Key Takeaways
- • Simplify Asset Management and Brookwood Investment Group launched the Simplify Brookwood Global Macro ETF (GMAC), an actively managed fund offering a flexible global macro strategy that can take long and short positions across asset classes.
- • Brookwood Investment Group, an independent RIA supporting more than 75 advisors serving over 6,200 clients and overseeing more than $1.5 billion AUM, serves as GMAC's sub-adviser.
- • GMAC gains exposure primarily through other ETFs, including affiliated ETFs, and through swaps tied to the returns of underlying assets, packaging commodities, real assets, managed futures, and alternative strategies in a single vehicle.
- • Simplify and Brookwood position GMAC as a foundational building block for a liquid alternatives allocation, offering advisors an alternative to the traditional 60/40 framework through one ticker.
Summary
Simplify Asset Management and Brookwood Investment Group have launched the Simplify Brookwood Global Macro ETF (GMAC), according to a Q&A published by citybiz with Brookwood CIO Christopher R. Coolidge, CFA, and Simplify CIO and co-founder David Berns. GMAC is an actively managed fund that can move across asset classes, take long and short positions, and adjust as economic conditions change. Coolidge said the timing reflects the range of forces now shaping markets, including inflation, interest rates, policy changes and shifting global economic conditions.
Brookwood serves as the fund's sub-adviser and will invest opportunistically based on its analysis of broad economic trends, including inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, regulatory shifts and the global political environment. The fund's investable universe spans commodities and natural resources, energy, metals and mining, agriculture, industrials and utilities, real estate, managed futures and risk parity, and long/short equity and other alternative strategies. The stated objective is to seek strong positive returns regardless of market direction by identifying opportunities among those asset types.
GMAC will obtain most of its exposure through other ETFs, including affiliated ETFs, and through swaps based on the returns of various underlying assets. Berns said the structure gives investors a single vehicle to access a broad range of alternative strategies and asset classes without being tied to the traditional 60/40 portfolio framework. Simplify and Brookwood position the strategy as a foundational component of a liquid alternatives allocation for advisors seeking exposure beyond a conventional stock-and-bond mix.
For Brookwood, GMAC marks the first time its global macro approach is offered to investors in an ETF wrapper. Coolidge said the partnership gives advisors a new tool for putting that approach to work. Simplify, founded in 2020 as a provider of ETFs and RIA services focused on options-based strategies, is the fund's sponsor.
Brookwood serves as the fund's sub-adviser and will invest opportunistically based on its analysis of broad economic trends, including inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, regulatory shifts and the global political environment. The fund's investable universe spans commodities and natural resources, energy, metals and mining, agriculture, industrials and utilities, real estate, managed futures and risk parity, and long/short equity and other alternative strategies. The stated objective is to seek strong positive returns regardless of market direction by identifying opportunities among those asset types.
GMAC will obtain most of its exposure through other ETFs, including affiliated ETFs, and through swaps based on the returns of various underlying assets. Berns said the structure gives investors a single vehicle to access a broad range of alternative strategies and asset classes without being tied to the traditional 60/40 portfolio framework. Simplify and Brookwood position the strategy as a foundational component of a liquid alternatives allocation for advisors seeking exposure beyond a conventional stock-and-bond mix.
For Brookwood, GMAC marks the first time its global macro approach is offered to investors in an ETF wrapper. Coolidge said the partnership gives advisors a new tool for putting that approach to work. Simplify, founded in 2020 as a provider of ETFs and RIA services focused on options-based strategies, is the fund's sponsor.
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