New HALX ETF Bets on Heavy Assets and Equal Weight

HALX, the Tuttle Capital Heavy Assets Low Obsolescence ETF, started trading May 19. The fund picks 40 stocks from the VettaFi US Equity Large-Cap 500 that meet two criteria: heavy tangible assets and low product obsolescence. Transportation, energy infrastructure, logistics, and industrial facilities dominate the portfolio. Technology giants that cap-weighted indexes lean on are largely absent.

Devon Energy is the top holding at 4.51%. The DVN stock page shows an Alpha Score of 54/100, a moderate reading. West Pharmaceutical Services follows at 3.44%. CoreWeave at 2.92% stands out. The company owns physical data center hardware for AI workloads, which the fund treats as industrial infrastructure rather than tech exposure.

Railroads form a meaningful piece. CSX Corporation accounts for 2.84% of assets. Union Pacific carries a 2.68% weight. Together they grant access to rail networks that would be costly to replicate. Energy infrastructure appears through Targa Resources at 2.61% and Diamondback Energy at 2.61%. Diamondback’s Alpha Score is 55/100. Burlington Stores at 2.69% adds retail real estate to the mix.

The top 10 holdings represent 31.06% of assets. Most other stocks sit between 2.0% and 2.7%. That even spread comes from a modified equal-weight methodology. In a cap-weighted energy or industrial ETF, the largest positions often command 10% or more. Here no single stock exceeds 4.51%. The approach reduces single-stock risk. It also means the fund will not ride a concentrated winner as hard as a cap-weighted portfolio might. The periodic rebalancing forces profit-taking on winners and buying into losers. That mechanical process can generate tax events in taxable accounts.

The low-obsolescence filter adds another constraint. Companies with rapidly changing product lines – most of tech and biotech – are excluded. That protects against disruption. It also cuts off the growth premium investors attach to intangible assets. The portfolio is a bet on physical capital in an era that often rewards digital assets.

The heavy-asset tilt also pushes the portfolio toward value stocks. Many of its holdings trade at lower price-to-book ratios than the broad market, a feature that could appeal to investors expecting a value rotation. The expense ratio of 0.75% sits in line with other thematic ETFs. The sector tilt means the fund will not track the S&P 500. It is best viewed as a standalone allocation.

What would confirm the thesis? Strong cash flows from heavy-asset companies in a high-rate environment where capital costs favor existing infrastructure over new builds. What would weaken it? A commodity downturn that hits DVN and FANG would pressure energy holdings. A sustained rotation toward intangible-asset winners would also work against the fund. HALX launched on May 19 with an expense ratio of 0.75%. It trades on NYSE.