TrueMark Investments, LLC

TrueMark Investments, LLC is a San Antonio, Texas-based registered investment advisory firm specializing in options-based and defined outcome investment strategies. The firm files quarterly 13F reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission under CIK #0001974457, with its filing history commencing in approximately 2023, reflecting its recent emergence within the SEC's mandatory disclosure framework. Despite its relatively new 13F filing status, TrueMark has positioned itself as a noteworthy participant in the rapidly expanding defined outcome and options-overlay segment of the U.S. investment management industry. The firm's leadership is anchored by Michael Loukas, who serves as Principal and Chief Executive Officer, and Jordan Waldrep, who holds the role of Chief Investment Officer. This dual-leadership structure separates business management and strategic direction under Loukas from the investment process and portfolio construction responsibilities overseen by Waldrep. Together, they bring a combination of entrepreneurial vision and investment expertise to a firm operating in one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing segments of the asset management landscape. TrueMark Investments is closely associated with the TrueShares ETF platform, through which the firm has launched and manages a suite of exchange-traded funds employing options-based strategies. These ETFs represent a key distribution channel for the firm's investment methodology, providing access to its defined outcome and structured equity approaches through a liquid, transparent, exchange-listed vehicle format. The ETF structure positions TrueMark to serve a broad client base spanning institutional investors, financial intermediaries, and individual retail investors seeking alternatives to traditional equity and fixed income exposures. San Antonio, while not traditionally recognized as a primary financial services hub on the scale of New York or Chicago, has developed a growing wealth management and fintech ecosystem that provides TrueMark with operational advantages including cost efficiency, access to regional talent, and proximity to the rapidly expanding Texas economic corridor. The firm's choice of this location underscores the geographic diversification increasingly visible in the modern asset management industry, where technology-enabled investment processes reduce the importance of physical proximity to traditional financial centers. The platform's 13F history tools enable researchers to analyze TrueMark's disclosed equity and ETF holdings from its initial filings, offering insight into the instruments the firm uses to construct its options-based strategies and the underlying market exposures that serve as the foundation for its defined outcome products.

TrueMark Investments employs a specialized investment approach centered on options-based strategies and defined outcome methodologies — a sophisticated segment of the investment management industry that has experienced significant growth as investors seek structured alternatives to traditional long-only equity exposure. The firm's strategy leverages options contracts to create investment profiles with predefined risk-return parameters, offering investors the ability to participate in equity market upside while incorporating explicit downside protection mechanisms. The 13F Portfolio Composition reflects the underlying architecture of TrueMark's options-based approach. Rather than holding individual stocks selected through traditional fundamental analysis, the firm's disclosed positions typically consist of broad market and sector-specific ETFs that serve as reference assets for the options overlays that define the firm's investment products. These ETF positions function as the foundational equity exposure upon which options strategies — including buffers, caps, and protective structures — are constructed to deliver the defined outcome profiles the firm markets to investors. The defined outcome methodology works by combining ownership of an underlying equity exposure with a systematically constructed options overlay that modifies the return distribution over a specified outcome period. Typically, this involves purchasing put spreads that create a buffer zone against a predetermined level of downside loss, while simultaneously selling call options that cap upside participation at a defined threshold. The result is a payoff profile that protects against a defined band of losses in exchange for limiting the maximum gain over the outcome period. This structured approach appeals to investors who prioritize capital preservation and volatility reduction over unlimited upside participation. The Sector Allocation History across TrueMark's filings illuminates which market segments and indices the firm targets as reference assets for its defined outcome strategies. The breadth of sector and index exposure provides insight into the firm's product development priorities and the market segments where it perceives the greatest investor demand for structured equity alternatives. Filings may reveal exposure across broad market indices like the S&P 500 as well as sector-specific ETFs targeting technology, healthcare, or other segments where investors seek buffered participation. Portfolio turnover is expected to be moderate to high, driven by the systematic rolling and restructuring of options positions as outcome periods expire and new periods are initiated. Unlike traditional buy-and-hold equity strategies where turnover reflects conviction changes, turnover in a defined outcome strategy is structural — inherent to the mechanical process of resetting buffer and cap levels at the start of each new outcome period. This systematic turnover cadence is a distinguishing operational characteristic that differentiates TrueMark from conventional equity managers. The TrueShares ETF platform serves as the primary vehicle through which these strategies are delivered to the market. By packaging its options-based methodology within the ETF wrapper, TrueMark provides investors with daily liquidity, price transparency, and tax-efficient access to strategies that were historically available only through more complex and less accessible structured product formats. This democratization of defined outcome investing represents both the firm's competitive positioning and its contribution to the broader evolution of the ETF industry. For analysts seeking to understand the underlying equity exposures supporting TrueMark's options strategies, the platform's portfolio simulator and 13F history tools provide a framework for examining the reference asset composition, though the full defined outcome profile requires consideration of the options overlay that is only partially visible through 13F disclosures.

TrueMark Investments, LLC occupies a specialized niche within the U.S. investment management landscape as a San Antonio-based options strategy specialist, filing under CIK #0001974457 since approximately 2023. The firm's defined outcome methodology, delivered primarily through the TrueShares ETF platform under the leadership of Michael Loukas and Jordan Waldrep, represents a structured approach to equity participation that fundamentally alters the return distribution investors experience relative to unmodified equity exposure. Key analytical characteristics include a systematic options overlay methodology that creates predefined buffer and cap parameters, reliance on broad market and sector ETFs as reference assets rather than individual stock selection, a moderate-to-high turnover profile driven by structural options rolling rather than conviction-based repositioning, and an ETF delivery format that provides liquidity and transparency advantages over alternative structured product channels. The Sharpe Ratio derived from historical replication of the disclosed equity positions alone would not accurately represent the strategy's true risk-adjusted profile, as the options overlay fundamentally modifies the return distribution — making traditional linear risk-return metrics incomplete analytical tools for this type of strategy. The firm's competitive position within the defined outcome ETF space is shaped by the broader industry trend toward structured equity alternatives. As investor demand for downside protection strategies has accelerated — particularly following the volatility of 2020 and the drawdowns of 2022 — the defined outcome ETF category has attracted significant asset flows and new product launches. TrueMark's ability to differentiate its products within this increasingly competitive landscape depends on execution quality, the attractiveness of its buffer/cap parameters, and the breadth of its reference asset coverage. Areas of significant analytical complexity include the inherent limitations of 13F-based analysis for options-intensive strategies, where the disclosed equity holdings represent the reference asset foundation rather than the complete investment program. The options positions that define the strategy's actual risk-return profile are not fully captured in 13F filings, creating a structural gap between what is observable through mandatory disclosures and the strategy's actual investment characteristics. Additionally, the firm's recent filing history limits the available dataset for evaluating how the defined outcome methodology performs across varying market regimes. The central diagnostic question for ongoing evaluation: As the defined outcome ETF category matures and competition intensifies, does TrueMark Investments' options overlay methodology deliver consistent buffer protection and attractive cap levels across rising and falling volatility environments — and during the next significant equity market drawdown, does the structural protection embedded in the firm's strategies produce the advertised risk reduction, or do secondary risks including gamma exposure, roll timing, and ETF premium/discount dynamics erode the effectiveness of the defined outcome framework under genuine market stress?

The risk profile of TrueMark Investments' strategies is fundamentally different from that of conventional equity managers, reflecting the structured nature of its options-based defined outcome approach. Understanding this distinction is critical for accurate risk assessment, as the firm's portfolio is intentionally designed to exhibit a non-linear relationship with underlying equity market movements. The Max Drawdown Depth for a defined outcome strategy is architecturally constrained by design. The buffer mechanism built into the options overlay is specifically intended to absorb a predetermined band of losses before the investor begins to experience downside participation. For example, a strategy with a 10% buffer would absorb the first 10% of decline in the reference asset before passing through additional losses to the investor. This structural protection means that max drawdown behavior should differ materially from the reference index during moderate corrections, though severe bear markets that exceed the buffer zone can still produce meaningful drawdowns. The Volatility Profile of defined outcome strategies exhibits characteristics that diverge from both traditional equities and fixed income. During periods of moderate market fluctuation, the options overlay dampens portfolio volatility by absorbing small moves within the buffer zone. However, the relationship between portfolio volatility and market volatility is non-linear — as the underlying market approaches or exceeds the buffer threshold, the portfolio's sensitivity to further declines increases, while the upside cap limits the portfolio's responsiveness during strong market rallies. This asymmetric volatility profile creates a distinctive pattern where risk metrics derived from traditional linear models may not fully capture the portfolio's true risk characteristics. Options-specific risks introduce additional risk dimensions that are not present in conventional equity portfolios. These include gamma risk as the underlying market approaches strike prices within the options structure, vega risk from changes in implied volatility that affect options valuations, and roll risk associated with the systematic transition between expiring and newly initiated outcome periods. Each of these factors can create performance characteristics that diverge from what the underlying equity exposure alone would produce. Timing risk is particularly relevant for defined outcome strategies. Investors who enter a strategy mid-period may experience different buffer and cap levels than those who entered at the beginning of the outcome period, creating variability in the risk-return profile based on entry timing. This path-dependency adds a dimension of complexity to risk assessment that does not apply to conventional equity strategies. The ETF structure introduces additional considerations including tracking error between the ETF's net asset value and its market price, potential for premium/discount fluctuations during periods of market stress, and the operational risk associated with maintaining complex options positions within the daily creation/redemption mechanism of the ETF format. For institutional allocators evaluating TrueMark's risk profile, the critical assessment centers on whether the defined outcome structure delivers its promised risk-return modification consistently across market environments, and whether the cost of the protection — in terms of capped upside and strategy complexity — represents an efficient trade-off relative to simpler alternatives such as balanced portfolios or direct protective put strategies.