TrueShares Structured Outcome (February) ETF (FEBZ)

The TrueShares Structured Outcome (February) ETF (FEBZ) is a structured outcome fund launched by TrueShares that uses a “buffer protect” options strategy to offer S&P 500 exposure with an 8–12% downside buffer (targeting 10%) and partial upside participation over rolling 12-month periods that reset each February.

The origins of outcome funds

Structured outcome ETFs emerged in the early 2020s as issuers sought to offer retail investors products that felt like stock market exposure but with defined-outcome parameters. Traditional ETFs are pure tracking tools — they simply own whatever index they aim to follow and deliver whatever the index delivers. But a structured outcome fund delivers something different: a specific, contractually defined payoff that depends on where the market ends up over a defined period.

The architecture required exchange-traded options to work at scale. As long as single-stock and index options have been available, investors have used them to create custom payoffs — long calls and puts, straddles, collars. But wrapping this strategy into an ETF that ordinary investors could buy in a brokerage account required infrastructure: FLEX options (flexible exchange-traded options) that could be customised but still traded on a regulated exchange, and then an ETF wrapper around those positions.

TrueShares and the February product line

TrueShares, founded to focus specifically on outcome ETFs, launched the Structured Outcome (February) ETF in January 2021 under the ticker FEBZ. The name references the annual reset schedule — the fund’s outcome period always runs February-to-next-February, establishing new buffer and upside terms each year based on market conditions and implied volatility.

The initial product attracted investors looking for S&P 500 exposure without the full volatility. TrueShares’ positioning emphasised the psychological relief of a buffer—the knowledge that a bad year can only be bad up to a defined limit—without requiring investors to time market entries or exits with perfection. The product resonated with a growing segment of retirement-minded investors and those who had experienced the sharp drawdowns of 2020 and 2022.

The buffer-protect strategy in practice

FEBZ implements its 10% downside buffer (the fund targets 8–12%, with 10% as the goal) by purchasing out-of-the-money puts on the S&P 500 and financing them by selling calls at higher strike prices. This creates a bounded payoff: losses below the buffer are fully absorbed, and gains above a certain level are capped or partially participated in.

The upside participation, rather than being a strict cap, operates as a “partial participation” model. TrueShares targets 79–81% participation in S&P 500 gains beyond the buffer. This means if the S&P 500 gains 10% and the buffer is untouched, an investor might capture roughly 7.9–8.1% of that gain. That 20% haircut on upside is the cost of the 10% downside buffer.

This is conceptually different from a hard cap. A cap would limit total returns to, say, 8% regardless of how high the market rose. Partial participation degrades all gains proportionally — it is a function rather than a ceiling.

The evolution into a product line

As outcome ETFs gained traction in 2022 and 2023, TrueShares expanded its lineup. Other providers—particularly PGIM and Allianz—launched competing products with different buffer sizes and different upside structures. By 2024–2025, the market had segmented into several competing approaches:

• Simple capped-upside buffers (Allianz FEBT at 10%, FEBW at 20%)
• Uncapped buffers with a spread (Allianz FEBU)
• Partial-participation buffers (TrueShares FEBZ)
• PGIM’s capped approach with a 12% buffer (FEBP)

FEBZ’s market position evolved from first-mover to one among several credible options. The fund’s main distinction is its partial-participation architecture rather than a hard cap, which appeals to investors who dislike the idea of gains being entirely cut off above a specific price level.

Current state and asset base

As of mid-2026, FEBZ has accumulated approximately 26.4 million dollars in net assets and trades with a 0.25% median bid-ask spread — indicating reasonable liquidity for a specialised product. The fund’s expense ratio of 0.79% per annum covers the cost of managing the options positions, the active rebalancing, and the fund company’s management fees.

The fund has now completed multiple full outcome cycles since inception in 2021. Investors can review actual historical performance through at least four complete February-to-February periods to assess whether the buffer and partial participation parameters worked in practice.

The appeal and the limitation

FEBZ appeals to equity investors who want S&P 500 exposure but who value a defined downside protection envelope. The partial-participation model is cleaner, psychologically, than a hard cap because there is no moment where the market rises further and the fund’s return stops entirely — instead, the fund continues to capture gains, just at a reduced rate.

The limitation is the same as any outcome fund: the full benefit requires holding the entire outcome period. An investor who purchases FEBZ mid-year is buying into a partial period and receiving only the benefit of those remaining months. Early exit in a rising market means giving up the rest of the upside on which the partial participation was calculated.

How to research FEBZ

The TrueShares website provides the current buffer target (8–12%), the current participation rate (79–81%), and the dates of the current outcome period. The prospectus details the options strategy and the daily rebalancing mechanics. Because FEBZ has five years of history, reviewing its performance through complete outcome cycles provides colour on how actual market movements (especially the strong 2023–2024 rally and the volatility of 2025) interacted with the fund’s defined-outcome structure.