An exchange-traded fund set up to buy stocks recommended by CNBC personality Jim Cramer will be closed and liquidated, its provider said Monday.
Shares of the Long Cramer Tracker ETF LJIM will see their last day of trading on Cboe on Sept. 11, which will also be the last day the fund will accept creation units from authorized participants, Tuttle Capital Management said in a news release Monday afternoon.
“We started LJIM in order to facilitate a conversation with Jim Cramer around his stock picks as the other side to the Short Cramer ETF SJIM, ” said Matthew Tuttle, the fund’s adviser, in the news release.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Cramer and CNBC have been unwilling to engage in dialogue and instead have chosen to ignore the funds, therefore there is no reason to keep the long side going,” Tuttle said. “Going forward we will just focus on the short side.”
CNBC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Inverse Cramer ETF aims to achieve the inverse of Cramer’s recommendations by going short anything he recommends buying and going long anything he doesn’t like. The ETFs were launched in March.
The Long Cramer ETF opened at $24.96 on March 2, according to FactSet. It surged in June and early July, closing at a high of $29.42 on July 19. It’s retreated sharply in August, falling 12.1% so far this month, ending Monday at $25.79.
See: ETF focused on Jim Cramer stock picks surged in June, kicks off July with slight gains
The Inverse Cramer ETF, as would be expected, fell sharply in June and early July, but is up 13.1% in the month to date. The Long Cramer ETF is up 3.3% since its launch, while the Inverse Cramer ETF is down 3.9%.
Cramer last October said on Twitter that he welcomed people betting against him, after Tuttle Capital Management filed papers for the ETFs with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In response to the launch of the ETFs in March, a CNBC spokesperson said that it was Cramer’s mission “to encourage long-term investing and a balanced portfolio that includes index funds and individual stocks.”
