Benzinga | Sep 17, 2021 01:01PM EDT

Want Quick Exposure To The Psychedelics Sector? Check Out This New Active ETF

Retail investors are getting new tools for gaining exposure to the booming medicinal psychedelics industry.

On Thursday, AdvisorShares launched the country's first actively managed ETF covering the psychedelics sector.

The AdvisorShares Psychedelics ETF (NYSE:PSIL), launched on the NYSE Arca market,

providing exposure to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies that the firm deems are "leading the way in this nascent industry."

So far, this is the third ETF covering the psychedelics sector in North America. The Horizons Psychedelic Stock Index ETF (NEO: PSYK) was first to launch in January of this year, followed by Defiance's Next Gen Altered Experience ETF (NYSE:PSY), which broke ground as the first passive U.S.-listed ETF in the sector.

Active management means that the portfolio manager can adjust the portfolio more quickly and opportunistically than a passive index-based ETF, though more responsibility is placed on the fund's management.

"Ongoing and growing research has shown various psychedelic substances offering promising medical and therapeutic potential for treating mental health issues and neurological disorders. PSIL concentrates its portfolio on companies deriving the majority of their net revenue or devoting the majority of their assets to psychedelic drugs," AdvisorShares explained.

Dan Ahrens, CEO of AdvisorShares and portfolio manager of PSIL, said he believes that by investing in select companies in the psychedelics space, his firm can provide a compelling long-term investment opportunity. Still, the CEO said this is also an area of the marketplace in its early innings.

"We feel that our active-management and specialized approach can potentially help investors capture the early growth potential of psychedelics and its prominent promise on therapeutics and medical fields," Ahrens added.

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