Around 160 single-stock funds have launched since the first in 2022. ETFs that trade in a single equity, revved up with derivatives to multiply performance, have surged in popularity and pulled in billions of dollars, even as they are known as the riskiest, most volatile corner of the exchange-traded fund market.
In the US market, AXS Investments was the first firm to launch single-stock ETFs. They debuted their first suite of eight such funds on July 14, 2022, offering leveraged and inverse exposure to the daily performance of several high-profile single stocks like Tesla, NVIDIA, PayPal, Nike, and Pfizer. While single-stock ETFs were already available in Europe starting in 2018, AXS Investments was the first to navigate the regulatory process and introduce these products in the US.The initial suite of AXS single-stock ETFs provided investors with leveraged long ("Bull") and short ("Bear") daily exposure to the following stocks:
- Tesla: AXS TSLA Bear Daily ETF (TSLQ)
- NVIDIA: AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF (NVDS)
- PayPal: AXS 1.5X PYPL Bull Daily ETF (PYPT) and AXS 1.5X PYPL Bear Daily ETF (PYPS)
- Nike: AXS 2X NKE Bull Daily ETF (NKEL) and AXS 2X NKE Bear Daily ETF (NKEQ)
- Pfizer: AXS 2X PFE Bull Daily ETF (PFEL) and AXS 2X PFE Bear Daily ETF (PFES)