Horizons ETFs and National Bank Direct Brokerage Announce The Winners of The Biggest Winner 11 Trading Competition

TORONTO – July 8, 2022 – Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (“Horizons ETFs”) and National Bank Direct Brokerage (“NBDB”) are pleased to announce that James Lindhe from Orleans, Ontario is the grand prize winner of the Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner 11 Trading Competition (the “Competition”). With the highest six-week cumulative return of 35.56%, Mr. Lindhe has been awarded the grand prize of $10,000.

“I never imagined winning, I joined just to play against a few of my family members but got really into it when I was doing well and had a lot of fun. It’s a fun way to try out active trading,” said Mr. Lindhe, upon learning of his success.

The Competition, which ran from May 16 to June 24, 2022, saw approximately 2,000 participants complete 25,000 trades over the six-week trading period. Contestants were provided with a fantasy brokerage account, with a balance of $100,000 in notional Canadian dollars. Competitors used these fantasy funds to place simulated trades among approximately 1,000 ETFs listed on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

For Mr. Lindhe, his key to success was anticipating and taking advantage of recent market volatility. To achieve his returns, he rotated in and out of long and short commodity and equity-focused strategies, targeting opportunities to reposition and capture momentum ahead of market reversals.

“Whenever the market would have a big move in one direction I would switch my Biggest Winner portfolio in a contrarian way to take advantage of any reversals, which turned out to be a good bet, given the wild swings in the market,” said Mr. Lindhe, when asked about his winning strategy. “I primarily used Horizons’ BetaPro ETFs to take a levered position on the market and on energy commodities. My goal was to take a lot of risk in a smart way in order to have a chance of earning outsized returns.”

The runner-up, Eric Burton, from Scarborough, Ontario, is no stranger to success in Biggest Winner competitions. In addition to securing a second-place position and winning $5,000 in this year’s Competition, with a cumulative return of 35.45%, Mr. Burton has previously achieved weekly winner status in three Biggest Winner competitions, including in 2018, 2021, and now, 2022.

“Having participated in the Biggest Winner competitions before, I now eagerly look forward to it every year. Whereas I tend to invest my own money more conservatively, the fantasy nature of this competition encourages you to take bigger risks to try and win it all,” said Mr. Burton. “I’m already looking forward to the next competition!”

In addition, six weekly prizes of $1,000 were awarded to each participant who achieved the best single-week returns. Both Mr. Lindhe and Mr. Burton also secured weekly prizes in addition to their overall Competition achievements.

The top-traded ETFs in the contest are all managed by Horizons ETFs. The three most-traded ETFs are a part of the Horizons’ BetaPro family of tactical ETFs: the BetaPro Natural Gas Leveraged Daily Bull ETF (“HNU”), the BetaPro NASDAQ-100® 2x Daily Bull ETF (“HQU”), and the BetaPro NASDAQ-100® 2x Daily Bear ETF (“HQD”). HNU seeks daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions, and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to up to two times (200%) the daily performance of the Horizons Natural Gas Rolling Futures Index. HQU seeks daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions, and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to two times (200%) the daily performance of the NASDAQ-100® Index. HQD seeks daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to two times (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the NASDAQ-100® Index.

“For more than a decade, our Biggest Winner competitions have offered investors the chance to realize their ETF trading potential in a risk-free environment while competing for prizes – including this year, with our biggest cash prizes yet – and ultimately, bragging rights of being the ‘Biggest Winner’,” said Steve Hawkins, President & CEO of Horizons ETFs. “This year, many of our Biggest Winner 11 participants took advantage of market volatility using Horizons ETFs’ leveraged and inverse leveraged ETFs; achieving higher six-week portfolio returns compared to previous competitions.”

NBDB, a founding sponsor of the Biggest Winner Competition and its past ten editions, believes the contest presents a unique opportunity for investors to learn the ins and outs of self-directed investing.

“National Bank Direct Brokerage would like to congratulate James Lindhe, Eric Burton, and the other winners in the Biggest Winner 11 trading competition,” said Claude-Frédéric Robert, President of National Bank Direct Brokerage. “The contest is a great opportunity to test your strategies as a self-directed investor in a simulated environment and learn more about the mechanics of investing. We are proud to help participants educate themselves about financial matters in this way.”

In addition to being the listing exchange for all of the ETFs tradeable by participants in the Competition, TSX was also a sponsor of the Biggest Winner 11.

“On behalf of Toronto Stock Exchange, I’d like to congratulate James Lindhe for winning Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner Competition,” said Graham Mackenzie, Head of Exchange Traded Products, Toronto Stock Exchange. “TSX is continuously looking at ways to innovate for investors and clients alike. This Competition allows both new and experienced investors the ability to explore the opportunities TSX ETFs have to offer.”

In total, $21,000 in cash prizes were awarded as part of the Competition. The winners are:

Grand Prize: James Lindhe, Orleans, ON
Runner-up: Eric Burton, Scarborough, ON
Week One: James Lindhe, ON
Week Two: Antonio Rambaldi, QC
Week Three: Richard Muegge, ON
Week Four: Andrea Ondrey, AB
Week Five: Terri Mackinnon, ON
Week Six: Harmynder Multani, ON

About National Bank of Canada

With $370 billion in assets as at April 30, 2022, National Bank of Canada, together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada’s leading integrated financial groups. It has more than 28,000 employees in knowledge-intensive positions and has been recognized numerous times as a top employer and for its commitment to diversity. Its securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA). Follow the Bank’s activities at nbc.ca or via social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (www.HorizonsETFs.com)

Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. is an innovative financial services company and offers one of the largest suites of exchange-traded funds in Canada. The Horizons ETFs product family includes a broadly diversified range of solutions for investors of all experience levels to meet their investment objectives in a variety of market conditions. Horizons ETFs has over $21 billion of assets under management and 104 ETFs listed on major Canadian stock exchanges.

For all inquiries:
Please contact Horizons ETFs at 1-866-641-5739 (toll-free) or (416) 933-5745
[email protected]

Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with an investment in exchange traded products managed by Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (the “Horizons Exchange Traded Products”). The Horizons Exchange Traded Products are not guaranteed, their value changes frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Certain Horizons Exchange Traded Products may have exposure to leveraged investment techniques that magnify gains and losses and which may result in greater volatility in value and could be subject to aggressive investment risk and price volatility risk. Such risks are described in the prospectus. The prospectus contains important detailed information about the ETF. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing.

The Horizons Exchange Traded Products include our BetaPro products (the “BetaPro Products”). The BetaPro Products are alternative mutual funds within the meaning of National Instrument 81-102 Investment Funds and are permitted to use strategies generally prohibited by conventional mutual funds: the ability to invest more than 10% of their net asset value in securities of a single issuer, to employ leverage, and engage in short selling to a greater extent than is permitted in conventional mutual funds. While these strategies will only be used in accordance with the investment objectives and strategies of the BetaPro Products, during certain market conditions they may accelerate the risk that an investment in shares of a BetaPro Product decreases in value.

The BetaPro Products consist of our Daily Bull and Daily Bear ETFs (“Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETFs”), Inverse ETFs (“Inverse ETFs”), Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETFs and certain other BetaPro Products use leveraged investment techniques that can magnify gains and losses and may result in greater volatility of returns. These BetaPro Products are subject to leverage risk and may be subject to aggressive investment risk and price volatility risk, among other risks, which are described in their respective prospectuses. Each Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETF seeks a return, before fees and expenses, that is either up to, or equal to, either 200% or –200% of the performance of a specified underlying index, commodity futures index or benchmark (the “Target”) for a single day. Each Inverse ETF seeks a return that is –100% of the performance of its Target. Due to the compounding of daily returns a Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETF’s or Inverse ETF’s returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount and, particularly in the case of the Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETFs, possibly direction from the performance of their respective Target(s) for the same period. For certain Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged ETFs that seek up to 200% or up to or -200% leveraged exposure, the Manager anticipates, under normal market conditions, managing the leverage ratio as close to two times (200%) as practicable however, the Manager may, at its sole discretion, change the leverage ratio based on its assessment of the current market conditions and negotiations with the respective ETF’s counterparties at that time. Hedging costs charged to BetaPro Products reduce the value of the forward price payable to that ETF.

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