Katie Stockton believes there are viable options for investors looking to withstand volatility in the wild market.
She manages a FairLead Tactical Sector ETF (Tack), designed to be agile during market stress. It is not tied to an index.
“What we’re trying to do is help investors leverage the rise through sector rotation, but minimize drawdowns,” the founder of FairLead Strategies told CNBC’s ETF Edge this week. “It’s obviously a great long-term advantage when you can enter such a deep hole to climb.”
According to Stockton, her ETF is particularly agile in this environment. This is because we use not only one but multiple strategies. Since President Donald Trump announced “mutual” tariffs on April 2, ETFs have fallen by more than 4%, while the S&P 500 has lost 6.9%.
Stockton ETFs revolve monthly between all 11 S&P 500 sectors.
“We don’t own technology anymore,” Stockton said. “Some of the sectors we want to invest in are falling out of favor.”
As of April 16, the fund’s top sector holdings included consumer staples, utilities and real estate, according to FairLead Strategies.
As of the end of Thursday, the Fairlead Tactical Sector ETF has fallen by 4% so far this year.
On the other hand, ETFs centered around a particular sector or strategy are primarily under pressure. For example, the Invesco Top QQQ Trust (QBIG), which tracks the top 45% of companies on the NASDAQ-100 index, fell 22% in 2025.
Graniteshares eelveBoost TSLA ETF (TSYY) is 48% off since the start of the year.
Btig’s Troy Donohue, head of the company’s American portfolio trading, believes Stockton’s ETFs have adopted a healthy strategy (particularly during the recent “dramatic pullbacks.”
“Tucks are a great example of how to be agile in these market times,” Donohue said. “It’s great to see it with an ETF product that worked really well during this recent drawdown.”
