MarketDesk Launches FMTM to Target Low-Overlap US Momentum Exposure

MarketDesk has launched the MarketDesk Focused U.S. Momentum ETF (FMTM), a new fund managed by Thor Financial Technologies that seeks to address the structural limitations of traditional momentum investing. The launch marks a strategic evolution for MarketDesk Research, which was co-founded by Jon Clements in 2020 as a quantitative research platform serving approximately 200 wealth managers and family offices. The move into ETF issuance was driven by the need to resolve tax inefficiencies inherent in high-turnover strategies and to automate manual trading processes that clients had previously executed themselves.

The fund’s methodology diverges significantly from legacy momentum products by prioritising the quality and consistency of price paths over simple trailing returns. FMTM scores assets to favour slow, steady accumulation while filtering out single-event spikes. This approach utilises a six-month lookback period to keep the investment signal fresher, aiming to mitigate the lag that historically impaired traditional momentum strategies during market downturns such as the dot-com unwind, 2008, and 2022.

Portfolio construction is designed to maximise diversification away from broad market benchmarks. By screening for high-liquidity US equities with market capitalisations above $1 billion and daily trading volumes exceeding $25 million, the fund narrows its universe before ranking stocks. It then holds the top 30 to 50 names on an equal-weight basis, a structure that results in approximately 2% portfolio overlap with the S&P 500. In contrast, traditional momentum ETFs typically exhibit a 30% to 40% overlap with the benchmark index.

Risk management within FMTM is integrated directly into the holdings selection process rather than relying on external overlays. The fund remains fully invested at all times, maintaining no cash reserves, short positions, or hedging strategies. Instead, it leans on relative momentum to identify defensive pockets during market drawdowns, allowing advisors to utilise the ETF as a satellite holding alongside core S&P 500 exposure or as a complement to existing momentum funds given its minimal correlation.

The launch of FMTM positions MarketDesk to offer a distinct alternative for investors seeking growth-oriented exposure without the performance chasing often associated with momentum factors. By combining a concentrated, equal-weighted portfolio with a rigorous quality screen, the fund aims to provide a more efficient vehicle for capturing momentum premiums while avoiding the structural overlaps and tax inefficiencies that have characterised previous iterations of the asset class.