Wedbush LAFFER TENGLER New Era Value ETF (TGLR)

The Wedbush LAFFER TENGLER New Era Value ETF (TGLR) is a value-oriented fund that rests on an unconventional premise: the best companies to own are not always the cheapest ones on paper, but those with genuine long-term advantages trading at fair prices. The fund blends classical value analysis with an eye toward which industries and themes are likely to matter over the next decade, marrying old-school stock picking with modern secular trend spotting.

The fund’s name gives away its philosophy. LAFFER TENGLER, the subadvisor, brings expertise in both old-fashioned value screening — finding businesses where the price is well below earnings power or replacement cost — and in identifying structural shifts in how humans live and work. Wedbush, a long-established brokerage and investment firm, packages and distributes the strategy. This partnership between traditional value discipline and thematic trend analysis creates a distinctive position: TGLR is not a pure bargain-hunting fund, nor is it a momentum-chasing growth fund. It sits between them.

The fund’s holdings tend to reflect this balance. You might find a multinational manufacturer trading at a discount to book value — the sort of stock a classical value investor would love — sitting alongside a software or healthcare company that trades at a modest premium because its underlying market is growing and the business has durable advantages. TGLR avoids the most expensive glamour stocks, but it also avoids deep-value traps where companies are cheap for good reason.

This approach works well when value is in favour and when the “new era” themes LAFFER TENGLER identifies actually play out. It struggles during periods when growth dominates regardless of price, or when the secular trends the fund bets on move slower than expected. An investor in TGLR is making a bet that smart, disciplined stock pickers can find businesses that are reasonably priced relative to their long-term potential and that secular shifts — demographic, technological, economic — matter more than short-term market sentiment.

The fund typically holds 40 to 80 positions spread across multiple sectors. Because it is neither a small-cap nor a large-cap fund strictly, and because it blends value screens with forward-looking judgment, the portfolio can drift from holding to holding and from period to period. This active construction is what distinguishes TGLR from simpler value index ETFs that mechanically screen for cheap stocks and hold them all.

The fee for this active management and thematic research sits between that of a passive index fund and that of a traditional, high-touch mutual fund. Over time, TGLR’s performance will depend on whether LAFFER TENGLER’s stock selection and thematic calls are accurate and whether they can continue to beat the fund’s benchmark after accounting for fees. Like all actively managed funds, there is no guarantee they will.

Investors in TGLR should read the fund’s prospectus and fact sheet to understand the specific criteria LAFFER TENGLER uses to screen for value, which secular trends the fund is positioning toward, and how the fund’s returns compare to a broad US equity benchmark. Turnover figures reveal how often the managers change positions, and top-holdings lists show whether TGLR is currently skewing toward cyclical or defensive businesses, which influences how it will perform in different economic climates.