Bullish strategist Tom Lee aims for the next big opportunity in ETF market

The Granny Shots US Large Cap ETF (ticker GRNY) is a new exchange-traded fund from Tom Lee, a chief investment officer at Fundstrat Capital. Since debuting earlier this month, the fund has collected over $400 million and gained 2.2%, topping the S&P 500’s 0.2%.

He co-manages the fund with Ken Xuan, and Lee figures that GRNY will be the first of many ETFs branded with his investment philosophy. “We’re already planning the next series to follow this one,” he said.

According to a Bloomberg report,  Tom Lee shared the fund’s name comes from an unconventional basketball free-throw style. This is similar to his systematic, theme-based way of picking stocks.

Lee believes that it may appear uncool, but it affords the best chance of success.

GRNY comprises stocks that fall under a couple of themes both long and short term. While four long-term themes include making financial conditions easy, and global labor suppliers, short-term themes are like seasonality and style tilt.

It will rebalance quarterly while holding about 35 stocks with dynamic themes.

GRNY’s top holdings are Axon Enterprise Inc., CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, and Tesla Inc.

Lee is confident even though GRNY launched during what’s proving a difficult period for stock pickers. This period had roughly two-thirds of large-caps managers underperforming the S&P 500.

The co-owner of Fundstrat says that their firm’s growth and loyal client base aren’t just because they’re bullish. He emphasizes that their process isn’t a “black box process” and that widespread transparency has been well received.

He has often made bold predictions like the S&P 500 hitting 15,000 and Bitcoin coming in at $10 million. Lee is different from most other Wall Street analysts who typically go along with consensus.

He is popular with individual investors who are keen on market speculation thanks to his optimistic views. 

He has an accurate forecast track record. His S&P 500 prediction last year was the most accurate with an index of 24% than 20 Wall Street strategists tracked by Bloomberg. It was the same this year, with 26% of even the most optimistic forecasts. He also recently said the S&P 500 could reach 15,000 by 2030.

Lee has been predicting high prices for Bitcoin at least since 2018

According to him, BTC would hit $150,000 by year-end and in February. He predicted this because he anticipated a supply-demand imbalance as miners earn less for their efforts. Furthermore, the incoming president Donald Trump will aim to create a national Bitcoin reserve.

Since 2018 and 2022 were miserable years for risk assets, Lee readily admits you can’t stay positive all the time. This is because his positive views were dashed.

However, he believes, success goes beyond having a recognizable name.

“I don’t think just because someone is famous, they can release an ETF and attract assets,” says Tom Lee.

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