Siebert & Unusual Whales to launch data-driven ETFs

Siebert Financial and Unusual Whales have partnered to launch a series of exchange-traded funds that will combine Unusual Whales data with Siebert's investment infrastructure.

The arrangement is intended to turn market intelligence drawn from political trading disclosures, options activity, market flows and other data into listed investment products. Individual fund strategies and regulatory filings have not yet been disclosed.

Unusual Whales is known for tracking trading activity outside conventional company research, including congressional disclosures and unusual options trades. Siebert, which traces its New York Stock Exchange history to 1967, will provide the financial framework and market relationships needed to bring the funds to market.

The deal links a data platform with a large retail audience to an established financial services group with a broad brokerage and advisory business. Unusual Whales has more than 5 million followers on X, while Siebert has about USD $19 billion in assets under management and more than 176,000 retail customer accounts.

Data strategy

The planned ETFs are designed to package information that has often been difficult for ordinary investors to access through traditional fund products. That includes data on political trades, institutional flows and options activity that may point to shifts in market sentiment or capital allocation.

In recent years, Siebert has expanded beyond brokerage into advisory services, capital markets, securities lending, stock plan administration and other operations. The partnership also fits its broader strategy of combining its existing financial business with newer forms of data and market access.

John J. Gebbia, Chief Executive Officer of Siebert Financial, outlined the company's view of the arrangement.

"We are incredibly excited about what we can build with Unusual Whales. They have built a powerful window into parts of the market that investors increasingly want to understand, from political trading activity to signals that often sit outside traditional research. Siebert brings a solid financial infrastructure, 59 years of experience, and execution capabilities to turn those insights into real investment products. We believe the ETFs coming from this partnership can be unlike anything currently available to investors," said Gebbia.

Retail focus

Unusual Whales built its profile by presenting complex trading information in a more accessible format for retail investors. Its platform focuses on options and equity data and has built a following around the overlap between politics and markets.

The proposed fund range suggests an effort to move that model beyond data subscriptions and social media distribution into packaged investment products. For Siebert, the venture offers a way to tie fund launches to a stream of alternative market data with a visible online following.

Matt Saincome, Chief Executive Officer of Unusual Whales, said the company was founded on the idea of making market information available to individual investors who might otherwise struggle to obtain it.

"We built Unusual Whales around a simple idea: retail investors shouldn't be the last ones to know what's happening in the market. If politicians are trading, potential insiders are placing large bets, or unusual options activity is bubbling up beneath the surface, regular people deserve the tools to see it too," said Saincome.

He said the partnership would make that information available through a more familiar investment structure.

"This partnership with Siebert allows us to take insights pulled from our tools, data, and worldview and package them into more easily accessible ETFs with a partner who knows how to build, launch, and scale financial products at scale," said Saincome.

The companies gave no details on the number of funds under development, their target sectors, or whether they will use thematic, actively managed or rules-based approaches. They also did not say how closely any products would mirror specific political trading disclosures or unusual options signals tracked by the platform.

ETF launches tied to alternative data have become a growing part of the asset management market as issuers seek differentiated strategies in an increasingly crowded field. The challenge for sponsors is turning attention-grabbing datasets into products that meet regulatory requirements and attract sustained investor demand.

Further information on specific ETF strategies, filings and launches will be announced separately.