Frequently asked questions

When did the fund launch?

  • May 1st, 2025.

Where does the fund trade?

  • Nasdaq

What is AGGA?

  • AGGA (pronounced AGG – A) is the Astoria Dynamic US Core Fixed Income ETF.
  • It is actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in other U.S. fixed income ETFs (“Underlying U.S. Fixed Income Funds”).
  • The Fund targets a diversified allocation to Underlying Funds representing key sectors of the fixed income market, with adjustments made to reflect current market conditions, credit risk, and interest rate dynamics.
  • The Fund’s active management approach seeks to optimize risk-adjusted returns over a full market cycle.

What does AGGA cost?

  • 48%
  • This does not exclude acquired fund fees.

Who is Astoria?

  • Astoria is an investment management firm that specializes in research-driven, cross-asset, ETF, and quantitative equity portfolio construction. Our core services include investment management, research, and sub-advisory services.

The firm oversees $2.1bln in total assets as of April 2025.

  • The firm currently has 3 ETFs. They are as follows:
  • Astoria US Quality Growth Kings ETF (ROE)
  • Astoria Inflation Sensitive ETF (PPI)
  • Astoria US Equal Weight Quality Kings ETF (ROE).

Who is Astor?

  • Astor Investment Management is a registered investment adviser headquartered in Chicago, IL. Astor provides investment strategies for varying risk tolerances and portfolio objectives. Our investment philosophy is based on the belief that diligent analysis of economic data can provide valuable signals for longer-term financial market allocations. Focusing on economic fundamentals is why we say we are “Fundamentally Driven.”
  • Astor currently manages over $1b across its strategies as of April 2025. Astor has provided macro-based, risk-managed strategies for over 20 years through  its flagship, multi-asset Dynamic Allocation, equity focused Sector Allocation strategies both 20 years)  and it’s unconstrained Active Income strategy for 14 years.

 What role does Astoria and Astor serve for AGGA?

  • Astoria and Astor both serves as a sub-advisor for the ETF, and the fund resides in ETF Architect’s trust.

What role does AGGA  fill in a portfolio?

  • We believe AGGA could be used as part of core bond portfolio or part of a tactical sleeve.

Does AGGA buy individual bonds?

  • We use 3rd party ETFs to allocate across credit, rates, and other fixed income sectors.

 

Why do you buy ETFs in the fund and not individual bonds?

  • By using ETFs, it allows for efficiency in shifting allocations (not being stuck in cash) as well as tax efficiency as the advisor can hold the position achieve the advantages of a dynamic position while potentially minimizing tax liabilities through the ETF fund structure.
  • In most cases, these funds have low expense ratios and offer an attractive alternative to buying hundreds of individual bonds and potential resource and trade friction that may come with that.
  • In cases where an underlying fund is more expensive, this is a market where implicit and explicit trade costs are usually higher, spreads are typically wider and would add an additional layer of complexity.

Why do you take a macro, top-down approach to allocation in this strategy?

  • Duration and credit are generally considered the most important characteristics of understanding the riskiness of a bond. Macro trends and conditions are big influences on these factors.

What are duration and credit exactly?

  • Duration is how we refer to the returns (and associated risks) of any bond due to the time until maturity. All else equal, the higher the duration, the more sensitivity to interest rates it will have.
  • Credit (and credit rating) is the risk (and associated returns) to a bond due to the chance that it will not pay in full or on time. The higher the credit rating, the lower the risk of payoff.

Explain the benefit of actively managing a bond portfolio from the top down.

  • Any portfolio of bonds, be it an active manager or the Bloomberg Aggregate index,  is taking some sort of duration and credit risk compared to what most people consider the safest asset: a one month US treasury bill.
    • The higher the credit quality and the longer the maturity of bond, the greater the exposure to duration (rate risk) and minimal exposure to credit risk. Think 20+ year Treasury Bonds.
    • The lower the credit quality of a bond, the higher the exposure to credit risk. Think High Yield Bonds.

By sliding the scale to either of these features, the portfolio can adjust the sensitivity to rates or credit, offering the ability to manage risk and seek opportunities compared to more stationary benchmarks.. This is the active management advantage.

What is the underlying thesis of offering this strategy to investors?

  • Advisors and investors are too often punting their approach to fixed income in their stock/bond portfolios. They may not be paying enough attention to the tools that will let them isolate credit and duration as the prospective risk and rewards of the fixed income market changes.
  • AGGA offers a strong value proposition to compliment core/passive fixed income exposure. The strategy will attempt to adjust credit and duration to increase returns and reduce risks compared to the standard, passive portfolio.