TipRanks Launches Analyst-Based ETF on Wall Street with Strong Momentum Strategy
TipRanks, an Israeli financial data company founded in 2012 by Uri Greenbaum and Gilad Gat, has entered the U.S. ETF market by launching its first exchange-traded fund on Wall Street last week. The new ETF, named Defiance KSM TipRanks Analyst ETF and trading under the symbol RANK, is based on TipRanks' proprietary analyst ratings and momentum data. This launch was done in partnership with VettaFi, a TMX Group subsidiary that acquired Israeli index firm Index in 2024, and Defiance ETFs.
TipRanks initially gained recognition for its analyst ranking system, helping investors identify reliable stock recommendations. After being acquired nearly two years ago by Singapore’s Prytek for $200 million, TipRanks expanded its offerings to include broader financial data and investor content. Uri Greenbaum explained that their index selects the top 100 S&P 500 stocks with the highest analyst ratings and then narrows down to the 50 stocks with the strongest positive momentum, a strategy that has outperformed the S&P 500 by 24% in Israel where a similar ETF was launched by KSM two years ago.
According to TipRanks, the underlying index for the ETF has returned 34.6% year-to-date compared to about 10% for the S&P 500, and over three years it achieved approximately 156% versus 75% for the benchmark. Currently, three KSM funds based on TipRanks data manage nearly 109 million shekels. The ETF holdings are weighted by company size with sector and stock limits, and the index is rebalanced quarterly.
Greenbaum emphasized that the ETF aims to provide retail investors with innovative insights typically available only to leading hedge funds, filtering market noise to highlight compelling Wall Street ideas. The top five holdings in RANK include Walmart (6%), Micron Technology, Amazon, GE Aerospace, and Applied Materials, with semiconductor companies like Nvidia, Lam Research, and Broadcom also prominent amid recent positive momentum in the chip sector.
Greenbaum recounted that the idea for TipRanks arose from his own experience of a poor investment based on an analyst’s recommendation, prompting him to track analyst performance systematically. This new ETF represents the company’s first direct product offering on the U.S. market, combining active analyst insights with passive quarterly rebalancing to deliver a unique investment approach.
