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New ETF will mimic publicly disclosed holdings from

Ackman's

fund

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Launch is latest in "star manager" ETF trend

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Fund will include income from covered call options

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By Suzanne McGee and Svea Herbst-Bayliss

Sept 9 (Reuters) -

Asset manager VistaShares has selected high-profile investor

Bill Ackman as the fund manager to mimic in its newest

exchange-traded fund.

The VistaShares Target 15 ACKtivist Distribution ETF

made its debut on Tuesday amid a boom in such funds either

overseen by or designed to replicate the portfolios of top

managers like Ackman.

It follows the success of VistaShares' first such offering, the

VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF,

which tracks legendary investor and billionaire philanthropist

Warren Buffett's holdings and has pulled in some $475 million in

assets in the six months since its debut.

"We analyzed dozens and dozens of other managers who had

high-conviction positions" before settling on Ackman,

VistaShares CEO Adam Patti told Reuters.

The new ETF will mirror Ackman's Pershing Square Capital

Management's holdings, as disclosed in quarterly 13F filings

with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and other

regulators. It will use a covered call options strategy to

generate income of 15% annually. Ackman's current portfolio

includes bets on Amazon, Nike and Uber.

Neither Ackman nor Pershing Square has any link to the new

ETF. A spokesperson for Ackman declined to comment.

Ackman launched Pershing Square in 2014 and oversees some

$30 billion in assets for pension funds, endowments and wealthy

investors, invested in about a dozen companies. One of Wall

Street's best known activist investors, he has spearheaded a

board overhaul at Canadian Pacific and helped find a

new CEO for Chipotle Mexican Grill ( CMG ).

Ackman said three years ago he planned to abandon high profile

activism. The hedge fund has generated a total return of 121%

over the last five years, compared to a total return of 84.5%

from the Standard & Poor's 500 index in the same period. While

2025 got off to a tough start, Ackman's portfolio swung from a

double-digit loss to a gain of 18% in the first eight months of

the year.

The VistaShare ETFs are part of a broader trend, as

investors seek to track or replicate the holdings of investment

stars. Wedbush Securities has $498 million in an ETF overseen by

its technology research analyst Dan Ives, while Fundstrat Global

Advisor founder Tom Lee is the name behind the $2.5 billion

Fundstrat Granny Shots Large Cap ETF.

Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at

VettaFi, said investors should not expect to generate the same

kind of returns from "star-inspired" ETFs as the hedge funds

those managers oversee.

"There is a problem with the lag between when those stars

invest and the disclosure" of those positions, Islam said. That

delay can amount to weeks or even months.

Patti said he is not worried this will dampen enthusiasm for

the products, noting that options income makes the fund

distinctive.

Still, he added, "I'd never tell anyone to sell their core

portfolio holdings and just buy this fund. It's a diversifier."