IPO vs SPAQ

IPOBRenaissance IPO ETF

SPAQDHorizon Kinetics SPAC Active ETF

In short

IPO The straight new-issue trade: a rules-based basket of roughly 70 companies that recently went public on a U.S. exchange, running since 2013. Not spin-offs, not a stock picker's list, just the freshman class.

SPAQ Most equity funds measure themselves against the stock market. This one sets its bar at a bank CD: an actively run basket of SPACs and their warrants, chasing realized gains above short-term interest rates.

Stated mandate

IPO The fund seeks to track the Renaissance IPO Index, which comprises companies that recently completed IPOs and are listed on a U.S. exchange.

SPAQ The Fund seeks realized capital gains above short-term interest rates on a risk-adjusted basis. It primarily pursues this objective by investing in SPACs that the sub-adviser expects to generate gains above comparable bank certificate-of-deposit income.

Why people hold it

• IPO At 0.60% a year it undercuts the typical fund in its IPO and spin-off cohort, including First Trust's FPXI (0.70%) and Invesco's spin-off ETF CSD (0.67%).
• The mandate is narrow on purpose: track the Renaissance IPO Index, about 70 recent U.S. IPOs, by rule rather than by a manager's conviction picks.
• Trading since 2013, so it has carried this exposure through both crowded IPO windows and quiet ones, and it stands in the upper half of its small peer group.

• SPAQ The mandate is unusually literal: realized capital gains above short-term rates, measured against what a comparable bank certificate of deposit would pay.
• Goes where index products rarely do: roughly 60 positions in SPACs plus the warrants and rights attached to them, chosen by a sub-adviser rather than a screen.
• Its peer group is mostly IPO and spin-off index funds (FPX, CSD, IPO). This is one of the few US ETFs pointed squarely at SPACs, and it has run since 2023.

Worth knowing

• IPO Recent IPOs are young companies with short public track records, and the basket leans toward whatever sectors happen to be going public.
• It trades thinly next to broad index ETFs, so spreads and order size matter more here than in a mega-fund.
• A smaller fund by assets, and payouts are incidental to the strategy: distributions come quarterly.

• SPAQ Active management shows up in the fee: 0.85% a year versus a 0.70% peer median, and SPAC-focused rival SPCK charges no management fee at all.
• A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads can run wider than in the big index names in its category and order size matters more.
• Cash comes back once or twice a year at most, and with no index underneath, outcomes ride on the sub-adviser's deal-by-deal judgment.

Full IPO profile⁠

Full SPAQ profile⁠