Tidal Trust III files to add a Wermers quantitative U.S. large-cap ETF
Tidal Trust III filed Form 485APOS on Thursday, September 10, 2026, to register Wermers Quantitative U.S. Large Cap ETF WQLC, proposing automatic effectiveness 75 days after filing.
The prospectus is marked subject to completion. The management fee is a blank. The listing venue is still “[Exchange].” Wermers Quantitative Partners, a Rockville, Maryland, firm founded and registered with the SEC this year, would sub-advise an actively managed portfolio drawn from the 1,000 largest U.S.-listed companies.
Russ Wermers, who would run the book with Jane Zhao, holds the Paul J. Cinquegrana ’63 Endowed Chair in Finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and directs its Center for Financial Policy. His research is on measuring and attributing the performance of professional fund managers; he also teaches quantitative equity strategies. Zhao published with him in 2012 on aggregating the holdings of actively managed U.S. equity funds to forecast stock returns. Tidal Trust III’s Post-Effective Amendment No. 205, filed Thursday, names Tidal Investments LLC as adviser. The sub-advisory contract itself is listed as still to be filed.
The book the prospectus describes
Wermers Quantitative U.S. Large Cap ETF would seek long-term capital appreciation. Under normal conditions it would invest at least 80% of net assets, plus investment borrowings, in large-cap equity securities, defined as companies among the 1,000 largest U.S.-listed names by market capitalization.
The sub-adviser would use a proprietary quantitative process and a “broad and evolving library” of U.S. equity signals covering valuation, quality, market-participant characteristics, and alternative data to pick stocks and set weights. It expects 100 to 300 holdings and would ordinarily reallocate monthly. The entire portfolio is to be published each business day.
Four people are named as jointly and primarily responsible: Wermers and Zhao at the sub-adviser, and Qiao Duan and Andy Hicks at Tidal Investments. The filing gives the new firm no track record, and the SAI leaves the portfolio managers’ other accounts as of a date still in brackets.
A 75-day clock with the price unfilled
The fee table is unfinished. Management fee, 12b-1 fee, other expenses, and total annual fund operating expenses are all printed as “[ ]%.” The filing does not identify a fee waiver.
That blank is the price on Wermers’s signals. Fundstrat Granny Shots US Large Cap ETF GRNY, an active large-cap series already in this trust, charges 0.75%. Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF GSLC, a rules-based large-cap factor index fund, charges 0.09%. Until the fee is filled in, the series cannot be priced against either, and it cannot be judged as cheap or dear. The exchange is a placeholder too, though shares are intended to list and trade throughout the day.
The amendment proposes to become effective 75 days after filing under Rule 485(a)(2), the automatic clock a new series of an existing open-end trust can use. Automatic is not the same as certain. SEC staff can comment, the registrant can amend, and a later filing often resets or confirms the date. Thursday’s paper is the start of that clock, not the listing.
Tidal Financial Group, which houses the adviser, said in a December 29, 2025 review that it facilitated 158 ETF launches in 2025 and that about 85% of new U.S. ETF launches that year were active strategies. This filing fits that pattern: another specialist manager using Tidal Trust III as the registered vehicle.
The large-cap quant funds already listed
Goldman Sachs, iShares, and Franklin already sell rules-based U.S. large-cap factor funds at 0.08% to 0.15%. Active multifactor books from AB and First Trust cost 0.39% to 0.55% and run smaller.
First Trust Active Factor Large Cap ETF AFLG is the closest listed analogue in that group: an actively managed, multi-factor large-cap book that, like the Wermers filing, normally keeps at least 80% in U.S.-listed large companies and holds a few hundred names.
AFLG's 249 names sit in the filing's 100–300 range
100 · 100 · 300 · 300
- 443
- 291
- 257
- 249
- 70
The filing’s claimed distinction is the mix of signals, including market-participant and alternative-data inputs it does not further specify, plus monthly reallocation. That is a process description, not a result.
Wermers spent a career measuring whether professional managers earn their fees. This filing would put a price on his own signals.
Frequently asked
What would the fund actually hold?
At least 80% of net assets in large-cap equities drawn from the 1,000 largest U.S.-listed companies, expected to number 100 to 300 holdings and reallocated monthly.
Who is running it?
Russ Wermers and Jane Zhao at sub-adviser Wermers Quantitative Partners, alongside Qiao Duan and Andy Hicks at adviser Tidal Investments.
When would it start trading?
The amendment proposes automatic effectiveness 75 days after filing, but SEC staff can comment and later filings often reset that date, so the clock is not a listing.
What makes it different from large-cap funds already listed?
The filing claims a mix of valuation, quality, market-participant and unspecified alternative-data signals plus monthly reallocation: a description of process, not of results.