Trillions

ETFs have already broken their annual inflow record—and summer isn't even over yet. The pace of flows has jumped from $2 billion a day to more than $4 billion a day. Some 1,800 ETFs are taking in cash. So what's behind all the action?On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with Invesco's John Hoffman, who heads the company's ETF and index business in the Americas. They discuss why the issuer is quietly having a great year, what's behind the flows, the rise of the DIY retail investor, and the strategic outlook in the ETF business. You'll also hear about Invesco's equal-weighted S&P 500 ETF ($RSP), a commodities future ETF ($PDBC), a low volatility fund ($SPLV), and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everything in the market is at or around all-time highs, yet the market feels fragile at the same time. Whether it's the delta variant or inflation, there's always something to worry about. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with Bloomberg Intelligence's chief equity strategist (and Eric's boss!), Gina Martin Adams. They talk about her macro views, inflation, value vs growth, the Federal Reserve, the bond market, which ETFs investors should watch in the second half of the year, and more. They also discuss where Eric has room for improvement.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In late May, Engine No. 1 shook Corporate America. Despite owning just .02% of Exxon Mobil — not long ago the world’s most valuable company — the little-known activist investor was able to install three new directors on the company’s board, an advance that could finally make the energy giant confront the challenges of climate change. Hot off that win, Engine No. 1 issued an ETF that allows all investors to join their cause. The new ETF, which is called the Engine No. 1 Transform 500 ETF ($VOTE), is a fresh take on the concept of ESG ETFs by seeking real systemic change. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with Charlie Penner, who led the Exxon campaign and is in charge of Engine No. 1's active engagement practice, as well as Yasmin Dahya Bilger, head of ETFs at Engine No. 1. Rob Du Boff, ESG Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, and Saijel Kishan, ESG reporter for Bloomberg News, also join the conversation, which explores the company’s background, activism strategy, and the kinds of campaigns that

One of the more colorful aspects of the exchange-traded industry are the tickers. The best are stuff of legend; others are totally forgettable. But who's in charge of these three- and four-letter identifiers? How are they reserved? Do you own them or rent them? Can you sell them? Joining Eric and Joel on this episode are a squad of experts assembled to nail down the facts once and for all: Mike Venuto of Toroso, Phil Bak of Signal Advisors, and Laura Morrison of CBOE. Also joining is Claire Ballentine, ETF reporter with Bloomberg News. Eric, Joel, and Claire also see if a few of their own ticker ideas are available. Can Joel's Loony Tunes-inspired pipe dream possibly come true? Listen to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With meme stock mania in full bloom again, many are asking why there isn't an ETF to play it. While there is some debate over whether a meme ETF is possible at all, there is an ETF out there that gets pretty close and counts AMC and GameStop as its top two holdings. The ETF is the SoFi 50 ETF (SFYF) which tracks the top 50 stocks that are held by the retail traders who use SoFi's brokerage platform. And while its up big it hasn't seen the rush of flows we are accustomed to seeing when an ETF surges like this.On this episode of Trillions we speak with John Gardner, the Business Head of Invest at SoFi, and the brains behind SFYF and the other ETFs they offer. We speak to him about this 'lightening in a bottle' moment with SFYF as well as SoFi's other ETFs and how they fit into the company's bigger business plans. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Victor Haghani is an ETF investor with one of the most storied resumes as one of the founding partners of the famous Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund, which employed Nobel-Prize winning economists and renowned Wall Street traders until its epic blowup in 1998. His path is rare but not totally unique as even many of the smartest active management minds on Wall Street have either morphed into indexers or use index funds or ETFs for their personal investments. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with Haghani about his days on the trading desk at Salomon Brothers, the culture and mindset of Long-Term Capital Management, and his emerging low-cost ETF advisory business that he started for friends and family but has since expanded. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to approve a crypto exchange-traded fund, similar products are proliferating abroad. These exchange-traded products offer a potential sneak peek of what may eventually come to pass in the U.S. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel — along with James Seyffart of Bloomberg Intelligence — speak with Ophelia Snyder, co-founder and head of product for Amun, which has ETP-ized a dozen different cryptocurrencies under the 21Shares brand name. They discuss what goes into the products, how they work, who uses them, and her outlook for the U.S. market. She also talks about her relationship with ARK founder Cathie Wood, who recently joined Amun's board.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The stock market looks frothy, moves up and down tend to be steeper and quicker than the old days, and the bond market isn't the hedge it used to be. This is the situation that Simplify, an upstart new ETF issuer, is looking to solve with a lineup of ETFs enhanced with options -- to provide downside protection and also amplify the upside. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel -- along with James Seyffart of Bloomberg Intelligence -- speak with Simplify co-founder Paul Kim as well as his recent hire Michael Green, who brings hedge-fund experience to the team. The group discusses the macro opportunity, how Simplify's funds work, and how financial advisers might use these ETFs in a portfolio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March, for the first time ever, a mutual fund went to sleep and woke up as an ETF. Two of them, in fact. And Guinness Atkinson, the issuer, couldn’t be happier about the experience — not that it didn’t take a lot of work to get across the finish line. Many more mutual funds will likely follow suit.On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel — along with Claire Ballentine, the Bloomberg News reporter who covered the story — go deep with Guinness Atkinson’s Jim Atkinson and his lawyer, Alexandra Alberstadt about their new ETFs, the SmartETFs Dividend Builder ($DIVS) and SmartETFs Asia Pacific Dividend Builder ($ADIV). They discuss why they converted, what the process entailed, and how other issuers should approach the topic. Did we mention there will be many more of these?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Much like kids, ETFs can grow up so fast. And while you can expect the Vanguards and BlackRocks to keep hoovering up assets, there are many lesser-known products that have gained respectable followings. Sometimes it's quite shocking to see just how big they've gotten since the last time you checked on them. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel are joined by Todd Rosenbluth, Director of Mutual & Exchange Traded Fund Research at CFA, Claire Ballentine, reporter for Bloomberg News and Athanasios Psarofagis, analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. They discuss and debate eight ETFs that got surprisingly large, including: $XSOE, $IQLT, $IVOL, $SOXL, $BUZZ, $UFO, $TMFC and $BUG. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let's be honest, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) ETFs probably aren't going to make you blush or quicken your pulse. But they can be extremely practical in a portfolio. Typically known for their ability to generate income, this category of ETFs has seen rapid evolution of late with new entrants that focus on areas such as data centers. It's also made picking the right REIT ETF all the more confusing since there's now dozens of them.On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel are joined by REIT trader David Auerbach of World Equity Group as well as Kevin Kelly, a managing partner of Benchmark Investments, the index provider for a few of the new REIT entrants. They discuss the basics of REITs, the pros and cons of category king $VNQ as well as the new generation of REIT ETFs such as $SRVR, $HOMZ, $NETL and, what else, $REIT.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A few decades ago, nobody really questioned vaccines. They were viewed as a standard part of staying healthy and safe. Today, the number of people questioning vaccines risks prolonging a pandemic that has already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. How we got to this moment didn’t start with the rollout of vaccines or in March 2020, or even with the election of Donald Trump. Our confidence in vaccines, often isn't even about vaccines. It’s about trust. And that trust has been eroding for a long time. Doubt, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis podcast, looks at the forces that have been breaking down that trust. We'll trace the rise of vaccine skepticism in America to show how we got here — and where we’re going. Doubt launches on March 23. Subscribe to Prognosis today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 150 years after the end of slavery in the U.S., the net worth of a typical white family is nearly six times greater than that of the average Black family. Season 3 of The Pay Check digs into into how we got to where we are today and what can be done to narrow the yawning racial wealth gap in the U.S.Jackie Simmons and Rebecca Greenfield co-host the season, which kicks off with a personal story about land Jackie's family acquired some time after slavery that they're on the verge of losing. From there the series explores all the ways the wealth gaps manifests and the radical solutions, like affirmative action, quotas, and reparations, that can potentially lead to greater equality.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This month showed how much inflation concerns and an uptick in bond yields can mess with a portfolio. It showed the vulnerability of high flying investments such as bitcoin and ARK as well as how a 60/40 portfolio can have both the 60 and the 40 go down together. So yeah, inflation is a big deal. But is it real or just another head fake?On this week's episode of Trillions we speak with Jim Bianco, president and founder of Bianco Research LLC, on why he's taking inflation more seriously this time and what a 60/40 investor can do. He also talks ARK ETFs and its haters, bitcoin's potential and why the retail day trader is here to stay even post-pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Magic mushrooms, LSD and ketamine used to be associated with psychedelic trips and fun weekends. Now they’re increasingly viewed as serious medicine that can be used to treat ailments such as depression and PTSD. The small but fast-growing industry even has its first ETF — the Canadian-listed Horizons Psychedelic Stock ETF, or PSYK.On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with Steve Hawkins, the CEO of the firm behind the ETF, who was also behind the world’s first cannabis ETF. He talks the about sector outlook, underlying business fundamentals, the design of the ETF — and whether he plans to start micro-dosing LSD.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ETFs tend to sit in the back seat while active players drive prices in the stock market. But what happens when the driver is a hellbent Reddit message board? Well, the world got a flavor of that last week when retail traders on the subreddit WallStreetBets sent a few meme stocks — most notably GameStop — "to the moon," temporarily hijacking a few ETFs in the process. On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel are joined by Katherine Greifeld and Claire Ballentine of Bloomberg News, who plunged into the depths of Reddit and followed the fast-moving story closely. The group discusses all the ETF angles of this unusually riveting — and often even funny — story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a new year, and maybe a new you. There’s also a completely new political landscape in Washington DC and probably another big round of stimulus money. What’s an investor to do? Talking to a financial advisor seems like a good first step.On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel are joined once again by Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, who’s fielding all kinds of questions from clients right now. They discuss the new administration, his economic outlook, plus his views on Tesla, Bitcoin, ARK, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cathie Wood of ARK is not the first highly concentrated active manager to shoot the lights out for half a decade while sparking a stampede of flows into their funds. There have been many throughout history but perhaps the one that most echoes ARK today is the famous Janus Twenty Fund, which dominated the latter half of the '90s and early 2000s with very similar returns and flows to what ARK is experiencing, albeit one met with a 50% downturn when the Internet bubble burst. On this episode of Trillions, we speak to Scott Schoelzel, the former PM of the Janus Twenty during the fund's magical stretch from 1998 to 2007. Having lived through the ups and downs of cycles, he gives us his thoughts on the current situation with ARK, advice for the firm's investors as well as his takes on the state of active management, ETFs, the Fed and what he's up to these days living out on his farm in Colorado. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Covering ETFs this year was like trying to hit a constantly moving target. Businessweek's annual “Jealousy List” -- stories by other outlets that the magazine's staff wish they would've published -- inspired Eric and Joel to bring an ETF version of the idea to Trillions. On this episode, Katherine Greifeld, Claire Ballentine, and Yakob Petersseil of Bloomberg News, who specialize in covering ETFs, join them to discuss a few of the articles they wish they had written this year, about topics such as ETNs, volatility, target date funds, and concerns about index funds. Honorees include New York's Josh Barro; ETF Trends's Dave Nadig; WSJ's Akane Otani, Sebastian Pellejero and Chana Schoenberger; and Institutional Investor's Leanna Orr. Eric also highlights some of his favorites by his colleagues at Bloomberg News. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s so much going on in the ETF world right now as all kinds of trends, strategies, themes and companies collide in this hotter-than-ever market which is on pace to post another record year for inflows - and volume - in 2020. Next year could be even bigger too as many ‘Big Active’ mutual fund firms representing $10 trillion in assets look to make up for lost time. So what should you watch for in 2021? Rather than do another “outlook” Bloomberg Intelligence’s ETF team has come out with a report that highlights 21 ETFs to watch 2021. Analysts Athanasios Psarafagis, James Seyffart and Morgan Barna join us to go over their contributions to the full list, which are as follows: DFAU, SPGP, ICVT, VXUS, GBTC, SNPE, OVL, SQQQ, ARKK, SVAL, MSOS, VTI, QQQJ, KMED, BATT, NETL, IBUY, SPAK, USMV, FDG and LQD.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.