The ETFs are still quite small, with GBXA at $6M in assets. GBXC is $8M. They do reset quarterly, which is different than other buffer ETFs. Downside protection ranges from 5% and 15%, but note that upside gains are capped at 5% to 7%. Fees are 0.50%, also lower than most peers. For exceptionally nervous investors, we would consider them OK. But capping returns to us seems inadvisable, especially with S&P dividends alone at 1.15%. A lot of upside could be given up here to get some downside protection. A simple balanced fund, such as VBAL, has a 3-year return of 9.22% for example, and has had only one down year (2022 at 13.3%). So a simple bond/stock set-up, at least recently, would have proven to have better returns and less volatility than the cap of these ETFs (not exactly apples-to-apples as VBAL had some higher volatility intra-year 2022 and we are referencing the full year). We would just not consider these buffer ETFs that great.
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