The Teucrium Agricultural Strategy No K-1 ETF (TILL) launched on May 17th. An actively managed, long-only, diversified agricultural ETF that provides futures price exposure to corn, wheat, soybeans, and sugar markets, TILL issues 1099 tax forms rather than K-1 forms. Over the past two days, TILL has seen $65 million in creates. Last week, the fund had $4.6 million in AUM.
Teucrium managing director and senior portfolio strategist Jake Hanley said, “We remain the go to for ETF investors looking for exposure to agriculture markets.”
Teucrium’s mission is to give investors easy access to alternative investments. Other funds in its agricultural suite include the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN), the Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT), the Teucrium Soybean Fund (SOYB), the Teucrium Sugar Fund (CANE), and the Teucrium Agricultural Fund (TAGS). “By offering different fund structures and strategies, we provide investors with an opportunity to choose the Teucrium ETF that most clearly aligns with their objective,” Hanley noted. As an example, TILL is the only strategy in the suite that issues 1099s rather than K-1s, giving different investors an array of tools they can use to get their alternative exposure.
Leaning Into Alternatives
2022 has been marked by volatility, inflation, geopolitical tensions, rising rates, and a host of structural concerns and investor fears. A bout of positive economic news culminating in a surprisingly healthy jobs report has alleviated some recession concerns, but the possibility of a prolonged economic slowdown remains deeply entrenched in some corners of the investment community.
With both stocks and bonds being pummeled early in the year, alternatives demonstrated their critical importance in providing versatility to portfolios. Hanley observed that the Teucrium agricultural index has outperformed the S&P 500 in four of the last five market corrections of 10% or greater. Hanley said, “An allocation to agriculture can result in a more resilient investment portfolio. Commodities such as Corn, sugar, soybeans, and wheat all zig when others zag.”
Interest in agriculture has skyrocketed. VettaFi’s Tom Hendrickson noted a spike in research of agricultural ETFs in a recent episode of ETF Prime. Agriculture and commodities in general have cooled slightly of late, and TILL breaking out could be a sign that investors are taking advantage of the drawdown in preparation for prices to continue to surge.
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