The Toews Agility Shares Hedged Nasdaq ETF is designed to offer exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index while incorporating a dynamic, options-based strategy aimed at downside protection. Rather than relying on subjective or predictive market calls, the manager applies a rules-based, price-reactive process to decide when to add or remove the hedge.
Strategy Profile
Toews Agility Shares Hedged Nasdaq ETF (HQQQ): Nasdaq-100 Exposure With Downside Protection
Book a MeetingA profile of the strategy, the firm behind it, and the people who run it, written for advisors evaluating whether a Section 351 exchange is worth exploring with a client. Nothing here is an offer, a solicitation, or a recommendation of any security or investment product.
The Strategy
Strategy characteristics are targets described by the manager, not limits or guarantees, and may change without notice. Information on this page is provided by the manager and has not been independently verified by ExchangiFi.
See If A Client Portfolio Qualifies
Create a free ExchangiFi account, upload holdings, and run the diversification and liquidity tests before you raise the idea with a client. Free to register, free to use, no credit card.
Create A Free AccountAbout The Firm
Toews Asset Management is an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 1994 and headquartered in New York City, with a secondary office in Northfield, New Jersey. The firm builds portfolios designed to reduce the risk of loss during market downturns while still participating in gains, combining in-depth research with a rules-based, price-reactive algorithm for investment exit and re-entry points.
A GIPS compliant, independently verified track record refers to the presentation and verification of historical composite performance. It is not a statement about future results, and past performance does not guarantee future results. No performance data is presented on this page. Firm diligence materials, Form ADV and composite performance are available directly from the manager.
The Team
The strategy is overseen by Toews’ five-person portfolio management team, led by the firm’s founder.
Phillip Toews
Chief Executive Officer & Portfolio Manager
Phillip Toews is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Toews Corporation and a portfolio manager on its strategies. His work focuses on building products that address both the economic and behavioral sides of investing, and he founded the firm’s Behavioral Investing Institute to help advisors manage client behavior through periods of market volatility.
Jason Graffius
Chief Operating Officer & Portfolio Manager
Jason Graffius joined Toews in October 2013 and oversees the firm’s day-to-day operations and investment research as a portfolio manager. He previously served as Vice President on BlackRock Financial Management’s Structured Finance team, working on collateralized debt obligations, hedge funds, and government-mandated projects, and also worked at JPMorgan. He holds a Series 65 license and a B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University–Camden (2002).
Randy Schroeder
Managing Director & Portfolio Manager
Randy Schroeder joined Toews in March 1998 and has served since as the primary overseer of the firm’s analytic methodology, focusing on developing new products to suit investor needs. He holds a B.A. from Bethel College in Newton, Kansas (1988) and a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton (1994).
Charles Collins
Head of Trading, Options & Derivatives Specialist, Portfolio Manager
Charles Collins joined Toews in May 2016 as Head of Trading and a portfolio manager specializing in options and derivatives. He previously worked as an equity derivatives broker at Tullett Prebon in Jersey City, providing investment banks and asset managers access to liquidity in index options, single-stock options, delta-one products, and variance swaps, and earlier in his career was a floor trader and independent NYSE member. He holds Series 4, 7, 24, 55, and 63 licenses and a B.S. in Finance from LaSalle University (2002).
Landon Gould
Vice President, Investments & Portfolio Manager
No biography is published on toewsetfs.com beyond his title.
Biographical information is provided by the manager. References to prior firms and roles describe individual professional history only. They are not representations about results achieved at those firms and should not be read as an indication of future performance.
What Is A Section 351 Exchange?
Section 351 of the Internal Revenue Code is a long standing rule: when one or more persons transfer property to a corporation solely in exchange for that corporation’s stock, no gain or loss is recognized on the transfer. It is the same principle founders rely on when they contribute assets to a newly formed company, applied to portfolios of marketable securities. Advisors often describe it as the 1031 exchange of the equity world, though the two provisions are separate and work differently.
In practice, an investor holding appreciated securities contributes those securities in kind to a newly organized entity and receives shares of that entity in return. Because nothing is sold, no capital gain is realized at the moment of the exchange. The investor’s original cost basis and holding period carry over to the new shares, so the deferred gain travels with them and is recognized when the shares are eventually sold. Deferral is the benefit. Elimination is not on offer.
A short walkthrough of the software: uploading holdings, running the diversification and liquidity tests, and reading the results.
What A Contributed Portfolio Has To Clear
80 / 100
Strategy alignment
At least 80 percent of contributed positions should align with the fund's intended portfolio, and 100 percent should sit within the universe of positions the strategy could hold.
25 / 50
Diversification test
Under Section 351(e), no single issuer above 25 percent of contributed value, and the five largest together no more than 50 percent.
Alignment is the manager’s call. The diversification test is the tax question, and missing it can cause the transfer to be treated as a taxable sale in full. Other conditions matter in practice as well. The exchange cannot be a pre arranged sale in substance, post contribution changes to the portfolio are examined, tax law can change, and the Internal Revenue Service may look past the form of a transaction to its substance. This is why the work is done with counsel and a tax advisor rather than on the strength of a marketing page.
More detail, including common questions on qualification, timing and cost, is answered on our Section 351 exchange FAQs.