Exchange-traded funds began as simple, low-cost index vehicles, but their popularity has sparked a flood of increasingly speculative products. Don and Tom explain how more than 1,000 new ETFs launched in the past year—many involving leverage, crypto exposure, or even single-stock bets—turning what was once a sensible investment wrapper into a playground for risky financial engineering. They discuss why firms are rushing into ETFs to capture investor dollars, how leveraged products can devastate portfolios, and why investors must focus on what’s inside an ETF rather than the label itself. The episode also answers listener questions about the cost structure of Avantis’s AVGE fund-of-fund ETF, strategies for gradually escaping tax-inefficient mutual funds like American Funds, and the rules governing cost-basis transfers when moving brokerage accounts.

0:04 ETFs used to be simple—now Wall Street is turning them into gambling products

1:24 Explosion of new ETFs: 1,000 launched in a year and most offer nothing new

3:07 Why firms are rushing into ETFs: chasing the $1.5 trillion flowing into them

4:23 Leveraged crypto ETFs (like 2× Dogecoin) and how investors lost 70% quickly

6:15 Greed, leverage, and investor behavior driving risky ETF products

7:48 The absurd rise of single-stock ETFs—paying fees to own one stock

8:55 Leveraged commodity ETFs and the danger of massive one-day losses

9:45 Margin speculation and the historical lesson of the 1929 crash

10:31 An ETF is just a wrapper—what’s inside determines whether it’s sensible

11:51 Simple rule: avoid ETFs charging more than about 0.35% annually

12:08 Using Morningstar to check ETF costs and holdings

14:26 AVGE question: how fund-of-fund ETF expenses actually work

16:47 Escaping tax-inefficient mutual funds like American Funds

19:56 Capital Group’s ETF strategy vs traditional loaded mutual funds

22:28 Cost basis rules when transferring accounts between custodians

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