Interview With Oktay Kavrak, Global Head At Leverage Shares And IncomeShares
DividendVision sits down with Oktay Kavrak, Global Head at Leverage Shares and IncomeShares, to talk about how he got into the ETF industry, the rise of leveraged single-stock and options-income ETPs in Europe, the record-breaking SPCH launch, new Anthropic ETF filings, the differences between US and European investing, and his advice for retail investors in a volatile market.
Mr Oktay Kavrak, thank you so much for your time. We have been following your work and been in touch with you for a couple of years now, through our CMO Mike Schiemer. We're big fans of your content, companies, and funds!
Let's get into this exclusive interview now:
1. How did you get started in finance, the ETF industry, and with Leverage Shares / IncomeShares?
Leverage Shares was my first proper move into the ETF industry.
Before that I worked at IBM after finishing my bachelor's in finance, then had a stint in corporate banking at UniCredit, with the CFA along the way. But DEGIRO was the turning point for me. It was basically the Robinhood of Europe, and I was seeing retail investors get access to the financial markets at scale for the first time. It became obvious that the investment landscape had been built for institutions and never properly translated for everyday investors here.
Leverage Shares was born when Global X was sold to Mirae Asset in 2018, the business remained with Jose Gonzalez, one of its co-founders, and was rebuilt as an independent company.
I joined very early, when leveraged single-stock ETPs were still something most people had never heard of. Leverage Shares had launched the first products of their kind in Europe in 2017, so we spent those early years explaining what they were and why they exist. Today, leveraged single-stock products are one of the fastest-growing segments of the ETF industry globally.
IncomeShares came from a similar observation about another major gap in the European market. Investors wanted income, but the traditional options were bonds and dividend-paying stocks. Options-income strategies were already mainstream in the US, yet effectively unavailable to European retail investors.
We launched Europe's first single-stock options ETPs in July 2024. Today, IncomeShares has more than 50 products and close to $250 million in AUM. We're expanding the range rapidly and hope to double that as we move into Q4.
2. Tell me about your funds and fund categories
Leverage Shares is the tactical side for traders: leveraged and inverse ETPs on stocks, indices and commodities, up to 5x long (or short) in Europe. The leverage and daily reset mean these products are designed for short-term trading. TSL3, our 3x Tesla product, has been among the most traded products on the London Stock Exchange for several years running, which tells you how much appetite there is for these products.
IncomeShares is the yield side: ETPs that use weekly options strategies and make monthly distributions. Depending on the product, the strategy uses covered calls or cash-secured puts. The range now covers 56 products, including Gold+ Yield (which is our largest), plus Nasdaq 100, a Magnificent 7 basket, Silver, Tesla, MicroStrategy and others. The products are domiciled in Ireland (like most European ETFs) and UCITS-eligible – addressing one of the biggest headaches for non-US investors.
Then there's the US, where our sister company Themes lists 2x single-stock ETFs under the "Leverage Shares by Themes" brand. That's a separate affiliated business under common control, and the product set is different because the rules are different.
Finally, we have a white-label platform through which external asset managers can bring their own ETP ideas to market using our infrastructure. An example would be Mike's DividendVision ETP – maybe one day listed and trading in London!
3. I know you can't disclose too much, but what does your company have in the pipeline that's already filed or public?
With all the major IPOs this year, we've held onto our reputation as the go-to issuer for single-name exposure - SpaceX, SK Hynix, and now Anthropic.
Our sister company just set the record for the biggest launch week of any ETF in history with SPCH, the 2x SpaceX ETF. Around $4 billion traded in its first four days, beating IBIT's debut week, according to Bloomberg Intelligence's Eric Balchunas.
In Europe we're looking at leveraged and inverse versions with leverage above 2x. In the US, Leverage Shares by Themes has filed for the 2X Long Anthropic Daily ETF (ANUU), which is designed to give sophisticated traders amplified daily exposure to Anthropic. The company has also filed for two short products: the 2X Short Anthropic Daily ETF (ANDD) and the 1X Short Anthropic Daily ETF (ANSS).
In the meantime, more products are coming to the income suite in Q4 as well.
4. What are the main differences between European and American investing styles? And US vs EU/UK ETFs and ETPs? What are UCITS?
The US market is much bigger and more homogeneous. It's got deeper liquidity, a massive options market and a stronger culture of direct retail participation.
Europe is still fragmented. Different exchanges, brokers, tax regimes, currencies and investor preferences in every country, so distribution is a much harder problem here even when the underlying idea is the same. The investing culture varies wildly too. Germany has a developed ETF market and savings plans are huge there, while other markets like Spain are still catching up.
On structure, UCITS is the European fund framework. It sets rules on things like diversification, liquidity and leverage, and the payoff is that a fund authorized in one country can be sold across Europe. Most European ETFs are UCITS funds, usually domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg.
The catch is that UCITS requires diversification, so a UCITS fund can't be a single stock or commodity. That's why niche exposure in Europe, whether leveraged or income, usually sits in an ETP wrapper instead. An ETP is a secured, collateralized debt security, and it trades exactly like an ETF through a brokerage account. That structure is the reason a 3x Tesla product can exist in Europe at all.
The US went a different route. Single-stock leveraged funds there are '40 Act ETFs using swaps, and the derivatives rules essentially cap leverage at 200%. It's why you see 3x or even 5x (!) in Europe but 2x is the max in the States.
European investors have traditionally been more internationally diversified and a bit more conservative than Americans, but that's shifting. We're seeing real appetite now for active ETFs, options income and tactical products.
5. What general advice would you give retail investors for this volatile and expensive market?
First, know whether you're investing or trading. A long-term diversified portfolio and a short-term trade are massively different things with different risk profiles, and most of the trouble I see comes from people blurring them.
Second, know what you actually own. What does it charge? What would cause it to lose money? And how does it behave in a violent week? If you can't answer those three, you're not ready to hold it.
Third, size it properly. This is the one I'd repeat. A well-researched idea can still go against you, and go against you fast. No single position should be big enough to keep you up at night.
And be careful about making big portfolio decisions off headlines. Markets can stay expensive far longer than anyone expects, and volatility has a habit of creating pressure to sell at exactly the wrong moment.
But again - all of this is general education, not personal advice. What's right depends entirely on your own circumstances.
6. What is the best way to contact you?
Easiest way is LinkedIn or X (@OKavrak), where I'm active posting market news, visuals and (lots of) memes.
For product information, go to the official Leverage Shares, IncomeShares and Themes ETFs sites. That's where you'll find the product pages, regulatory documents and risk disclosures.
For anything account, trading or product-support related, the official company channels are the right place. I'm always happy to talk on social, but I can't give individual investment advice.
And follow @LeverageShares and @IncomeShares while you are at it – we have the best visuals in the game!
Thanks so much for your time, experience, and insights Oktay. We will have to do a follow up interview in the near future, and look forward to doing a video interview with you soon. Keep up the great work!