Two Themes funds closed 0.03% from NAV on their last creation day
As of Friday, September 18, 2026, Themes US Cash Flow Champions LGCF and Themes US Small Cap Cash Flow Champions SMCF closed 0.03% below NAV on the last creation day; exchange trading ends Monday, September 21.
Monday, September 21 is the last session you can sell three Themes funds on an exchange. The authorized participants who pin an ETF's price to its portfolio already lost that job after Friday. And Friday, on the two funds whose net asset value we can date to the same close, the last sale was a penny from the assets.
The test that matters for anyone still holding the shares is the session that has not printed yet: Monday, when the funds still have a listing and no longer have a create-and-redeem window.
Last creation day, then one more exchange session
On Wednesday, September 16, Themes said it would liquidate the Themes US Cash Flow Champions ETF LGCF, a basket of U.S. companies screened for cash-flow yield; the Themes US Small Cap Cash Flow Champions ETF SMCF; and the Themes Lithium & Battery Metal Miners ETF LIMI, which holds lithium and battery-metal miners. The stated reason was the funds' "inability to attract sufficient investment assets." Together they run $7.81 million. LGCF holds $2.30 million, SMCF $3.50 million, LIMI $2.01 million.
The funds would not accept creation or redemption orders after Friday, September 18. They cease exchange trading at the close on Monday, September 21, LGCF and SMCF on Nasdaq, LIMI on Cboe. From that close through Friday, September 25, the liquidation date, shareholders "may only be able to sell their shares to certain broker-dealers," and Themes offered "no assurance that there will be a market." Holders who do not sell receive a pro rata cash distribution when the portfolios are wound up.
Friday was still a full ETF session. LGCF closed at $38.35 against a NAV of $38.36, a 0.03% discount. SMCF closed at $38.90 against $38.91, the same 0.03%. LIMI did not give us a NAV dated to Friday's close, so there is no same-session gap to report.
Someone did use the last day. SMCF traded 9,517 shares Friday, against 200 to 2,464 Monday through Thursday. The close was still a cent from NAV. LGCF printed 834 shares, inside its usual range. LIMI printed 100.
The liquidating names that still had a same-session NAV finished inside a tenth of a percent.
Two Sophus funds get more time, and a book that is already cash
What a holder of these two funds owns is mostly cash and one currency. The Sophus Capital Emerging Market Small Cap ETF EMSC is 86.4% in cash and Indian rupees. The Sophus Capital Emerging Market ETF EMEM is 80.7% Indian rupees. Both still take creations, still quote a NAV, and still trade. That NAV is the price of the remaining book, not of an emerging-market equity portfolio.
Cash and the rupee are 86.4% of EMSC
- 44%
- 43%
- 3.8%
- 3.1%
- 3.1%
- 2.5%
- 0.9%
- 0.2%
Empowered Funds, on Friday morning, pushed back the wind-up. EMEM is now set to liquidate on or about Wednesday, October 14, with trading and creations stopping after Tuesday, October 13. EMSC moves to on or about Wednesday, October 28, with the cutoff after Tuesday, October 27. Both launched in May. The original plan, announced Tuesday, September 8, had them done around September 28.
The secondary market did not wait for the new dates. EMEM is a $3.57 million fund; EMSC holds $21.04 million.
EMEM volume collapsed from 1.14 million shares to 10,433
- EMEM · 10,433
- EMSC · 19,708
Friday's close on EMEM was $25.49 against a NAV of $25.47, a 0.08% premium. EMSC's latest NAV is dated Tuesday, so a Friday gap would mix two sessions.
Empowered Funds repeated the same secondary-market warning Themes used: after the cutoff, shareholders may only be able to sell to certain broker-dealers, with no assurance of a market.
A 1.46% last sale that was a 0.19% midpoint
The widest same-session last-sale gap among the funds this column dated was not a liquidation. It was the First Trust SkyBridge Crypto Industry and Digital Economy ETF CRPT, $118 million of crypto-industry stocks and bitcoin exchange-traded products, on a day those stocks ran.
Strategy, 25.0% of the fund, rose 16.4%. Coinbase, 12.9%, rose 11.7%. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT, a 4.6% sleeve inside CRPT, rose 6.3% as bitcoin reclaimed $80,000. CRPT itself jumped 11.9% to $16.00, the high of a $14.51 to $16.00 range, on 45,559 shares. NAV was $15.77. That last sale is a 1.46% premium.
First Trust also publishes the bid/ask midpoint: $15.80, a 0.19% premium to the same NAV. The 30-day median bid/ask spread, as of Thursday, September 17, was 2.17%. A last sale at the day's high, inside that spread, is not evidence that the create window failed. First Trust's own note is the generic one: shares trade on the exchange at market price rather than NAV, which can produce a premium or a discount.
Monday without the pipe
If you still hold LGCF, SMCF, or LIMI, the choice on Monday is an exchange price with no authorized participant left to pin it to the portfolio, or a wait for cash. Sell on the listing and you get whatever prints. Hold past the close and Themes does not promise anyone will bid again before the pro rata distribution on or about Friday, September 25.
EMEM and EMSC keep trading, and keep taking creations, into October. The NAV a buyer is matching until then is already mostly Indian rupees and cash.
Frequently asked
What happens if I hold the Themes funds past the last trading day?
You get a pro rata cash distribution when the portfolios are wound up, with no assurance anyone will bid for your shares in the meantime.
Why are the Themes funds closing?
Themes cited the funds' inability to attract sufficient investment assets; the three together run $7.81 million.
What do the two Sophus funds actually hold now?
Mostly cash and Indian rupees, 86.4% of the small-cap fund and 80.7% of the other, so the NAV is the price of that remaining book, not an emerging-market equity portfolio.
Was the crypto ETF's 1.46% premium a sign of a broken create window?
No: the bid/ask midpoint was a 0.19% premium, and the last sale printed at the day's high inside a 30-day median spread of 2.17%.