Clough Select Equity ETF

The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve its investment objective by purchasing securities that Clough Capital Partners L.P. (the “Adviser”), the Fund’s investment adviser, believes:

The Fund primarily invests in U.S.-listed equity securities and sponsored depositary receipts, including American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”), European Depositary Receipts (“EDRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”). While the Fund’s equity exposure strategy focuses on investments in U.S. equity securities, the Fund’s strategy also includes investments in companies organized in the U.S. but deriving revenue from international markets, including emerging markets. The Fund will make investments in emerging markets, which the Fund defines as countries included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (“MSCI”), using U.S.-listed securities of companies domiciled in MSCI countries. While the Adviser seeks companies it believes will outperform over a full market cycle (typically 5-11 years), the Fund may experience higher portfolio turnover in the short term as the Fund responds to changing market conditions or when the Adviser identifies new opportunities.

The Adviser's investment process is built on seeking to identify and capitalize on industry or economic trends that other investors have not yet recognized. The Adviser believes that it can identify industry or economic trends by analyzing industry and economic related information such as capital flows that effect natural resource scarcity, technological innovations which have the potential to disrupt traditional industries, impacts of demographic shifts, and changes in profit or credit cycles. The Adviser then interprets the information analyzed to identify emerging patterns or changes in various sectors of the economy and develops a strategy for the Fund to allocate its capital into investible securities.

The Adviser identifies investible securities through rigorous research, including analysis of public company filings, customer preferences, relevant supply chains, and additional publicly available company information. The investment process focuses on a number of significant global investment themes identified by the Adviser through its research process. Global investment themes include industry or economic trends that the Adviser believes will significantly impact multiple sectors or regions of the global economy. The Adviser believes that the Fund can invest in companies affected by an attractive global investment theme which the Adviser anticipates will result in positive investment returns. For instance, an attractive global investment theme could be the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative technology. The Adviser might identify this theme by observing increased investment in AI research and development, analyzing the growing demand for advanced semiconductor chips, and studying the proliferation of AI-powered applications across various industries. This theme could result in far-reaching implications for semiconductor manufacturers, companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain, consumer electronics producers, software developers, and numerous other sectors that stand to benefit from or be negatively impacted by AI technology.

When such a theme is identified, the Adviser then conducts bottom-up research to find specific companies that are well-positioned to benefit from this trend. In the AI example, this research might uncover potential investments in leading chip designers, manufacturers of specialized AI hardware, cloud computing providers offering AI services, or software companies developing innovative AI applications. This approach allows the Fund to invest in the global trends identified by selecting individual securities that the Adviser believes will offer the best potential for positive returns. Individual security positions are selected after an evaluation of various company characteristics, such as an assessment of a company's market position compared to its competitors, which would involve analyzing company specific factors including market share, product differentiation, and brand strength. The Adviser also evaluates the quality of company management by examining its track record, strategic decisions, and ability to execute business plans effectively. The company selection assessment also includes analyzing a company’s financial performance metrics, reviewing a company’s public statements and interviews, and evaluating a company's reputation within its industry. The Adviser also analyzes a company's earnings, cash flow, and balance sheet to assess its financial stability and potential for positive investment returns. In addition, the Adviser evaluates whether a company's market share, profitability and market valuation is justified and likely to persist over time, compared to both its own and peer historical metrics. The evaluation process involves analysis of various financial ratios and metrics, including price-to-earnings, earnings per share, return on equity, and debt-to-equity ratios, to determine if a company's stock price accurately reflects its fundamental value and growth potential.

The Fund's portfolio construction is driven by the Adviser's bottom-up research process, which seeks to identify the most compelling investment opportunities across various sectors. The Fund’s equity stock position concentrations will be higher in sectors such as energy, technology, consumer, industrial, and healthcare at times, and the Fund does not adhere to strict sector weighting parameters. This approach allows the Fund to invest in companies that have the greatest potential for returns, regardless of sector. The Fund will typically maintain a diversified portfolio of 30 to 50 long positions and 20 to 50 short positions. This range allows for meaningful exposure to high-conviction ideas while maintaining a level of diversification to manage overall portfolio risk. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, will be invested in equity securities, including common stocks and sponsored depositary receipts.