MAGA Index: Firm Launches Politically Responsible Investing

  |  
Oct 5, 2017
nasdaq MAGA screenshot

A new exchange-traded fund has been trading for nearly a month with the goal of helping people make sure that their money is going towards making America great again.

The Point Bridge GOP Stock Tracker, which invests exclusively in companies that support the Republican Party and President Donald J. Trump, even trades under the ticker MAGA. Other ETF’s focus on socially responsible investing, which generally lean to the left and focus on issues such as green energy, or specific industries and products. The MAGA ETF appears to be the first of its kind, focusing on politically responsible investing.

Point Bridge Capital founder and CEO Hal Lambert told Big League Politics to ensure the companies are politically responsible, he reviews the political contribution data of PACs of possible investments.

Lambert, who launched Point Bridge in 2013 and the Republican stock ETF on Sept. 7, said he started by looking at a commonly followed index.

“What I did was I took the S&P 500 and I screened it for the top 150 Republican supporting stocks from a standpoint of political contributions,” he said.

“I looked at the PACs of the companies and employees — and whether or not they supported Republican candidates,” he said. “I then created an index which is used for the ETF which is traded like a stock on the stock exchange.”

People can buy it anywhere that they have a brokerage account, and it trades like a stock., he said. 

Lambert said the idea for the ETF came to him because companies are becoming very vocal with their political alliances, often leading to boycotts, while people don’t realize they are still contributing to these very companies through their mutual funds.

“What gave me the idea is that people have been very upset about what is going on, as companies have become very political,” he said.

“Not only are they giving money politically, but they are also speaking out publicly like never before,” he said. “People were getting upset and you see people boycotting particular companies, but they didn’t realize that they own these same stocks in their mutual funds. So, on the one hand, they are boycotting Starbucks or Target, but they are losing money in the mutual fund they own and they don’t realize it.”

With the MAGA EFT, people, who may not be able to give money to a candidate, can do it this way through their investments,” he said.

“It’s important because there’s a lot of money being given, and people should have the option to invest with companies that are supporting their types of candidates,” he said.

One recent and highly controversial issue where this ETF could help people, Lambert said, is with the recent ‘Take a Knee’ campaign and subsequent ESPN boycott.

“One of the latest things that I have been talking about, and will continue to talk about, is Disney and ESPN,” Lambert said, explaining that many people do not realize that Disney owns ESPN. He also noted that Disney is one of the top Democratic political contributors. “People have turned off ESPN, which really hurt Disney’s stock prices — but many people may not realize that they own Disney in their mutual funds.”

Lambert said that with many of these big controversies there is usually a political agenda, and you can spot them by looking at a company’s political contributions.

“People don’t realize that a lot of these companies are widely held, Disney being one of them, yet Disney is probably one of the top companies that have caused this whole controversy with people kneeling for the national anthem,” Lambert said.

Those who are interested in the ETF, or just keeping up with where companies are spending their money politically, can follow Lambert’s efforts on Twitter or through his website InvestPolitically.com.

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