Innovator Preps Largest Reset of Defined Outcome ETF™ Lineup to Date Amid Trying Year for Stocks and Bonds, Announces New Upside Cap Ranges for Coming Year and Quarter
Lineup of October Buffer ETFs™ have exhibited decreased downside and volatility relative to reference assets in the current outcome period marked by significant market losses
Flagship Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs™ – BOCT, POCT, UOCT – seek to provide SPY exposure up to a cap, with downside buffer levels of 9%, 15% or 30% over one-year Outcome Period starting October 1st
Q4 cap ranges announced for quarterly resetting Defined Outcome ETFs™: Defined Wealth Shield ETF (BALT), 20+ Year Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF™ (TFJL), Hedged TSLA Strategy ETF (TSLH)
With foreign markets in the red for the year, International Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ IOCT and EOCT will reset for the first time, again seeking to provide a 15% buffer against potential loss over coming 12-months as war, inflation and monetary policy cloud outlook
October Series of Domestic Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ on QQQ (NOCT) and U.S. Small Caps (KOCT) publish new cap ranges for coming annual period following difficult year for Growth and Small-Caps
CHICAGO, Sept. 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovator Capital Management, LLC (Innovator) today announced the anticipated upside cap ranges and return profiles for the 14 ETFs in the October series of the sponsors’ Defined Outcome ETFs™ lineup, as well as the five quarterly resetting ETFs that will also rebalance at the end of the month. The resetting ETFs span Innovator’s Defined Outcome ETF™ lineup, including Buffer ETFs™, Accelerated ETFs™ and Floor ETFs™. With resets across 19 ETFs in total, this rebalance will be the Defined Outcome ETF™ pioneer’s largest to date across its industry-leading lineup.
Anticipated return profiles for the Defined Outcome ETFs™ – October Series with annual outcome periods as of 9/22/22
Ticker | Name | Reference Asset(s) | Buffer Level | Cap Range* | Outcome Period | |
Innovator Growth-100 | QQQ | 15.00% | 19.33 – 22.96% | 12 months | ||
Innovator U.S. Small | IWM | 15.00% | 19.40 – 22.41% | 12 months | ||
Innovator | EFA | 15.00% | 19.35 – 23.80% | 12 months | ||
Innovator Emerging | EEM | 15.00% | 13.79 – 21.79% | 12 months | ||
Innovator U.S. Equity | SPY | 9.00% | 21.85 – 27.50% | 12 months | ||
Innovator U.S. Equity | SPY | 15.00% | 15.80 – 19.06% | 12 months | ||
Innovator U.S. Equity | SPY | 30.00% | 12.96 – 16.35% | 12 months | ||
Innovator Double | SPY, QQQ | NA | SPY Upside Cap | 12 months | ||
Innovator Double | SPY, QQQ | 9.00% | SPY Upside Cap | 12 months | ||
Innovator Triple | SPY, QQQ, | NA | SPY Upside Cap | 12 months | ||
* The Cap Ranges above are based on the highest and lowest Cap as illustrated by the Funds’ strategy from 8/24/22-9/22/22 and are shown gross of each fund’s management fee (.79% for all funds in the table above, except for IOCT (.85%) and EOCT (.89%)). The actual Cap for each Fund will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, and is dependent upon market conditions at that time. Periods of high market volatility could result in higher caps, and lower volatility could result in lower caps. As a result, the Cap set by each Fund may be higher or lower than the Cap Range. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon fund launch, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com
The average upside caps of the October series of the Innovator Accelerated ETFs™, as of 9/22/2022, are as follows in the table below:
Ticker | Reference | Upside to | Downside | Average | Outcome Period |
XDOC | SPY | 2X | 1X | 25.25% | Annual |
XBOC | SPY | 2X | 1X, 9% | 17.69% | Annual |
XTOC | SPY | 3X | 1X | 22.70% | Annual |
QTOC | QQQ | 3X | 1X | 25.74% | Annual |
** The Average Cap listed above represents an average of estimated caps, as illustrated by the fund’s strategy, based upon 10 previous trading days, from 9/09/2022 to 9/22/2022, and are shown gross of the 0.79% management fee. It does not represent the actual cap that will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, which will be dependent upon market conditions at that time. Periods of high market volatility could result in higher caps, and lower volatility could result in lower caps. As a result, the Cap set by each Fund may be higher or lower than the Average Cap displayed above. The Cap Ranges based on the highest and lowest Cap as illustrated by the Funds’ strategy from 8/24/22-9/22/22 (gross of the 0.79% management fee) are as follows: 22.00% to 26.34% for XDOC; 15.60% to 18.52% for XBOC; 19.90% to 23.71% for XTOC; and 23.04% to 26.89% for QTOC. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon fund launch, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com. Investors who purchase shares after the start of an outcome period may be exposed to enhanced risk.
Anticipated return profiles for the Defined Outcome ETFs™ – Quarterly resetting series, as of 9/22/22
Ticker | Name | Reference | Buffer or | Cap Range**** | Outcome Period | |
BALT | Innovator Defined | SPY | **20.00% | 2.06 – 2.76% | Quarterly; 3 months | |
TFJL | Innovator 20+ Year | TLT | 5.00% | 4.94 – 7.39% | Quarterly; 3 months | |
TSLH | Innovator Hedged | TSLA | 10% Floor | 9.86 – 11.13% | Quarterly; 3 months | |
** Although BALT targets a 20% buffer, the buffer may fall into a range of 15% to 20%; there is no guarantee that the buffer will be within this range or that the Fund will provide the buffer. The Upside Cap above is shown gross of the .175% quarterly (0.69% annual) management fee for BALT. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon commencement of the Outcome Period, the remaining Cap and/or Buffer can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com
***“Floor” refers to the projected maximum amount of loss an investor can expect to incur prior to the downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. The Floor is only operative against Underlying share price losses exceeding approximately 5% for TFJL and 10% for TSLH over the duration of the Outcome Period. There is no guarantee that the Fund will be successful in its attempt to provide the Floor. If an investor is considering purchasing Shares during the Outcome Period, and the Fund has already increased in value, then a shareholder may experience losses prior to gaining the protection offered by the Floor, which is not guaranteed.
****The Cap Ranges above are based on the highest and lowest Cap as illustrated by the Funds’ strategy from 8/24/22-9/22/22 and are shown gross of each fund’s management fee (.175% quarterly and .69% annual for BALT; .2% quarterly and .79% annually for TFJL and TSLH). The actual Cap for each Fund will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, and is dependent upon market conditions at that time. Periods of high market volatility could result in higher caps, and lower volatility could result in lower caps. As a result, the Cap set by each Fund may be higher or lower than the Cap Range. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon commencement of the Outcome Period, the remaining Cap and/or Buffer can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com .
Ticker | Reference Asset | Upside to Cap | Downside | Average Cap**** | Outcome Period | Rebalancing | |
XDSQ | SPY | 2X | 1X | 10.85 | % | Quarterly | 10/01/22 |
XDQQ | QQQ | 2X | 1X | 12.84 | % | Quarterly | 10/01/22 |
**** The Average Cap listed above represents an average of estimated caps, as illustrated by the fund’s strategy, based upon 10 previous trading days, from 9/09/2022 to 9/22/2022, and are shown gross of the 0.79% management fee. It does not represent the actual cap that will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, which will be dependent upon market conditions at that time. Periods of high market volatility could result in higher caps, and lower volatility could result in lower caps. As a result, the Cap set by each Fund may be higher or lower than the Average Cap displayed above. The Cap Ranges based on the lowest and highest Cap as illustrated by the Funds’ strategy from 8/24/22-9/22/22 (gross of the 0.79% management fee) are as follows: 8.97% to 11.94% for XDSQ; 10.88% to 13.87% for XDQQ. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon fund launch, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com. Investors who purchase shares after the start of an outcome period may be exposed to enhanced risk.
Lineup Overview of Resetting Defined Outcome ETFs™
Buffer ETFs™ seek to participate in the upside of a reference asset, to a cap, while buffering a set level of loss over an outcome period of one quarter or one year. The ETFs simply reset at the end of their designated outcome period and can be held indefinitely.
All of the reference assets for each of the October Equity Buffer ETFs™ are currently trading below their starting values at the beginning of the current annual outcome period. This means that investors who have held shares in a given October Buffer ETF™ have been buffered against a certain amount of loss relative to their respective benchmark asset, such as SPY for BOCT, POCT and UOCT; QQQ for NOCT; and IWM for KOCT.
The October series of Innovator’s International Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ -- the Innovator International Developed Power Buffer ETF – October (IOCT) and the Innovator Emerging Markets Power Buffer ETF – October (EOCT) – will complete their first outcome period since their 2021 launch. Volatility continues to be elevated in foreign stock benchmarks as investors assess the outlook for international equities with the Russia-Ukraine war creating geopolitical turmoil and global monetary policy tightening addressing heightened inflation.
Accelerated ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs that seek to offer approximately 2 or 3 times the upside return of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) or Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), to a cap, with approximately single exposure to the downside, over a quarterly or annual outcome period. The wealth accumulation-oriented Accelerated ETFs™ premiered April 1st, 2021, and the October Accelerated ETFs™ with an annual outcome period will complete their first outcome period at the end of the month. As well, the quarterly resetting XDSQ and XDQQ will complete their sixth full outcome period and reset for the fifth time at the end of the month.
Defined Outcome Bond ETFs™ seek to maximize the diversification benefits of bonds with a built-in floor or buffer against loss over one quarter or one year. TFJL seeks to provide investors the upside performance of long-dated 20+ year U.S. Treasuries, to a cap, with a floor against loss greater than 5% over a quarterly outcome period via options on iShares 20+ Year Treasury ETF (TLT).
As investors have sold long-dated U.S. government bonds in response to historically high inflation prints and rapid monetary policy tightening over recent quarters, TFJL has provided a buffer against the full brunt of losses in TLT for investors who have held shares for a given outcome period when TLT losses exceed the floor.
BALT: The Innovator Defined Wealth Shield ETF seeks to provide investors with a conservative investment strategy that offers upside exposure to Large-Cap U.S. equities, to a cap, with a targeted buffer against the first 20% of quarterly losses in SPY (SPDR S&P 500 Trust) over each three-month period. BALT was launched July 1st, 2021 and will reset for the fifth time at the end of the quarter. Investors in BALT since inception have avoided the selloff in domestic Large-cap stocks and have actually seen price appreciation in their shares, relative to losses for SPY.
Innovator’s research shows that for the 761 3-month rolling periods between 1958 and May 2021, with a 20% buffer, you would have been positive or neutral in 98.8% of those periods. In the periods exceeding 20%, the average loss was approximately 4%.
Investing in BALT involves risk, and does not provide investment income. The BALT ETF seeks to provide a large buffer (15-20% on a quarterly basis) against loss, with a defined upside cap before fees and expenses, benchmarked to the price return of SPY. As a result, the fund does not provide investment income. A money market fund is a kind of mutual fund that invests in highly liquid, near-term instruments. These instruments include cash, cash equivalent securities, and high-credit-rating, debt-based securities with a short-term maturity (such as U.S. Treasuries).
Accelerated ETFs™
The Accelerated ETFs™ are not like leveraged ETFs, which typically seek to provide a magnified exposure on both the upside and the downside on a daily basis and can compound risk with higher volatility when held long-term due to their frequent, often daily, rebalancing. Instead, the Accelerated ETFs™ seek to provide asymmetrical returns over either a typically annual or quarterly outcome period that are magnified on the upside only, to a cap. Innovator’s Accelerated ETFs™ will rebalance annually or quarterly, making the funds more suited for asset allocation and longer-term investors rather than tools for ultra-tactical trading. In the Accelerated ETFs™ case, it is important to note that investors must hold shares for an entire outcome period to achieve the enhanced returns that a fund seeks to provide.
While the Funds are designed to participate in the reference ETF (SPY or QQQ) losses on a one-to-one basis over the duration of the outcome period as a whole, a decrease in the value of the reference asset’s share price may cause a decrease in the Fund’s NAV while an outcome period is ongoing. Therefore an investor that purchases Shares after an outcome period has begun may be exposed to incremental downside risk if the reference asset has increased in value.
The shorter outcome period of the Quarterly outcome period Accelerated ETFs™ (XDSQ, XDQQ) means they will follow the reference asset (SPY or QQQ) more closely, but have lower starting caps than Accelerated ETFs™ with an annual outcome period. Investors can use both outcome periods to tactically respond to changing market conditions should they wish to do so.
At the end of each Accelerated ETF™’s outcome period, the ETF will simply rebalance and reset, providing investors with new upside caps and a fresh 9% Buffer in the case of XBAP, over the next outcome period. The Accelerated ETFs™ do not expire and can be long-term core equity holdings in a portfolio. The options-based ETFs are anticipated to be as tax-efficient as traditional equity ETFs, with no planned cap gains distributions to shareholders and investors being able to defer taxes until selling.
Investors in the Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ will not receive dividend yield from their holdings; the ETFs will be based on the price returns of the reference ETF (SPY or QQQ) over the length of the outcome period. The Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ will charge a 0.79% management fee.
The Accelerated ETFs™ are constructed using Cboe FLEX Options, offering exposure to equity markets rather than investing in them directly. The FLEX Options forming the underlying positions of the first three Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ are based on SPY or QQQ (the reference asset).
The Accelerated ETFs™ provide defined returns over the entire Outcome Period, not on a daily basis. As a result, interim returns may lag the reference benchmark ETFs. This is due to the time-value nature of the underlying options held by the fund; as such, the Accelerated ETFs™ won’t maintain proportional betas of 1.0 to the reference ETF in instances of positive returns for the associated equity benchmark. Though they provide simultaneous multiple exposure to the upside of the benchmark, the Accelerated ETFs™ only seek to provide the positive performance of the reference ETF over the full Outcome Period, up to a cap, and 1:1 downside to the reference asset over the Outcome Period. In the interim, or intra-Outcome Period, investors can expect the Accelerated ETFs™ to exhibit lower beta than traditional passive index-tracking ETFs. An investor that purchases Shares after an Outcome Period has begun may be exposed to downside from that point forward if the reference asset has appreciated in value since the period began.
TFJL
Investors in the Innovator 20+ Yr Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF™ (TFJL) will not receive yield from their holdings in TFJL; the ETF is based on the price returns of TLT over the length of the quarterly outcome period.
TSLH
The Innovator Hedged TSLA Strategy ETF (TSLH), TSLH seeks to provide upside participation in TSLA, subject to a limit on investment gains, while aiming to protect against losses of greater than 10%, each calendar quarter. With TSLH, Innovator seeks to provide a risk-managed approach to investing in Tesla (TSLA), which has been one of the most popular and best performing large-cap stocks in the market, but also one of the most volatile1.
The ETF’s strategy will seek to solve for the large historical drawdowns in shares of the electric vehicle leader, offering potentially substantial upside exposure to TSLA during periods when the stock rises while attempting to limit downside risk by targeting a protective floor against TSLA losses greater than approximately 10% per quarter. TSLH was launched July 26th and will complete its first outcome period, an abbreviated quarter, and reset at the end of the month for the fourth quarter.
There is no guarantee that the fund will be successful in implementing the strategy. The ETF will not invest directly in TSLA, but rather in options tied to the company. An investor's possible return profile in TSLH will also depend on the time at which such investor purchases and sells shares of the ETF.
Shareholders in the Fund will not be entitled to receive dividends, if any, that may be payable on TSLA. The Options Portfolio will consist of exchange listed options contracts on TSLA, including FLexible EXchange® Options (“FLEX Options”).
Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs - Benefits to Advisors
Pioneer and creator of Defined Outcome ETFs™ with 80 ETFs and over $8 billion AUM across family2, as well as 5 Managed Outcome ETFs™ with over $200 million in AUM
Tax-efficient exposure3 to five broad equity benchmarks with buffers against loss (Large-cap U.S. Equity (SPY), Growth (QQQ), Small-Cap U.S. Equity (IWM), International Developed (EFA), Emerging Markets (EEM)) the 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Market (TLT); the Stacker ETFs, the world’s first ETFs to offer a “stacked” exposure to two or three benchmark equity index ETFs on the upside, to a cap, with downside exposure to the SPY only; and the Accelerated ETFs™, the world’s first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset, up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside
Reset annually or quarterly and can be held indefinitely as core holdings
Innovator’s Defined Outcome ETF™ lineup has amassed 159 outcome period completions with the ETFs successfully resetting for the coming outcome period4
Monthly issuance on SPY with three buffer levels (9,15, or 30%)
Innovator's Defined Outcome ETFs™ are the subject of a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The Funds have characteristics unlike many other traditional investment products and may not be suitable for all investors. For more information regarding whether an investment in the Fund is right for you, please see “Investor Suitability” in the prospectus.
About Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™
Defined Outcome ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs that seek to provide investors with known ranges of future investment outcomes prior to investing. These outcome ranges include multiple and single upside exposure, to a cap, with defined levels of downside risk with buffers and floors over a set amount of time. The Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™ cover a large spectrum of domestic and international equities and bonds. Innovator’s category-creating Defined Outcome ETF™ family includes Buffer ETFs™, Stacker ETFs™ and Floor ETFs™.
The Buffer ETFs™ seek to provide the upside performance of broadly recognized benchmarks (e.g., SPY, QQQ, IWM, EFA, and EEM, as well as TLT) to a cap, with built-in buffers, over an outcome period of one year. The ETFs reset annually and can be held indefinitely.
Each Buffer ETF™ in Innovator’s Defined Outcome ETF™ suite seeks to provide a defined exposure to a broad market benchmark where the downside buffer level, upside growth potential to a cap, and Outcome Period are all known, prior to investing. In 2019, Innovator began expanding its suite of U.S. Equity Buffer ETFs™ into a monthly series to provide investors more opportunities to purchase shares as close to the beginning of their respective Outcome Periods as possible.
Investors can purchase shares of a previously listed Defined Outcome ETF™ throughout the entire Outcome Period, obtaining a current set of defined outcome parameters, which are disclosed daily through a web tool available at: http://innovatoretfs.com/define.
Innovator is focused on delivering defined outcome-based solutions inside the benefit-rich ETF wrapper, retaining many of the features that have contributed to the success of structured products5 (e.g., downside buffer levels, upside participation, defined outcome parameters), but with the added benefits of transparency, liquidity, the elimination of credit risk6 and lower costs afforded by the ETF structure.
About Innovator Capital Management, LLC
Awarded ETF.com's "ETF Issuer of the Year - 2019"*, Innovator Capital Management LLC (Innovator) is an SEC-registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Wheaton, IL. Formed in 2017, the firm is headed by ETF visionaries Bruce Bond and John Southard, founders of one of the largest ETF providers in the world. Bond and Southard reentered the asset management industry to bring to market the Defined Outcome ETFs™, first-of-their-kind investment products that they felt would change the investing landscape and bring more certainty to the financial planning process. Innovator’s category-creating Defined Outcome ETF™ family includes Buffer ETFs™, Floor ETFs, Accelerated ETFs™ and Managed Outcome ETFs™. Since the 2018 launch of their flagship Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF™ suite, Innovator’s solutions have helped advisors construct portfolios and manage risk to fit their client’s unique financial needs. Built on a foundation of innovation and driven by a commitment to help investors better control their financial outcomes, Innovator is leading the Defined Outcome ETF Revolution™. For additional information, visit www.innovatoretfs.com.
About Cboe Global Markets, Inc.
Cboe Global Markets is one of the world’s largest exchange-holding companies, offering cutting-edge trading and investment solutions to investors around the world. For more information, visit www.cboe.com.
About Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC
Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC (Milliman FRM) is a global leader in financial risk management to the retirement industry, providing investment advisory, hedging, and consulting services on approximately $173.5 billion in global assets as of September 30, 2021. Milliman FRM is one of the largest and fastest-growing subadvisors of ETFs. For more information about Milliman FRM, visit www.Milliman.com/FRM.
Media Contact
Paul Damon
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Interim Period Shareholders
Unlike structured notes, which offer limited liquidity, Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™ trade throughout the day on an exchange, like a stock. As a result, investors purchasing shares of a Fund after its launch date may achieve a different payoff profile than those who entered the Fund on day one. Innovator recognizes this as a benefit of the Funds and provides a web-based tool that allows investors to know, in real-time throughout the trading day, their potential defined outcome return profile before they invest, based on the current ETF price and the Outcome Period remaining. Innovator’s web tool can be accessed at http://www.innovatoretfs.com/define.
Although each Fund seeks to achieve the defined outcomes stated in its investment objective, there is no guarantee that it will do so. The returns that the Funds seek to provide do not include the costs associated with purchasing shares of the Fund and certain expenses incurred by the Fund.
Investing involves risks. Loss of principal is possible. The Funds face numerous market trading risks, including active markets risk, authorized participation concentration risk, buffered loss risk, cap change risk, capped upside return risk, correlation risk, liquidity risk, management risk, market maker risk, market risk, non-diversification risk, operation risk, options risk, trading issues risk, upside participation risk and valuation risk. For a detail list of fund risks see the prospectus.
Market Disruptions Resulting from COVID-19. The outbreak of COVID-19 has negatively affected the worldwide economy, individual countries, individual companies and the market in general. The future impact of COVID-19 is currently unknown, and it may exacerbate other risks that apply to the Fund.
Foreign and Emerging Markets Risk Non-U.S. securities and Emerging Markets are subject to higher volatility than securities of domestic issuers due to possible adverse political, social or economic developments, restrictions on foreign investment or exchange of securities, lack of liquidity, currency exchange rates, excessive taxation, government seizure of assets, different legal or accounting standards, and less government supervision and regulation of securities exchanges in foreign countries.
Technology Sector Risk Companies in the technology sector are often smaller and can be characterized by relatively higher volatility in price performance when compared to other economic sectors. They can face intense competition, which may have an adverse effect on profit margins.
Small-Cap Risk Small-cap companies may be more volatile and susceptible to adverse developments than their mid- and large-cap counterpart. In addition, the small-cap companies may be less liquid than larger companies.
FLEX Options Risk The Fund will utilize FLEX Options issued and guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). In the unlikely event that the OCC becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to meet its settlement obligations, the Fund could suffer significant losses. Additionally, FLEX Options may be less liquid than standard options. In a less liquid market for the FLEX Options, the Fund may have difficulty closing out certain FLEX Options positions at desired times and prices. The values of FLEX Options do not increase or decrease at the same rate as the reference asset and may vary due to factors other than the price of reference asset.
These Funds are designed to provide point-to-point exposure to the price return of the Reference Asset via a basket of Flex Options. As a result, the ETFs are not expected to move directly in line with the Reference Asset during the interim period.
Investors purchasing shares after an outcome period has begun may experience very different results than funds' investment objective. Initial outcome periods are approximately 1-year beginning on the funds' inception date. Following the initial outcome period, each subsequent outcome period will begin on the first day of the month the fund was incepted. After the conclusion of an outcome period, another will begin.
Fund shareholders are subject to an upside return cap (the "Cap") that represents the maximum percentage return an investor can achieve from an investment in the funds' for the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses. If the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value to a level near to the Cap, an investor purchasing at that price has little or no ability to achieve gains but remains vulnerable to downside risks. Additionally, the Cap may rise or fall from one Outcome Period to the next. The Cap, and the Fund's position relative to it, should be considered before investing in the Fund. The Funds' website, www.innovatoretfs.com, provides important Fund information as well information relating to the potential outcomes of an investment in a Fund on a daily basis.
The Funds with buffer mechanisms only seek to provide shareholders that hold shares for the entire Outcome Period with their respective buffer level against Reference Asset losses during the Outcome Period. You will bear all Reference Asset losses exceeding 9, 15 or 30%. Depending upon market conditions at the time of purchase, a shareholder that purchases shares after the Outcome Period has begun may also lose their entire investment. For instance, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has decreased in value beyond the pre-determined buffer, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer. Similarly, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer until the Fund's value has decreased to its value at the commencement of the Outcome Period.
TSLH Disclosures:
Shareholders in the Fund will not be entitled to receive dividends, if any, that may be payable on TSLA. The Options Portfolio will consist of exchange listed options contracts on TSLA, including FLexible EXchange® Options (“FLEX Options”).
FLEX Options Risk: The Fund will utilize FLEX Options issued and guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). In the unlikely event that the OCC becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to meet its settlement obligations, the Fund could suffer significant losses. Additionally, FLEX Options may be less liquid than standard options. In a less liquid market for the FLEX Options, the Fund may have difficulty closing out certain FLEX Options positions at desired times and prices. The values of FLEX Options do not increase or decrease at the same rate as the reference asset and may vary due to factors other than the price of reference asset.
Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. The Fund is actively managed and seeks to provide risk-managed investment exposure to the common share price of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) through an active hedging strategy.
The Fund will seek to participate in the price return TSLA, subject to a limit on investment gains and will seek to provide a floor against TSLA losses, up to a limit through the Sub-Adviser's investments in the Options Portfolio and Treasury Portfolio. There is no guarantee the fund will be successful in its attempt to protect against TSLA losses.
During periods in which TSLA appreciates, the Fund seeks to participate in the price return experienced by TSLA. However, if TSLA appreciates beyond the strike prices of the sold call option, the Fund will not experience such increase to the same extent and may underperform TSLA over certain periods of time.
Through the Options Portfolio, the Fund may experience losses experienced by TSLA. However, the Fund will seek to limit overall portfolio losses by virtue of the Fund’s Treasury Portfolio. The Fund seeks to implement an investment strategy that provides protection from significant declines in the price of TSLA, such that losses will be limited to the amount of the Options Portfolio and declines, if any, in the performance of the Fund’s U.S. Treasury Bills over each successive period of approximately three months. Additional funds utilized for investment into the Fund will be invested proportionally to the Fund’s Treasury Portfolio and Options Portfolio at the time of investment until the expiration date of Options Portfolio held by the Fund.
There is no guarantee that the Fund, in the future, will provide upside participation to the price exposure to TSLA within the range currently estimated. The limits to the upside performance of the Fund could fluctuate, depending on prevailing market conditions at the time the Fund enters into the options contracts. The actual caps may be lower or higher.
Strategy Risk: The Fund employs an active hedging strategy that seeks to provide risk-managed investment exposure to TSLA. In doing so, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be successful in its strategy to provide protection against TSLA losses. The Fund does not provide principal protection or non-principal protection, and an investor may experience significant losses on its investment, including the loss of its entire investment.
The trading price of TSLA has been highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies.
The Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses should be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information, and it may be obtained at innovatoretfs.com/etfs/tslh. Read it carefully before investing.
A webpage with information on TSLH is here.
Tesla, Inc. is not affiliated with the Trust, Innovator, Milliman or its respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way. Innovator has not made any due diligence inquiry with respect to the publicly available information of Tesla, Inc. in connection with this offering. Investors in the Shares will not have voting rights with respect to the underlying stock.
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1 During Q2 2022, TSLA was the 11th most volatile stock in the S&P 500 and had the highest average daily trading volume, based on constituents as of 7/14/22. In the 10-year period to 6.30.22, TSLA outperformed SPY by 10,426%; and in the 10-year period to 12.31.21, TSLA outperformed SPY by over 18,000%. Concerning losses, TSLA had a max drawdown of -60.6% in the first quarter of 2020 and fell -48.9% from a November 2021 all-time high. Past performance is not indicative of future results and such returns may not be sustainable. Source: Bloomberg LP.
2 ETF count and AUM in all Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™ as of 9.22.2022, excluding Managed Outcome ETFs™ BUFF, BUFB, BSTP, PSTP, XUSP
3 ETFs use creation units, which allow for the purchase and sale of assets in the fund collectively. Consequently, ETFs usually generate fewer capital gain distributions overall, which can make them somewhat more tax-efficient than mutual funds.
4 As of 9.01.2022
5 Structured notes and structured annuities are financial instruments designed and created to afford investors exposure to an underlying asset through a derivative contract. It is important to note that these ETFs are not structured notes or structured annuities.
6 Defined Outcome ETFs are not backed by the faith and credit of an Issuing institution, so they are not exposed to credit risk.
