Inverse Jim Cramer ETF Shuttered
Maybe betting against Jim Cramer isn’t such a good idea. About 11 months ago, Tuttle Capital Management launched the Inverse Cramer Tracker ETF (SJIM), a funny-but-serious attempt to capitalize on Cramer’s reputation as a lousy stock picker.
SJIM started along with the Long Cramer Tracker (LJIM), which took the opposite strategy as SJIM— betting on the stocks that Cramer recommended.
But a lack of interest in the strategy caused LJIM to shutter just a half-year after its debut. Now five months later, SJIM is meeting the same fate as its counterpart.
Tuttle Capital Management announced on Thursday that SJIM will be liquidated in February. Explaining why the ETF was shutting down, Matthew Tuttle, the Fund’s portfolio manager, said that he didn’t have the time to keep running the portfolio.
“We started [the ETF] in order to point out the danger of following TV stockpickers, Jim Cramer specifically, and the total lack of accountability,” said Matthew Tuttle, the fund’s portfolio manager, who added, “we feel like we have accomplished that mission, but retail investors are more focused on volatile products and the interest in a long/short portfolio never fully materialized.”
SJIM Only $2 Mln AUM
As of Friday , SJIM only had $2 million in assets under management, a paltry sum for an ETF with a strategy that is cumbersome to employ. As I wrote in 2022 before SJIM launched, Tuttle decides which trades to make based on commentary Jim Cramer makes on CNBC and Twitter.
That required members of Tuttle’s team to constantly monitor the media for new updates from Cramer. Not only is the process time-consuming, but it is also subjective .
Cramer makes a multitude of calls, so deciding which ones to bet against—and when to close those inverse bets—takes discretion.
In other words, even if it’s the case that Jim Cramer is a bad stock picker, the sheer number of calls he makes and the speed at which he shifts gears makes it difficult to devise a repeatable blueprint for betting against him.
The numbers bear that out. Since launching last March, SJIM is down 15%, sharply underperforming the 25% gain for the S&P 500 and the 19% gain for the First Trust Long/Short Equity ETF (FTLS) in that same period.
Tuttle said that he will continue to publish his Cramer Tracker daily newsletter for people who want to monitor Jim Cramer’s recommendations and perhaps try their hand at betting against him on their own.
