 94.34 | 10.52% | -5.68% |
| Day 9 | $105.00 | 5.00% | 5.00% | $103.77 | 10.00% | 3.76% |
| Day 10 | $100.00 | -4.76% | 0.00% | $ 93.89 | -9.52% | -6.12% |
The cumulative performance of the hypothetical portfolio’s market value in Table 5 is 0% for 10 trading days. The return of the Hypothetical 2X Fund for the 10-trading day period is -6.12%. The volatility of the portfolio’s performance and lack of a clear trend results in performance for the Hypothetical 2X Fund for the period which bears little relationship to the performance of the portfolio for the 10-trading day period.
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Table 5 – The Target Portfolio Rises in a Clear Trend
| Target Portfolio | Hypothetical 2X Fund | |||||
| NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance |
NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance | |
| $100.00 | $100.00 | |||||
| Day 1 | $102.00 | 2.00% | 2.00% | $104.00 | 4.00% | 4.00% |
| Day 2 | $104.00 | 1.96% | 4.00% | $108.08 | 3.92% | 8.08% |
| Day 3 | $106.00 | 1.92% | 6.00% | $112.24 | 3.84% | 12.23% |
| Day 4 | $108.00 | 1.89% | 8.00% | $116.47 | 3.78% | 16.47% |
| Day 5 | $110.00 | 1.85% | 10.00% | $120.78 | 3.70% | 20.78% |
| Day 6 | $112.00 | 1.82% | 12.00% | $125.18 | 3.64% | 25.17% |
| Day 7 | $114.00 | 1.79% | 14.00% | $129.65 | 3.58% | 29.66% |
| Day 8 | $116.00 | 1.75% | 16.00% | $134.20 | 3.50% | 34.19% |
| Day 9 | $118.00 | 1.72% | 18.00% | $138.82 | 3.44% | 38.81% |
| Day 10 | $120.00 | 1.69% | 20.00% | $143.53 | 3.38% | 43.50% |
The cumulative performance of the portfolio’s market value in Table 5 is 20% for 10 trading days. The return of the Hypothetical 2X Fund for the 10-trading day period is 43.50%. In this case, because of the positive portfolio trend, the Hypothetical 2X Fund’s gain is greater than 200% of the portfolio’s market value gain for the 10-trading day period.
Table 6 – The Target Portfolio Declines in a Clear Trend
| Target Portfolio | Hypothetical 2X Fund | |||||
| NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance |
NAV | Daily Performance |
Cumulative Performance | |
| $100.00 | $100.00 | |||||
| Day 1 | $98.00 | -2.00% | -2.00% | $ 96.00 | -4.00% | -4.00% |
| Day 2 | $96.00 | -2.04% | -4.00% | $ 92.08 | -4.08% | -7.92% |
| Day 3 | $94.00 | -2.08% | -6.00% | $ 88.24 | -4.16% | -11.75% |
| Day 4 | $92.00 | -2.13% | -8.00% | $ 84.49 | -4.26% | -15.51% |
| Day 5 | $90.00 | -2.17% | -10.00% | $ 80.82 | -4.34% | -19.17% |
| Day 6 | $88.00 | -2.22% | -12.00% | $ 77.22 | -4.44% | -22.76% |
| Day 7 | $86.00 | -2.27% | -14.00% | $ 73.71 | -4.54% | -26.27% |
| Day 8 | $84.00 | -2.33% | -16.00% | $ 70.29 | -4.66% | -29.71% |
| Day 9 | $82.00 | -2.38% | -18.00% | $ 66.94 | -4.76% | -33.05% |
| Day 10 | $80.00 | -2.44% | -20.00% | $ 63.67 | -4.88% | -36.32% |
The cumulative performance of the portfolio’s market value in Table 6 is -20% for 10 trading days. The return of the Hypothetical 2X Fund for the 10-trading day period is -36.62%. In this case, because of the negative hypothetical portfolio’s market value trend, the Hypothetical 2X Fund’s loss is less than 200% of the hypothetical portfolio’s decline for the 10-trading day period.
Investments by Registered Investment Companies
Section 12(d)(1) of the 1940 Act restricts investments by investment companies in the securities of other investment companies. However, registered investment companies are permitted to invest in other investment companies beyond the limits set forth in Section 12(d)(1) in rules under the 1940 Act, subject to certain conditions. The Fund may rely on Rule 12d1-4 of the 1940 Act, which provides an exemption from Section 12(d)(1) that allows the Fund to invest beyond the limits set forth in Section 12(d)(1) if the Fund satisfies certain conditions specified in Rule 12d1-4, including, among other conditions, that the Fund and its advisory group will not control (individually or in the aggregate) an acquired fund (e.g., hold more than 25% of the outstanding voting securities of an acquired fund that is a registered open-end management investment company).
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Manager of Managers Structure
While the Fund does not currently have a sub-adviser, the Fund and the Adviser have received exemptive relief from the SEC permitting the Adviser (subject to certain conditions and the approval of the Board) to change or select new unaffiliated sub-advisers without obtaining shareholder approval. The relief also permits the Adviser to materially amend the terms of agreements with an unaffiliated sub-adviser (including an increase in the fee paid by the Adviser to the unaffiliated sub-adviser (and not paid by the Fund)) or to continue the employment of an unaffiliated sub-adviser after an event that would otherwise cause the automatic termination of services with Board approval, but without shareholder approval. Shareholders will be notified of any unaffiliated sub-adviser changes. The Adviser has the ultimate responsibility, subject to oversight by the Board, to oversee a sub-adviser and recommend their hiring, termination and replacement. The exemptive relief applies to sub-advisers that are either wholly owned by the Adviser or its parent company, as well as to unaffiliated sub-advisers, including those whose affiliation arises solely from their sub-advisory relationship.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve their respective investment objectives. The following information is in addition to, and should be read along with, the description of the Fund’s principal investment risks in the section titled “Fund Summary— Principal Investment Risks” above. The Fund’s principal risks are presented in alphabetical order to facilitate finding particular risks and comparing them with those of other funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears.
Compounding and Market Volatility Risk. The Fund has a daily leveraged investment objective and the Fund’s performance for periods greater than a trading day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which is very likely to differ from two times (200%) the Target Portfolio’s performance, before the Fund’s management fee and other expenses. Compounding affects all investments but has a more significant impact on funds that aim to replicate leveraged daily returns and that rebalance daily. For the Fund aiming to replicate two times the daily performance of the Target Portfolio, if adverse daily performance of the Target Portfolio reduces the amount of a shareholder’s investment, any further adverse daily performance will lead to a smaller dollar loss because the shareholder’s investment had already been reduced by the prior adverse performance. Equally, however, if favorable daily performance of the Target Portfolio increases the amount of a shareholder’s investment, the dollar amount lost due to future adverse performance will increase because the shareholder’s investment has increased.
The effect of compounding becomes more pronounced as the Target Portfolio’s volatility and the holding period increase. The impact of compounding will impact each shareholder differently depending on the period of time an investment in the Fund is held and the volatility of the Target Portfolio during a shareholder’s holding period of an investment in the Fund.
The chart below provides examples of how the Target Portfolio’s volatility could affect the Fund’s performance. The chart illustrates the impact of two factors that affect the Fund’s performance – the Target Portfolio’s volatility and performance. The Target Portfolio’s performance shows the percentage change in the market value of the Target Portfolio over the specified time period, while the Target Portfolio’s volatility is a statistical measure of the magnitude of fluctuations in the returns during that time period. As illustrated below, even if the Target Portfolio’s performance over two equal time periods is identical, different Target Portfolio volatility (i.e., in magnitude of fluctuations in the value of the Target Portfolio) during the two time periods could result in drastically different Fund performance for the two time periods because of compounding daily returns during the time periods.
Fund performance for periods greater than one single day can be estimated given any set of assumptions for the following factors: a) the Target Portfolio volatility; b) the Target Portfolio performance; c) period of time; d) financing rates associated with leveraged exposure; and e) other Fund expenses. The chart shows estimated Fund returns for a number of combinations of Target Portfolio volatility and Target Portfolio performance over a one-year period. Performance shown in the chart assumes that: (i) there were no Fund expenses; (ii) borrowing/lending rates (to obtain leveraged exposure) of 0%. If Fund expenses and/or actual borrowing/lending rates were reflected the estimated returns would be different than those shown. Particularly during periods of higher Target Portfolio volatility, compounding will cause results for periods longer than a trading day to vary from two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio.
As shown in the chart below, the Fund would be expected to lose 6.1% if there was no change in the market value of the Target Portfolio over a one-year period during which the Target Portfolio experienced annualized volatility of 25%. If the Target Portfolio’s annualized volatility were to rise to 75%, the hypothetical loss for a one-year period would widen to approximately -43%. At higher ranges of volatility, there is a chance of a significant loss of value in the Fund, even if there were no change in the market value of the Target Portfolio. For instance, if the Target Portfolio’s annualized volatility is 100%, the Fund would be expected to lose 63.2% of its value, even if the cumulative Target Portfolio change in the market value of the Target Portfolio for the year was 0%.
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Areas shaded red (or dark gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return less than two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio and those shaded green (or light gray) represent those scenarios where the Fund can be expected to return more than two times (200%) the performance of the Target Portfolio. The Fund’s actual performance may be significantly better or worse than the performance shown below as a result of any of the factors discussed above or in the “Daily Correlation/Tracking Risk” below.
| Estimated
Returns of 200% or Two Times Performance of the Target Portfolio |
|||||||
| Target Portfolio Performance | One Year Volatility Rate | ||||||
| One
Year Underlying Stock |
2X
Times (200%) the One Year Performance |
10% | 25% | 50% | 75% | 100% | |
| -60% | -120% | -84.2% | -85.0% | -87.5% | -90.9% | -94.1% | |
| -50% | -100% | -75.2% | -76.5% | -80.5% | -85.8% | -90.8% | |
| -40% | -80% | -64.4% | -66.2% | -72.0% | -79.5% | -86.8% | |
| -30% | -60% | -51.5% | -54.0% | -61.8% | -72.1% | -82.0% | |
| -20% | -40% | -36.6% | -39.9% | -50.2% | -63.5% | -76.5% | |
| -10% | -20% | -19.8% | -23.9% | -36.9% | -53.8% | -70.2% | |
| 0% | 0% | -1.0% | -6.1% | -22.1% | -43.0% | -63.2% | |
| 10% | 20% | 19.8% | 13.7% | -5.8% | -31.1% | -55.5% | |
| 20% | 40% | 42.6% | 35.3% | 12.1% | -18.0% | -47.0% | |
| 30% | 60% | 67.3% | 58.8% | 31.6% | -3.7% | -37.8% | |
| 40% | 80% | 94.0% | 84.1% | 52.6% | 11.7% | -27.9% | |
| 50% | 100% | 122.8% | 111.4% | 75.2% | 28.2% | -17.2% | |
| 60% | 120% | 153.5% | 140.5% | 99.4% | 45.9% | -5.8% | |
Since market volatility has negative implications for the Fund which rebalances its derivatives daily, investors should be sure to monitor and manage their investments in the Fund particularly in volatile markets. The negative implications of volatility in Table 1 can be combined with the recent volatility ranges of the then-current Target Portfolio’s historical volatility, which are expected to be high. Historical volatility and performance for the Underlying Securities are not likely indicative of future volatility and performance.
Concentration Risk. The Fund’s investments will be concentrated in the quantum computing industry or group of industries. As a result, the value of Shares may rise and fall more than the value of shares that invest in securities of companies in a broader range of industries.
Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in derivatives which exposes the Fund to the risk that the counterparty will not fulfill its obligation to the Fund. Counterparty risk may arise because of the counterparty’s financial condition (i.e., financial difficulties, bankruptcy, or insolvency), market activities and developments, or other reasons, whether foreseen or not. A counterparty’s inability to fulfill its obligation may result in significant financial loss to the Fund and the Fund may be unable to recover its investment from such counterparty or may obtain a limited and/or delayed recovery. The Fund engages in transactions with counterparties, which may include subsidiaries of public companies. Investors should be aware that the Fund may not have recourse to the parent company for obligations of such counterparties. Consequently, the Fund is exposed to the credit risk of these counterparties, and their inability to meet the terms of their agreements could result in financial loss to the Fund.
In addition, the Fund may enter into swap agreements with a limited number of counterparties, which may increase the Fund’s exposure to counterparty credit risk. Further, there is a risk that no suitable counterparties will be willing to enter into, or continue to enter into, transactions with the Fund and, as a result, the Fund may not be able to achieve its investment objective.
Daily Correlation/Tracking Risk. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of leveraged correlation to the Target Portfolio and therefore achieve its daily leveraged investment objective. To achieve a high degree of leveraged correlation with the Target Portfolio, the Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio daily to keep exposure consistent with its daily leveraged investment objective. The possibility of the Fund being materially over- or under-exposed to the Target Portfolio increases on days when the Target Portfolio is volatile near the close of the trading day. Market disruptions, regulatory restrictions and extreme volatility will also adversely affect the Fund’s ability to adjust exposure to the required levels. If there is a significant intra-day market event and/or the Target Portfolio experiences a significant increase or decline, the Fund may not meet its investment objective, be able to rebalance its portfolio appropriately, or may experience significant premiums or discounts, or widened bid-ask spreads.
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The Fund may have difficulty achieving its daily leveraged investment objective due to fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs related to the use of derivatives, investments in ETFs, directly or indirectly, income items, valuation methodology, accounting standards and disruptions or illiquidity in the markets for the securities or derivatives held by the Fund. The Fund may be subject to large movements of assets into and out of the Fund, potentially resulting in the Fund being over- or under-exposed to the Target Portfolio. The Fund may take or refrain from taking positions to improve the tax efficiency or to comply with various regulatory restrictions, either of which may negatively impact the Fund’s leveraged correlation to the Target Portfolio.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, leverage, imperfect daily correlations with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The use of derivatives may result in larger losses or smaller gains than directly investing in securities. When the Fund uses derivatives, there may be imperfect correlation between the market value of the Target Portfolio and the derivative, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. Because derivatives often require only a limited initial investment, the use of derivatives may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts initially invested.
The Fund will be subject to regulatory constraints relating to level of value at risk that the Fund may incur through its derivative portfolio. To the extent the Fund exceeds these regulatory thresholds over an extended period, the Fund may determine that it is necessary to make adjustments to the Fund’s investment strategy, including the desired daily leveraged performance for the Fund.
In addition, the Fund’s investments in derivatives are subject to the following risks:
Swap Agreements. The use of swap transactions is a highly specialized activity, which involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. Whether the Fund will be successful in using swap agreements to achieve its investment goal depends on the ability of the Adviser to structure such swap agreements in accordance with the Fund’s investment objective and to identify counterparties for those swap agreements. If the Adviser is unable to enter into swap agreements that provide leveraged exposure to the Target Portfolio, the Fund may not meet its stated investment objective. Additionally, any financing, borrowing or other costs associated with using swap transactions may also have the effect of lowering the Fund’s return.
The swap agreements in which the Fund invests are generally traded in the over-the-counter market, which generally has less transparency than exchange-traded derivatives instruments. In a standard swap transaction, two parties agree to exchange the return (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on particular predetermined reference assets or underlying securities or instruments. The gross return to be exchanged or swapped between the parties is calculated based on a notional amount or the return on or change in value of a particular dollar amount invested in a basket of securities.
If the Target Portfolio has a dramatic move that causes a material decline in the Fund’s net assets, the terms of a swap agreement between the Fund and its counterparty may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the swap transaction with the Fund. In that event, the Fund may be unable to enter into another swap agreement or invest in other derivatives to achieve exposure consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. This may prevent the Fund from achieving its leveraged investment objective, even if the Target Portfolio later reverses all or a portion of its movement.
Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.
When utilizing listed options, the Fund will primarily engage in uncovered options transactions (i.e., positions that are not offset by ownership of the underlying asset). These uncovered positions carry unique risks, as the Fund does not hold the underlying asset to offset potential losses. However, the Fund will fully collateralize such options with cash to seek to manage counterparty risk and to cap potential losses at the collateral amount. This collateralization does not eliminate risk but mitigates the extent of loss exposure.
The value of the options contracts in which the Fund invests are substantially influenced by the value of the Target Portfolio. The Fund may experience substantial downside from specific option positions and certain option positions held by the Fund may expire worthless. The options held by the Fund are exercisable at the strike price on their expiration date. As an option approaches its expiration date, its value typically increasingly moves with the value of the underlying instrument. However, prior to such date, the value of an option generally does not increase or decrease at the same rate as the underlying instrument. There may at times be an imperfect correlation between the movement in values options contracts and the underlying instrument, and there may at times not be a liquid secondary market for certain options contracts. The value of the options held by the Fund will be determined based on market quotations or other recognized pricing methods. The use of uncovered options introduces significant risks, including the potential for substantial losses if the market moves unfavorably against the Fund’s positions.
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Additionally, as the Fund intends to continuously maintain indirect exposure to the Target Portfolio through the use of options contracts, as the options contracts it holds are exercised or expire it will enter into new options contracts, a practice referred to as “rolling.” If the expiring options contracts do not generate proceeds enough to cover the cost of entering into new options contracts, the Fund may experience a reduction in overall returns or incur losses. The use of options to generate leverage introduces additional risks, including significant potential losses if the market moves unfavorably. The leverage inherent in options can amplify both gains and losses, leading to increased volatility and potential for substantial losses, particularly in periods of market uncertainty or low liquidity. Additionally, the Fund may incur losses if the value of the Target Portfolio moves against its positions, potentially resulting in a complete loss of the premium paid.
ETF Risks.
Authorized Participants, Market Makers, and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that are authorized to purchase and redeem Shares directly from the Fund (known as “Authorized Participants” or “APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services; or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to redeem Shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. For example, the Fund may not be able to redeem in-kind certain securities held by the Fund (e.g., derivative instruments). In such a case, the Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. By paying out higher annual capital gain distributions, investors may be subjected to increased capital gains taxes. The costs associated with cash redemptions may include brokerage costs that the Fund may not have incurred if it had made the redemptions in-kind. These costs could be imposed on the Fund, decreasing its NAV, to the extent these costs are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an authorized participant.
Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including brokerage commissions imposed by brokers and bid-ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.
Shares May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV, there may be times when the market price of Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount) due to supply and demand of Shares or during periods of market volatility. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility, periods of steep market declines, and periods when there is limited trading activity for Shares in the secondary market, in which case such premiums or discounts may be significant.
Trading. Although Shares are listed on a national securities exchange, such as [The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC] (the “Exchange”), and may be traded on U.S. exchanges other than the Exchange, there can be no assurance that Shares will trade with any volume, or at all, on any stock exchange. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings, which can be significantly less liquid than Shares. This adverse effect on liquidity for the Fund’s shares may lead to wider bid-ask spreads and differences between the market price of the Fund’s shares and the underlying value of the shares.
Liquidity Risk. In certain circumstances, such as the disruption of the orderly markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests, the Fund might not be able to acquire or dispose of certain holdings quickly or at prices that represent true market value in the judgment of the Adviser. Markets for the financial instruments in which the Fund invests may be disrupted by a number of events, including but not limited to economic crises, health crises, natural disasters, excessive volatility, new legislation, or regulatory changes inside or outside of the U.S. These situations may have an impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s own shares.”
Fixed Income Securities Risk. When the Fund invests in fixed income securities, the value of your investment in that Fund will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed income securities owned by the Fund. In general, the market price of fixed income securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. Other risk factors include credit risk (the debtor may default), extension risk (an issuer may exercise its right to repay principal on a fixed rate obligation held by the Fund later than expected), and prepayment risk (the debtor may pay its obligation early, reducing the amount of interest payments). These risks could affect the value of a particular investment by the Fund, possibly causing the Fund’s Share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments.
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High Portfolio Turnover Risk. Daily rebalancing of the Fund’s holdings pursuant to its daily investment objective causes a much greater number of portfolio transactions when compared to most ETFs. Additionally, active market trading of the Fund’s Shares on exchanges (such as the Exchange), could cause more frequent creation and redemption activities, which could increase the number of portfolio transactions. Frequent and active trading may lead to higher transaction costs because of increased broker commissions resulting from such transactions. In addition, there is the possibility of significantly increased short-term capital gains (which will be taxable to shareholders as ordinary income when distributed to them). The Fund calculates portfolio turnover without including the short-term cash instruments or derivative transactions that comprise the majority of the Fund’s trading. As such, if the Fund’s extensive use of derivative instruments were reflected, the calculated portfolio turnover rate would be significantly higher.
Intra-Day Investment Risk. The Fund seeks investment results from the close of the market on a given trading day until the close of the market on the subsequent trading day. The exact exposure of an investment in the Fund intraday in the secondary market is a function of the difference between the market value of the Target Portfolio at the market close on the first trading day and the market value of the Target Portfolio at the time of purchase. If the market value of the Target Portfolio rises, the Fund’s net assets will rise by approximately twice the amount as the Fund’s exposure. Conversely, if the market value of the Target Portfolio declines, the Fund’s net assets will decline by approximately two times the amount as the Fund’s exposure. Thus, an investor that purchases Shares intra-day may experience performance that is greater than, or less than, the Fund’s stated leveraged performance of the Target Portfolio.
If there is a significant intra-day market event and/or the securities of the Target Portfolio experience a significant increase or decrease, the Fund may not meet its investment objective or rebalance its portfolio appropriately.
Leverage Risk. The Fund obtains investment exposure in excess of its net assets by utilizing leverage and may lose more money in market conditions that are adverse to its investment objective than a fund that does not utilize leverage. An investment in the Fund is exposed to the risk that a decline in the daily performance of the Target Portfolio will be magnified. This means that an investment in the Fund will be reduced by an amount equal to 2% for every 1% daily decline in the market values of the Target Portfolio, not including the costs of financing leverage and other operating expenses, which would further reduce its value. The Fund could theoretically lose an amount greater than its net assets in the event the market value of the Target Portfolio declines more than 50%. Leverage will also have the effect of magnifying any differences in the Fund performance’s correlation with the Target Portfolio’s market value.
Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. Markets for securities or financial instruments could be disrupted by a number of events, including, but not limited to, an economic crisis, natural disasters, epidemics/pandemics, new legislation or regulatory changes inside or outside the United States. Illiquid securities may be difficult to value, especially in changing or volatile markets. If the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid security at an unfavorable time or price, the Fund may be adversely impacted. Certain market conditions or restrictions may prevent the Fund from limiting losses, realizing gains or achieving a high correlation with the Target Portfolio. There is no assurance that a security that is deemed liquid when purchased will continue to be liquid. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Fund.
Market Capitalization Risk.
Large-Capitalization Investing. The securities of large-capitalization companies may be relatively mature compared to smaller companies and therefore subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion. Large-capitalization companies may also be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.
Mid-Capitalization Investing. The securities of mid-capitalization companies may be more vulnerable to adverse issuer, market, political, or economic developments than securities of large-capitalization companies. The securities of mid-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than large-capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole.
Market Events Risk. The Fund’s investments are subject to changes in general economic conditions, general market fluctuations and the risks inherent in investment in securities and other financial instruments. Investment markets can be volatile and prices of investments can change substantially due to various factors including, but not limited to, economic growth or recession, changes in interest rates, inflation, changes in the actual or perceived creditworthiness of issuers, and general market liquidity. The Fund is subject to the risk that geopolitical events will disrupt securities and other financial markets and adversely affect global economies and markets. Local, regional or global events such as war, military conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on the Fund and its investments. Continuing uncertainties regarding interest rates, rising inflation, political events, rising government debt in the U.S. and trade tensions also contribute to market volatility. Conflict, loss of life and disaster connected to ongoing armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia in Europe and between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East could have severe adverse effects on the related region, including significant adverse effects on the regional or global economies and the markets for certain securities. The U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on certain Russian individuals and companies, including certain financial institutions, and have limited certain exports and imports to and from Russia. These conflicts have contributed to recent market volatility and may continue to do so.
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Models and Data Risk. The composition of the Fund’s portfolio is heavily dependent on investment models as well as information and data supplied by third parties (“Models and Data”). When Models and Data prove to be incorrect or incomplete, any decisions made in reliance thereon may lead to the inclusion or exclusion of securities from the Fund’s portfolio that would have been excluded or included had the Models and Data been correct and complete. Errors in programming, data entry, system compatibility, or database integrity can result in the unintended inclusion or exclusion of securities in the Fund’s portfolio. Such errors, whether due to human or technological factors, could induce the Adviser to make investment choices that would not have been made with accurate and complete information, potentially leading to losses or missed gains for the Fund.
Money Market Instrument Risk. The Fund may use a variety of money market instruments for cash management purposes, including money market funds, depositary accounts and repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements are contracts in which a seller of securities agrees to buy the securities back at a specified time and price. Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk related to the collateral securing the repurchase agreement. Money market instruments may lose money.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have any (or only a limited) track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund. As a result, a decline in the value of an investment in a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers could cause the Fund’s overall value to decline to a greater degree than if the Fund held a more diversified portfolio.
Operational Risk. The Fund is subject to risks arising from various operational factors, including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund relies on third-parties for a range of services, including custody. Any delay or failure relating to engaging or maintaining such service providers may affect the Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective. Although the Fund and the Fund’s investment advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
Quantum Computing Industry Risk. The quantum computing industry may be significantly affected by intense competition, aggressive pricing dynamics, rapid technological advancements, and the risk of product obsolescence. Companies in this industry face substantial competitive pressures, including competition for market share, the entry of new participants, and short innovation cycles driven by accelerated technological developments. These factors may result in limited earnings potential, declining profit margins, or both. Companies in the quantum computing sector are also exposed to the risk that their technologies, products, or services may fail to gain acceptance by consumers or businesses or may become rapidly outdated due to evolving advancements. The success of many quantum computing companies depends heavily on patent protection and intellectual property rights, making the cost of obtaining (or failing to obtain) patent approvals, litigating patent disputes, and the potential loss of patent protection critical factors affecting profitability. The expiration or invalidation of key patents can intensify pricing pressures and materially reduce profitability. Additionally, many companies in this sector have limited operating histories, adding to the uncertainty of their financial stability and long-term viability. Securities of quantum computing companies have historically demonstrated higher volatility compared to broader markets, particularly over shorter time frames, reflecting the speculative nature of the industry and the risks inherent in pioneering emerging technologies.
Rebalancing Risk. If for any reason the Fund is unable to rebalance all or a portion of its derivatives portfolio, or if all or a portion of the portfolio is rebalanced incorrectly, the Fund’s investment exposure may not be consistent with the Fund’s investment objective. In these instances, the Fund may have investment exposure to the Target Portfolio that is significantly greater or less than its stated investment objective. As a result, the Fund may be exposed to leverage risk because it had not been properly rebalanced and may not achieve its investment objective.
Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable tax treatment generally available to regulated investment companies, the Fund must satisfy certain diversification and other requirements. In particular, the Fund generally may not acquire a security if, as a result of the acquisition, more than 50% of the value of the Fund’s assets would be invested in (a) issuers in which the Fund has, in each case, invested more than 5% of the Fund’s assets and (b) issuers more than 10% of whose outstanding voting securities are owned by the Fund. The application of these requirements to certain investments (including swaps) that may be entered into by the Fund is unclear. In addition, the application of these requirements to the Fund’s investment objective is not clear. If the Fund were to fail to qualify as a regulated investment company, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income.
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Tracking Error Risk. Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund’s performance from that of its investment objective which aims to replicate two times the daily percentage change in the price of the Target Portfolio. Tracking error may occur for a number of reasons. Tracking error may occur because of transaction costs, the Fund’s holding of cash, differences in accrual of dividends, being under- or overexposed to the Target Portfolio or the need to meet new or existing regulatory requirements. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of market volatility or other unusual market conditions such as market disruptions. The Fund may be required to deviate from its investment objectives, and therefore experience tracking error, as a result of market restrictions or other legal reasons, including regulatory limits or other restrictions on securities that may be purchased by the Adviser and its affiliates.
U.S. Government and U.S. Agency Obligations Risk. The Fund may invest in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. Government obligations include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, such as the U.S. Treasury. Payment of principal and interest on U.S. Government obligations may be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States or may be backed solely by the issuing or guaranteeing agency or instrumentality itself. In the latter case, the investor must look principally to the agency or instrumentality issuing or guaranteeing the obligation for ultimate repayment, which agency or instrumentality may be privately owned. There can be no assurance that the U.S. Government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) where it is not obligated to do so.
Information about the Fund’s daily portfolio holdings is, or will be, available on the Fund’s website at www.defianceetfs.com.
A complete description of the Fund’s policies and procedures with respect to the disclosure of the Fund’s portfolio holdings is available in the Fund’s SAI.
Investment Adviser
Tidal Investments LLC (the “Adviser”), located at 234 West Florida Street, Suite 203, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204, is an SEC registered investment adviser and a Delaware limited liability company. Tidal was founded in March 2012 and is dedicated to understanding, researching and managing assets within the expanding ETF universe. As of [ ], 2025, Tidal had assets under management of approximately $[ ] billion and served as the investment adviser or sub-adviser for [ ] registered funds.
Tidal serves as investment adviser to the Fund and has overall responsibility for the general management and administration of the Fund pursuant to an investment advisory agreement with the Trust, on behalf of the Fund (the “Advisory Agreement”). The Adviser is responsible for trading portfolio securities and financial instruments for the Fund, including selecting broker-dealers to execute purchase and sale transactions. The Adviser also arranges for transfer agency, custody, fund administration, and all other related services necessary for the Fund to operate. For the services provided to the Fund, the Fund pays the Adviser a unitary management fee of [ ]%, which is calculated daily and paid monthly, at an annual rate based on the Fund’s average daily net assets.
Under the Advisory Agreement, in exchange for a single unitary management fee from the Fund, the Adviser has agreed to pay all expenses incurred by the Fund except for interest charges on any borrowings made for investment purposes, dividends and other expenses on securities sold short, taxes, brokerage commissions and other expenses incurred in placing orders for the purchase and sale of securities and other investment instruments, acquired fund fees and expenses, accrued deferred tax liability, extraordinary expenses, distribution fees and expenses paid by the Fund under any distribution plan adopted pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act, and the unitary management fee payable to the Adviser (collectively, the “Excluded Expenses”).
A discussion regarding the basis for the Board’s approval of the Fund’s Advisory Agreement will be available in the annual report to shareholders on Form N-CSR.
Portfolio Managers
The following individuals (each, a “Portfolio Manager”) have served as portfolio managers of the Fund since inception in 2025 and are primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund.
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Michael Venuto, Chief Investment Officer for the Adviser
Mr. Venuto is a co-founder and has been the Chief Investment Officer of the Adviser since 2012. Mr. Venuto is an ETF industry veteran with over a decade of experience in the design and implementation of ETF-based investment strategies. Previously, he was Head of Investments at Global X Funds where he provided portfolio optimization services to institutional clients. Before that, he was Senior Vice President at Horizon Kinetics where his responsibilities included new business development, investment strategy and client and strategic initiatives. Mr. Venuto studied Philosophy and Religion at NC State University.
Daniel Weiskopf, Portfolio Manager for the Adviser
Mr. Weiskopf serves as Portfolio Manager at Tidal, having joined the firm in May 2018. Mr. Weiskopf has been an ETF Strategist since 2003, and was the portfolio manager and founder of MH Capital Partners, a small cap hedge fund from 1995 until 2003 which focused on asset light business models. Firms that Mr. Weiskopf has been affiliated with include, Investment Planners, Forefront Capital, UBS Financial and American Diversified Enterprises, an affiliated of Allen & Company. Mr. Weiskopf graduated with an MBA from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business, and holds a series 7 and 65 license.
The Fund’s SAI provides additional information about each portfolio manager’s compensation structure, other accounts that each portfolio manager manages, and each portfolio manager’s ownership of Shares.
FUND SPONSOR
The Adviser has entered into a fund sponsorship agreement with Defiance ETFs, LLC (“Defiance”) pursuant to which Defiance is a sponsor to the Fund. Under this arrangement, Defiance has agreed to provide financial support (as described below) to the Fund. Every month, unitary management fees for the Fund are calculated and paid to the Adviser, and the Adviser retains a portion of the unitary management fees from the Fund.
In return for its financial support for the Fund, the Adviser has agreed to pay Defiance a portion of any remaining profits generated by unitary management fee the Fund. If the amount of the unitary management fees exceeds the Fund’s operating expenses and the Adviser-retained amount, that excess amount is considered “remaining profit.” In that case, the Adviser will pay a portion of the remaining profits to Defiance.
If the amount of the unitary management fee for the Fund is less than its operating expenses and the Adviser-retained amount, Defiance is obligated to reimburse the Adviser for a portion of the shortfall.
The Fund issues and redeems Shares only in Creation Units at the NAV per share next determined after receipt of an order from an AP. Only APs may acquire Shares directly from the Fund, and only APs may tender their Shares for redemption directly to the Fund, at NAV. APs must be a member or participant of a clearing agency registered with the SEC and must execute a Participant Agreement that has been agreed to by the Distributor (defined below), and that has been accepted by the Fund’s transfer agent, with respect to purchases and redemptions of Creation Units. Once created, Shares trade in the secondary market in quantities less than a Creation Unit.
In order to purchase Creation Units of the Fund, an AP must generally deposit a designated portfolio of equity securities (the “Deposit Securities”) and/or a designated amount of U.S. cash. Purchases and redemptions of Creation Units primarily with cash, rather than through in-kind delivery of portfolio securities, may cause the Fund to incur certain costs. These costs could include brokerage costs or taxable gains or losses that it might not have incurred if it had made redemption in-kind. These costs could be imposed on the Fund, and thus decrease the Fund’s NAV, to the extent that the costs are not offset by a transaction fee payable by an AP.
Most investors buy and sell Shares in secondary market transactions through brokers. Individual Shares are listed for trading on the secondary market on the Exchange and can be bought and sold throughout the trading day like other publicly traded securities.
When buying or selling Shares through a broker, you will incur customary brokerage commissions and charges, and you may pay some or all of the spread between the bid and the offer price in the secondary market on each leg of a round trip (purchase and sale) transaction. In addition, because secondary market transactions occur at market prices, you may pay more than NAV when you buy Shares, and receive less than NAV when you sell those Shares.
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Book Entry
Shares are held in book-entry form, which means that no stock certificates are issued. The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) or its nominee is the record owner of all outstanding Shares.
Investors owning Shares are beneficial owners as shown on the records of DTC or its participants. DTC serves as the securities depository for all Shares. DTC’s participants include securities brokers and dealers, banks, trust companies, clearing corporations and other institutions that directly or indirectly maintain a custodial relationship with DTC. As a beneficial owner of Shares, you are not entitled to receive physical delivery of stock certificates or to have Shares registered in your name, and you are not considered a registered owner of Shares. Therefore, to exercise any right as an owner of Shares, you must rely upon the procedures of DTC and its participants. These procedures are the same as those that apply to any other securities that you hold in book-entry or “street name” through your brokerage account.
Frequent Purchases and Redemptions of Shares
The Fund does not impose any restrictions on the frequency of purchases and redemptions of Shares. In determining not to approve a written, established policy, the Board evaluated the risks of market timing activities by the Fund’s shareholders. Purchases and redemptions by APs, who are the only parties that may purchase or redeem Shares directly with the Fund, are an essential part of the ETF process and help keep Share trading prices in line with the NAV. As such, the Fund accommodates frequent purchases and redemptions by APs. However, the Board has also determined that frequent purchases and redemptions for cash may increase tracking error and portfolio transaction costs and may lead to the realization of capital gains. To minimize these potential consequences of frequent purchases and redemptions, the Fund employs fair value pricing and may impose transaction fees on purchases and redemptions of Creation Units to cover the custodial and other costs incurred by the Fund in effecting trades. In addition, the Fund and the Adviser reserve the right to reject any purchase order at any time.
Determination of Net Asset Value
The Fund’s NAV is calculated as of the scheduled close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), generally 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, each day the NYSE is open for regular business. The NAV for the Fund is calculated by dividing the Fund’s net assets by its Shares outstanding.
In calculating its NAV, the Fund generally values its assets on the basis of market quotations, last sale prices, or estimates of value furnished by a pricing service or brokers who make markets in such instruments. If such information is not available for a security held by the Fund or is determined to be unreliable, the security will be valued at fair value estimates under guidelines established by the Adviser (as described below).
Fair Value Pricing
The Board has designated the Adviser as the “valuation designee” for the Fund under Rule 2a-5 of the 1940 Act, subject to its oversight. The Adviser has adopted procedures and methodologies, which have been approved by the Board, to fair value Fund investments whose market prices are not “readily available” or are deemed to be unreliable. For example, such circumstances may arise when: (i) an investment has been delisted or has had its trading halted or suspended; (ii) an investment’s primary pricing source is unable or unwilling to provide a price; (iii) an investment’s primary trading market is closed during regular market hours; or (iv) an investment’s value is materially affected by events occurring after the close of the investment’s primary trading market. Generally, when fair valuing an investment, the Adviser will take into account all reasonably available information that may be relevant to a particular valuation including, but not limited to, fundamental analytical data regarding the issuer, information relating to the issuer’s business, recent trades or offers of the investment, general and/or specific market conditions, and the specific facts giving rise to the need to fair value the investment. Fair value determinations are made in good faith and in accordance with the fair value methodologies included in the Adviser’s valuation procedures. The Adviser will fair value Fund investments whose market prices are not “readily available” or are deemed to be unreliable. The Adviser will fair value Fund investments whose market prices are not “readily available” or are deemed to be unreliable. Due to the subjective and variable nature of fair value pricing, there can be no assurance that the Adviser will be able to obtain the fair value assigned to the investment upon the sale of such investment.
Delivery of Shareholder Documents – Householding
Householding is an option available to certain investors of the Fund. Householding is a method of delivery, based on the preference of the individual investor, in which a single copy of certain shareholder documents can be delivered to investors who share the same address, even if their accounts are registered under different names. Householding for the Fund is available through certain broker-dealers. If you are interested in enrolling in householding and receiving a single copy of prospectuses and other shareholder documents, please contact your broker-dealer. If you are currently enrolled in householding and wish to change your householding status, please contact your broker-dealer.
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DIVIDENDS, DISTRIBUTIONS, AND TAXES
Dividends and Distributions
The Fund intends to pay out dividends and interest income, if any, monthly, and distribute any net realized capital gains to its shareholders at least annually.
The Fund will declare and pay income and capital gain distributions, if any, in cash. Distributions in cash may be reinvested automatically in additional whole Shares only if the broker through whom you purchased Shares makes such option available. Your broker is responsible for distributing the income and capital gain distributions to you.
Taxes
The following discussion is a summary of some important U.S. federal income tax considerations generally applicable to investments in the Fund. Your investment in the Fund may have other tax implications. Please consult your tax advisor about the tax consequences of an investment in Shares, including the possible application of foreign, state, and local tax laws.
The Fund intends to qualify each year for treatment as a regulated investment company (a “RIC”) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. If it meets certain minimum distribution requirements, a RIC is not subject to tax at the fund level on income and gains from investments that are timely distributed to shareholders. However, the Fund’s failure to qualify as a RIC or to meet minimum distribution requirements would result (if certain relief provisions were not available) in fund-level taxation and, consequently, a reduction in income available for distribution to shareholders.
Unless your investment in Shares is made through a tax-exempt entity or tax-advantaged account, such as an IRA plan, you need to be aware of the possible tax consequences when the Fund makes distributions, when you sell your Shares listed on the Exchange, and when you purchase or redeem Creation Units (institutional investors only).
The following general discussion of certain U.S. federal income tax consequences is based on provisions of the Code and the regulations issued thereunder as in effect on the date of this SAI. New legislation, as well as administrative changes or court decisions, may significantly change the conclusions expressed herein, and may have a retroactive effect with respect to the transactions contemplated herein.
Taxes on Distributions. The Fund intends to pay out dividends and interest income, if any, monthly, and distribute any net realized capital gains to its shareholders at least annually. For federal income tax purposes, distributions of net investment income are generally taxable as ordinary income or qualified dividend income. Taxes on distributions of net capital gains (if any) are determined by how long the Fund owned the investments that generated them, rather than how long a shareholder has owned their Shares. Sales of assets held by the Fund for more than one year generally result in long-term capital gains and losses, and sales of assets held by the Fund for one year or less generally result in short-term capital gains and losses. Distributions of the Fund’s net capital gain (the excess of net long-term capital gains over net short-term capital losses) that are reported by the Fund as capital gain dividends (“Capital Gain Dividends”) will be taxable as long-term capital gains. Distributions of short-term capital gain will generally be taxable as ordinary income. Dividends and distributions are generally taxable to you whether you receive them in cash or reinvest them in additional Shares.
Distributions reported by the Fund as “qualified dividend income” are generally taxed to non-corporate shareholders at rates applicable to long-term capital gains, provided certain holding period and other requirements are met. “Qualified dividend income” generally is income derived from dividends paid by U.S. corporations or certain foreign corporations that are either incorporated in a U.S. possession or eligible for tax benefits under certain U.S. income tax treaties. In addition, dividends that the Fund receives in respect of stock of certain foreign corporations may be qualified dividend income if that stock is readily tradable on an established U.S. securities market. Corporate shareholders may be entitled to a dividends-received deduction for the portion of dividends they receive from the Fund that are attributable to dividends received by the Fund from U.S. corporations, subject to certain limitations. Given the investment strategies of the Fund, it is unlikely that any dividends paid by the Fund will be qualified dividends or be eligible for the corporate dividends paid deduction.
Shortly after the close of each calendar year, you will be informed of the character of any distributions received from the Fund.
In addition to the federal income tax, certain individuals, trusts, and estates may be subject to a Net Investment Income (“NII”) tax of 3.8%. The NII tax is imposed on the lesser of: (i) a taxpayer’s investment income, net of deductions properly allocable to such income; or (ii) the amount by which such taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income exceeds certain thresholds ($250,000 for married individuals filing jointly, $200,000 for unmarried individuals and $125,000 for married individuals filing separately). The Fund’s distributions are includable in a shareholder’s investment income for purposes of this NII tax. In addition, any capital gain realized by a shareholder upon a sale or redemption of shares of the Fund is includable in such shareholder’s investment income for purposes of this NII tax.
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In general, your distributions are subject to federal income tax for the year in which they are paid. Certain distributions paid in January, however, may be treated as paid on December 31 of the prior year. Distributions are generally taxable even if they are paid from income or gains earned by the Fund before your investment (and thus were included in the Shares’ NAV when you purchased your Shares).
You may wish to avoid investing in the Fund shortly before a dividend or other distribution, because such a distribution will generally be taxable even though it may economically represent a return of a portion of your investment.
If you are neither a resident nor a citizen of the United States or if you are a foreign entity, distributions (other than Capital Gain Dividends) paid to you by the Fund will generally be subject to a U.S. withholding tax at the rate of 30%, unless a lower treaty rate applies. The Fund may, under certain circumstances, report all or a portion of a dividend as an “interest-related dividend” or a “short-term capital gain dividend,” which would generally be exempt from this 30% U.S. withholding tax, provided certain other requirements are met.
Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), the Fund may be required to withhold a generally nonrefundable 30% tax on distributions of net taxable income paid to (A) certain “foreign financial institutions” unless such foreign financial institution agrees to verify, monitor, and report to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) the identity of certain of its account-holders, among other items (or unless such entity is otherwise deemed compliant under the terms of an intergovernmental agreement between the United States and the foreign financial institution’s country of residence), and (B) certain “non-financial foreign entities” unless such entity certifies to the Fund that it does not have any substantial U.S. owners or provides the name, address, and taxpayer identification number of each substantial U.S. owner, among other items. This FATCA withholding tax could also affect the Fund’s return on its investments in foreign securities or affect a shareholder’s return if the shareholder holds its Fund shares through a foreign intermediary. You are urged to consult your tax adviser regarding the application of this FATCA withholding tax to your investment in the Fund and the potential certification, compliance, due diligence, reporting, and withholding obligations to which you may become subject in order to avoid this withholding tax.
The Fund (or a financial intermediary, such as a broker, through which a shareholder owns Shares) generally is required to withhold and remit to the U.S. Treasury a percentage of the taxable distributions and sale or redemption proceeds paid to any shareholder who fails to properly furnish a correct taxpayer identification number, who has underreported dividend or interest income, or who fails to certify that they are not subject to such withholding.
Taxes When Shares are Sold on the Exchange
Any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Shares generally is treated as a long-term capital gain or loss if Shares have been held for more than one year and as a short-term capital gain or loss if Shares have been held for one year or less. However, any capital loss on a sale of Shares held for six months or less is treated as long-term capital loss to the extent of Capital Gain Dividends paid with respect to such Shares. Any loss realized on a sale will be disallowed to the extent Shares of the Fund are acquired, including through reinvestment of dividends, within a 61-day period beginning 30 days before and ending 30 days after the sale of substantially identical Shares.
Taxes on Purchases and Redemptions of Creation Units
An AP having the U.S. dollar as its functional currency for U.S. federal income tax purposes who exchanges securities for Creation Units generally recognizes a gain or a loss. The gain or loss will be equal to the difference between the value of the Creation Units at the time of the exchange and the exchanging AP’s aggregate basis in the securities delivered plus the amount of any cash paid for the Creation Units. An AP who exchanges Creation Units for securities will generally recognize a gain or loss equal to the difference between the exchanging AP’s basis in the Creation Units and the aggregate U.S. dollar market value of the securities received, plus any cash received for such Creation Units. The IRS may assert, however, that a loss that is realized upon an exchange of securities for Creation Units may not be currently deducted under the rules governing “wash sales” (for an AP who does not mark-to-market their holdings) or on the basis that there has been no significant change in economic position. Persons exchanging securities should consult their own tax advisor with respect to whether wash sale rules apply and when a loss might be deductible.
Any capital gain or loss realized upon redemption of Creation Units is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if Shares comprising the Creation Units have been held for more than one year and as a short-term capital gain or loss if such Shares have been held for one year or less.
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The Fund may include a payment of cash in addition to, or in place of, the delivery of a basket of securities upon the redemption of Creation Units. The Fund may sell portfolio securities to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize investment income and/or capital gains or losses that they might not have recognized if they had completely satisfied the redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may be less tax efficient if it includes such a cash payment in the proceeds paid upon the redemption of Creation Units.
The foregoing discussion summarizes some of the possible consequences under current federal tax law of an investment in the Fund. It is not a substitute for personal tax advice. You also may be subject to foreign, state and local tax on Fund distributions and sales of Shares. Consult your personal tax advisor about the potential tax consequences of an investment in Shares under all applicable tax laws. For more information, please see the section entitled “Federal Income Taxes” in the SAI.
Foreside Fund Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foreside Financial Group (dba ACA Group), (the “Distributor”), the Fund’s distributor, is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC. The Distributor distributes Creation Units for the Fund on an agency basis and does not maintain a secondary market in Shares. The Distributor has no role in determining the policies of the Fund or the securities that are purchased or sold by the Fund. The Distributor’s principal address is Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100, Portland, Maine 04101.
The Board has adopted a Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Plan (the “Plan”) pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act. In accordance with the Plan, the Fund is authorized to pay an amount up to 0.25% of its average daily net assets each year to pay distribution fees for the sale and distribution of its Shares.
No Rule 12b-1 fees are currently paid by the Fund, and there are no plans to impose these fees. However, in the event Rule 12b-1 fees are charged in the future, because the fees are paid out of assets of the respective Fund on an ongoing basis, over time these fees will increase the cost of your investment and may cost you more than certain other types of sales charges.
Information regarding how often Shares of the Fund traded on the Exchange at a price above (i.e., at a premium) or below (i.e., at a discount) the NAV of the Fund can be found on the Fund’s website at www.defianceetfs.com. When available, information regarding the number of days in the prior six months that a Fund failed to provide the sought after leveraged returns (subject to a de minimis threshold) as well as the highest positive and negative variances during the period can be found on the Funds’ website at www.defianceetfs.com.
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Shares are not sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by the Exchange. The Exchange is not responsible for, nor has it participated in the determination of, the timing, prices, or quantities of Shares to be issued, nor in the determination or calculation of the equation by which Shares are redeemable. The Exchange has no obligation or liability to owners of Shares in connection with the administration, marketing, or trading of Shares.
Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall the Exchange have any liability for any lost profits or indirect, punitive, special, or consequential damages even if notified of the possibility thereof.
The Adviser and the Fund make no representation or warranty, express or implied, to the owners of Shares or any member of the public regarding the advisability of investing in securities generally or in any Fund particularly.
The Third Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust (“Declaration of Trust”) provides a detailed process for the bringing of derivative or direct actions by shareholders in order to permit legitimate inquiries and claims while avoiding the time, expense, distraction, and other harm that can be caused to the Fund or its shareholders as a result of spurious shareholder demands and derivative actions. Prior to bringing a derivative action, a demand by three unrelated shareholders must first be made on the Fund’s Trustees. The Declaration of Trust details various information, certifications, undertakings and acknowledgments that must be included in the demand. Following receipt of the demand, the trustees have a period of 90 days, which may be extended by an additional 60 days, to consider the demand. If a majority of the Trustees who are considered independent for the purposes of considering the demand determine that maintaining the suit would not be in the best interests of the Fund, the Trustees are required to reject the demand and the complaining shareholders may not proceed with the derivative action unless the shareholders are able to sustain the burden of proof to a court that the decision of the Trustees not to pursue the requested action was not a good faith exercise of their business judgment on behalf of the Fund. The Declaration of Trust further provides that shareholders owning Shares representing no less than a majority of the Fund’s outstanding shares must join in bringing the derivative action. If a demand is rejected, the complaining shareholders will be responsible for the costs and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) incurred by the Fund in connection with the consideration of the demand, if a court determines that the demand was made without reasonable cause or for an improper purpose. If a derivative action is brought in violation of the Declaration of Trust, the shareholders bringing the action may be responsible for the Fund’s costs, including attorneys’ fees, if a court determines that the action was brought without reasonable cause or for an improper purpose. The Declaration of Trust provides that no shareholder may bring a direct action claiming injury as a shareholder of the Trust, or any Fund, where the matters alleged (if true) would give rise to a claim by the Trust or by the Trust on behalf of the Fund, unless the shareholder has suffered an injury distinct from that suffered by the shareholders of the Trust, or the Fund, generally. Under the Declaration of Trust, a shareholder bringing a direct claim must be a shareholder of the Fund with respect to which the direct action is brought at the time of the injury complained of or have acquired the shares afterwards by operation of law from a person who was a shareholder at that time. The Declaration of Trust further provides that the Fund shall be responsible for payment of attorneys’ fees and legal expenses incurred by a complaining shareholder only if required by law, and any attorneys’ fees that the Fund is obligated to pay shall be calculated using reasonable hourly rates. These provisions do not apply to claims brought under the federal securities laws.
The Declaration of Trust also requires that actions by shareholders against the Fund be brought exclusively in a federal or state court located within the State of Delaware. This provision will not apply to claims brought under the federal securities laws. Limiting shareholders’ ability to bring actions only in courts located in Delaware may cause shareholders economic hardship to litigate the action in those courts, including paying for travel expenses of witnesses and counsel, requiring retaining local counsel, and may limit shareholders’ ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that shareholders find favorable for disputes, which may discourage such actions.
This section would ordinarily include Financial Highlights. The Financial Highlights table is intended to help you understand the performance of the Fund for its periods of operations. Because the Fund has not yet completed its initial fiscal period as of the date of this Prospectus, no Financial Highlights are shown.
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Defiance 2X Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF
| Adviser | Tidal
Investments LLC 234 West Florida Street, Suite 203 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204 |
Administrator |
Tidal
ETF Services LLC Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204 |
| Distributor | Foreside
Fund Services, LLC Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100 Portland, Maine 04101 |
Sub-Administrator, Fund Accountant, and
Transfer Agent
|
U.S.
Bancorp Fund Services, LLC, doing business as U.S. Bank Global Fund Services 615 East Michigan Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 |
| Legal Counsel | Sullivan
& Worcester LLP 1251 Avenue of the Americas 19th Floor New York, New York 10020 |
Custodian | U.S.
Bank National Association 1555 North Rivercenter Dr. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212 |
| Independent
Registered Public Accounting Firm |
Cohen & Company, Ltd. 1835 Market Street, Suite 310 Philadelphia, PA 19103 |
Investors may find more information about the Fund in the following documents:
Statement of Additional Information: The Fund’s SAI provides additional details about the investments of the Fund and certain other additional information. A current SAI dated [ ], 2025, as supplemented from time to time, is on file with the SEC and is herein incorporated by reference into this Prospectus. It is legally considered a part of this Prospectus.
Annual/Semi-Annual Reports: Additional information about the Fund’s investments is available in the Fund’s annual and semi-annual reports to shareholders and in Form N-CSR. In the annual report you will find a discussion of the market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected the Fund’s performance after the first fiscal year the Fund is in operation. In Form N-CSR, you will find the Fund’s annual and semi-annual financial statements.
You can obtain free copies of these documents request other information or make general inquiries about the Fund by contacting the Fund at the Defiance 2X Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF, c/o U.S. Bank Global Fund Services, P.O. Box 701, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-0701 or calling (833) 333-9383.
Shareholder reports and other information about the Fund is also available:
| ● | Free of charge from the SEC’s EDGAR database on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov; or | |
| ● | Free of charge from the Fund’s Internet website at www.defianceetfs.com; or | |
| ● | For a fee, by e-mail request to [email protected]. |
(SEC Investment Company Act File No. 811-23793)
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