REX files two Nasdaq-100 autocallable income ETFs as Calamos's fund holds $372 million

Three Nasdaq-100 autocallable income ETFs already trade, holding about $409 million among them. The Calamos Nasdaq Autocallable Income ETF CCAIQ, listed in November 2025, held about $372 million as of Wednesday, at a 0.74% expense ratio. The ProShares Nasdaq-100 Autocallable Income ETF —ACQQ, listed in August, held about $24.5 million and charges 0.72%. The m Nasdaq-100 Accelerator Autocall ETF MPIA, listed August 12, held about $12.4 million as of Tuesday, charges 0.7%, and tracks a Barclays autocallable index on a Nasdaq-100 reference. Direxion Shares ETF Trust filed three Nasdaq-100 autocallable proposals in August, also with management fees left blank, and Global X has a Rule 485(a) filing of its own that points the same structure at the NYSE 100.

REX already runs two autocallable funds, neither of them on the Nasdaq-100. The Autocallable Income ETF BATCL, which began in February, held about $47.8 million as of Wednesday and charges 0.65%; the Defensive Autocallable Income ETF —DACL, listed in August, held about $3.5 million.

Both take their cue from Bloomberg large-cap autocallable indexes. Six weeks after listing the smaller of those two, REX ETF Trust put two new series in front of the SEC after Thursday's cash close: a REX Nasdaq Autocallable Income ETF and a Nasdaq Defensive Autocallable Income ETF, the same two flavors on the Nasdaq-100 reference the three listed funds already occupy. The prospectuses are marked subject to completion. They add series to the trust and do not, on the face of the documents, change the terms of BATCL or —DACL. REX Advisers, LLC would manage both. Each filing checks the box for effectiveness 75 days after filing under Rule 485(a)(2), the path for a new series whose terms the SEC has not yet waved through, rather than the same-day paragraph (b) box REX has used on other updates. The shares cannot be sold until the registration statement is effective, and the unfilled terms can still change.

What the two Nasdaq-100 prospectuses propose

Post-effective amendment No. 131 is a preliminary prospectus for the REX Nasdaq Autocallable Income ETF, seeking "high monthly income" with "reduced downside risk" through an Autocallable Index whose legal name is still a bracket. Amendment No. 132, for the Nasdaq Defensive Autocallable Income ETF, seeks monthly income with "enhanced downside mitigation" through the same unnamed index.

An autocallable is a structured contract that pays a coupon if a reference index stays above a barrier and can be redeemed early if the index is at or above another level. Both prospectuses describe a ladder of those synthetic contracts, each starting on a different date, with similar predefined terms. Both papers name the Nasdaq-100 Index as the Underlying Equity Index, the 100 largest Nasdaq-listed non-financial companies. Nasdaq, Inc. would administer that index and a volatility-targeted overlay called the Underlying Reference Index, though the volatility percentage and the sponsor of the Autocallable Index itself are unfilled.

Exposure would come from unfunded total return swaps, contracts that pass through the Autocallable Index's return without the fund posting the full notional up front. The Autocallable Income prospectus says the portfolio would be those swaps, U.S. Treasuries with a year or less to maturity, cash, and box spreads. Coupons are contingent in both documents: if the reference index is below the Coupon Barrier on an observation date, that period's coupon is forfeited, and the barrier levels are not filled in.

The defensive prospectus describes a Risk Buffer. Moves below that buffer before maturity do not, by themselves, cut principal. If a contract is not called and the reference index is at or above the buffer on the maturity date, the initial notional is protected; if it finishes below the buffer, losses beyond that level are multiplied by a gearing factor. The buffer percentage and the gearing factor are unfilled, and the paper warns that principal can be lost. The listed —DACL already publishes a 50% buffer and 200% gearing; Thursday's defensive prospectus does not assign those terms, or —DACL's ticker, to the proposed Nasdaq series.

Management fees, other expenses, and total annual operating expenses are placeholders in both fee tables. The cost of the swaps, and any cost embedded in the reference index, are called out as indirect and are not in the fee table.

A cash portfolio that still meets an 80% test

Both funds adopt an 80% name test that counts derivatives at notional value, so a swap book can meet the policy even when the cash side sits in bills. That is already how the listed versions of this wrapper are built. As of Thursday, the largest line in BATCL was a United States Treasury bill at 94% of weight, with the autocallable exposure sitting in unfunded swaps that do not have to crowd the cash side of the book. —ACQQ's disclosed portfolio is a money-market fund at 70% of weight, an unfunded Nasdaq-100 autocallable swap carried at zero market value, and a residual.

REX's listed autocallable funds, at $47.8 million and $3.5 million, sit on Bloomberg indexes. Thursday's paper proposes the Nasdaq-100 version of that cash-and-swap wrapper, on a shelf where CCAIQ already holds $372 million, without pricing it.