Who's The Boss? It Could Be This New ETF

The universe of niche exchange traded funds includes various products aimed at delivering exposure to stocks insiders are buying or those names that frequently appear in the 13F filings of widely followed investors.

Add the Global X Founder-Run Companies ETF BOSS to the list of unique approaches to the equity market. The Global X Founder-Run Companies ETF, which debuted Wednesday, follows the Solactive U.S. Founder-Run Companies Index.

BOSS focuses primarily on U.S. large- and mid-cap companies where the chief executive officer is also a founder.

“Founders tend to have significant personal wealth tied to the companies they lead, and thus often focus on long-term value creation through innovation and entrepreneurialism,” according to Global X.

Data suggest investors can be rewarded by founder-run companies.

“For example, the average annual compensation for founder/CEOs is 32% less than that of the average S&P 500 CEO, as founders understand that maximizing their salary could come at the expense of deploying cash to fund long term growth opportunities, and thus hurt their equity value over the long term. In addition, these CEOs are careful to not take on excessive debt, as bankruptcy would wipe out the value of their equity stake. As a result, founder-run companies exhibit 52% lower debt-to-equity ratios than the S&P 500 as a whole,” according to Global X.

BOSS allocates nearly 26 percent of its weight to technology stocks while the healthcare sector chimes in at 20.7 percent.

The new ETF's top 10 holdings include some familiar names such as NVIDIA Corporation NVDA, Netflix, Inc. NFLX and Steel Dynamics, Inc. STLD.

BOSS charges 0.65 percent a year, or $65 on a $10,000 stake.

Image: "Who's The Boss?" Season 2 Credits, Sony Pictures