In a banking industry first, BNY Mellon will be backing the newly christened and cannabis-minded ETF, AdvisorShare Pure Cannabis ETF, listing name: YOLO. Frat boy nomenclature aside, this is a big deal and potentially a lucrative one. Let’s take a gander at what it all means.

BNY Mellon is taking that first step with cannabis

While Bank of America Merrill Lynch backed the massive Constellation investment into Canopy Growth last summer, this is the first time a US bank is serving as a fund custodian, administrator and transfer agent for a pure play ETF that’s focused on cannabis. YOLO [Sigh. –Ed.] will have a minimum of 80% of assets in companies whose revenue stems at least 50% from the plant-touching industry. Additionally, the fund will also invest in federally legal companies that don’t touch plants (think facility designing firms, for instance.)

Notably, the fund also will not handle companies with investments from Big Alcohol or Big Tobacco. AdvisorShare wants YOLO [Sigh. –Ed.] to strictly be a play on pure cannabis, so presumably this means Canopy Growth (Constellation), Tilray (ABInBev), Cronos (Altria) are off the table. This is a little surprising considering how cozy both Big Alcohol and Big Tobacco have gotten with cannabis, but who knows. Based off how nimble YOLO, appears to be, with portfolio managers given a lot of control on what to move into, that “pure cannabis” aspect might shift as other Wall St. bigs get in the game.

BNY Mellon has carved out a nice little first movers advantage for the time being –much like Jefferies Group with investment coverage on the biz too.

Investors might wanna look into this one

“But MMLG Blogger, what does it all mean for me, the curious but uninformed investor?” Well, for starters, don’t just go jumping into cannabis investing (or any investing) without doing your due diligence. Do you have money you’re okay with losing if an investment goes south? No? Go look at some market index funds or open a savings account. Do you have a financial adviser? Talk to them.

Okay, caveats aside: YOLO has a pretty low expense ratio (0.74%) which is a wee tad lower than the cannabis ETF darling of millennials everywhere: MJ. So, if you’ve done your homework, and you have talked to you financial adviser and you are comfortable with the inherent risks that ALL investments come loaded with, you may want to look into YOLO, after all: you only live once.