One of the market’s hottest trades is everything AI can’t replace

While investors worry about all the companies that artificial intelligence will destroy, they are turning to companies that artificial intelligence will have a harder time destroying. And this thing called HALO trading works.

HALO, which stands for “heavy assets, low obsolescence,” was coined in February by Josh Brown, co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was based on the idea that the era of rapid AI disruption requires investors to look for companies that are immune to it. According to Brown, this is one of the most important issues. investment trends of the year.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley included HALO in their investment research in 2026 due to the overall good performance of HALO shares. Some examples of stocks Brown mentioned are: Fedex And ExxonMobil both are up nearly 30% since the beginning of the year. Coca Cola It approached 17%.

HALO companies share two characteristics, according to Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments, which launched an ET based on the HALO theme last week. These stocks require meaningful physical assets to generate income and are durable. According to a study, although artificial intelligence changes the way work is done in companies with low obsolescence rates, it does not eliminate the need to work in these companies. article wrote on the subject. For example, electricity needs to flow and goods need to be produced.

Roundhill Halo ETF (LOHA) was launched on Thursday. The fund tracks an index that screens the largest listed U.S. companies for businesses whose value focuses on physical assets and infrastructure that AI cannot replace, from industrial sectors to transportation and mining.

“There’s nothing you can write to LLM that will change what they do, at least not in a negative way. They’re probably all leveraging AI,” Brown said on CNBC’s “Halfway Report” on Thursday to discuss the new ETF.

He joined Roundhill on a limited consulting basis after learning that the company was developing the product. “I talked to these guys shortly after I filed the lawsuit. I said we could make a deal together or file a lawsuit. I don’t know, what do you want to do?” Brown said. He added that he has known the founders of the company for many years.

Some of the largest holdings in the LOHA ETF include: cumin, Auto Zone, TFI International, CSX, JB HuntAnd Lennox. “Some of them are 100 years old,” Brown said, adding that this represents another notable facet of an increasingly visible part of the market that includes names like: Adobe, ServiceNowAnd sales force It fell to 52-week lows as investors reassessed software companies’ exposure to AI disruptions.

Roundhill recently had great success with the launch of the Memory ETF (DRAMAOn April 2, it reached $9.8 billion in assets in 43 days, the fastest rise ever for an ETF, according to VettaFi. The fund is up 85% since its launch, but Mazza disputed the idea that the ETF launch somehow signals the peak of thematic trading. “I guess it’s a little easy to say, if you’re starting an ETF, that means it’s done,” Mazza said on “The Halftime Report.”

“I actually think this opens up the potential for investors to access stocks that they didn’t have before,” he said.

Roundhill’s new ETF, based on the HALO theme, is not a bet against AI but a way to stay connected to a world changed by it, Brown said. “Let’s not invest in the most perishable companies. Let’s look for companies that are resistant to artificial intelligence,” he said.

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