Gaining Perspective

I am in Gloucester, MA at the home of the noted economist Dr. Horace “Woody” Brock. I visited Woody here two months ago and recorded a podcast as the coronavirus crisis was unfolding. Today, I am going to ask Woody some follow-up questions.

On May 15th we learned that both Industrial Production and Retail Sales took a dive for April.

In this era of pandemic-induced market volatility, advisors are systematically searching for investment products that limit downside losses. They are willing to give up some upside potential to reduce their exposure to painful, black-swan events like we have seen. One of the product types designed to do this and that has benefited from strong asset flows is defined-outcome ETFs. Here today to talk about how those ETFs work is one of the principals from Innovator ETFs, the leading provider of defined-outcome ETFs.

This is the first major market downturn experienced by most advisor technology platforms. My guest will discuss some of the unique challenges facing fintech vendors as a result of the newly enforced virtual work environment and by the sudden market correction.

Over the last decade, the dominant trend in the asset management industry has been the flow from active to passive products. According to Morningstar, actively managed U.S. stock funds posted outflows in 11 out of the last 12 years. Indeed, as of the middle of 2019, passive and active U.S. equity funds each had a total of about $4.3 trillion in assets, essentially reaching asset parity. What has been the underlying driver of that trend? And what, if anything, will cause it to reverse?

This morning we learned that there was a loss of 20.5 million jobs in April and the unemployment rate is now at 14.7%.

Yesterday’s release of Q1 GDP showed a contraction of 4.8% and was slightly worse than expected. It was the first contraction since 2014 and the largest contraction since the financial crisis.

I was invited to travel to Mumbai, India in January this year to speak at an investment conference. It was my first trip to India and, in fact, my first trip to Asia. It was a great experience and an opportunity to learn a lot about India’s history, economy and culture. But the India I visited four months ago is very different from today – at least from an economic and investment perspective. Here to talk with me about the investment opportunities in India are two fund managers from Wasatch Global Investors with deep experience in that part of the world.

I was invited to travel to Mumbai, India in January this year to speak at an investment conference. It was my first trip to India and, in fact, my first trip to Asia. It was a great experience and an opportunity to learn a lot about India’s history, economy and culture. But the India I visited four months ago is very different from today – at least from an economic and investment perspective. Here to talk with me about the investment opportunities in India are two fund managers from Wasatch Global Investors with deep experience in that part of the world.

On March 24, I hosted a webinar with my guest today on how advisors can capitalize on the explosive growth in e-Commerce. In our interconnected world, significant disruptions underscore the need for resilient supply chains. We explored the risks posed by COVID-19 to economic growth, particularly with respect to the consumer, cold storage, and cannabis. That webinar was so popular that we were overwhelmed with more questions than we could answer. But I am fortunate a presenter from that webinar is with me today to answer the unanswered questions.