Insight is Capital™ Podcast

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Insight is Capital™ Podcast episodes

June 09 She Watches Billions in ETF Flows Every Day. What's Going On Behind the Screens?
The desk at RBC Capital Markets that sits behind 90% of Canada's ETF market has a view of where flows are really going — and it's not what most advisors expect.
Pierre Daillie sits down with Valerie Grimba, Head of Global ETF Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, for a wide-ranging conversation about the forces quietly reshaping how Canadian advisors build portfolios. Valerie's team serves as designated broker to roughly 300 ETF mandates and acts as authorized participant across the majority of the Canadian ETF market — giving her a real-time, flow-level view of investor behaviour that almost nobody else has. From the structural fracture that 2022 opened in the 60/40 model, to the liquidity misconceptions her desk corrects every single day, to the explosive rise of asset allocation ETFs, covered call strategies, AAA CLOs, and precision thematic plays, this conversation covers the full terrain of where the ETF market stands today — and where it is heading.
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Introduction: The 60/40 failure and Canada's ETF rebuild
02:11 — Valerie's career arc: Bear Stearns, New York, New Zealand, RBC
04:21 — How the RBC ETF market making desk actually works
05:36 — What a designated broker does — and why it matters
08:18 — Flash crashes, Liberation Day, and ETFs as a release valve
10:08 — The RBC market view: yellow flags, narrow breadth, and a 12–18 month outlook
13:29 — How ETF flows changed: from net outflows in risk-off to rotation
14:05 — Gold: zero correlation, the incongruent timing, and the 2026 outlook
15:40 — Higher for longer: what advisors are missing about the rate environment
17:46 — How 2022 changed advisor behaviour and launched a new ETF ecosystem
21:49 — Covered call ETFs: what advisors are still getting wrong
24:19 — Retail vs. institutional: why retail has been outperforming
25:20 — Private assets in an ETF wrapper: the square peg, round hole problem
31:11 — What RBC looks for before taking on a designated broker mandate
32:28 — The Pac-Man of Canadian ETF flows: asset allocation ETFs
36:29 — CAGE, XEQT, FBAL: who is actually buying all-in-one ETFs
38:58 — TLT as widowmaker and the search for yield without duration risk
40:36 — AAA CLOs, active fixed income, and aggregate bond ETFs
43:07 — CTAs, trend following, and the rise of alternatives in Canada
44:30 — Why GIC sectors are becoming antiquated — and what's replacing them
45:48 — DRAM, memory chips, and the new thematic precision playbook
47:11 — Single stock ETFs: access, covered call overlays, and trade-offs
49:07 — The #1 ETF liquidity misconception — and the three layers advisors need to know
53:28 — Best execution practices: limit orders, timing, and when to call the desk
#ETF #CanadianETF #ETFInvesting #PortfolioConstruction #CoveredCallETF #AssetAllocation #XEQT #FixedIncome #AlternativeInvestments #WealthManagement #FinancialAdvisor #InvestmentStrategy #ETFLiquidity #RBCCapitalMarkets #MarketOutlook #ThematicETF #PassiveInvesting #ETFTrading #InsightIsCapital #AdvisorAnalyst
57 min
June 02 Why Half a Million People Trust PWL Capital CIO, Ben Felix
In this episode of Insight Is Capital, Pierre Daillie sit down with Ben Felix — Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at PWL Capital, co-host of the Rational Reminder podcast, and the driving force behind one of the most-watched evidence-based investing channels on YouTube with over half a million subscribers.
Ben unpacks the philosophy and hard-won lessons behind PWL's radical transparency strategy — giving away the "secret sauce" of their entire investment process — and why that counterintuitive bet became the engine of the firm's organic growth. He shares how a Costco parking lot moment sparked his channel concept, why it took him three years to crack a smile on camera, and what the advice industry still consistently gets wrong about content marketing.
The conversation turns candid when Ben addresses the alternatives wave sweeping Canadian portfolios — and PWL's longstanding decision to focus on building systematic, rules-based portfolios. He then reframes the advisor value proposition entirely: a real client's story reveals that none of the reasons they hired PWL had anything to do with securities selection or beating the market, and more importantly, a laundry list of high-value living, breathing concerns.
The episode closes with Ben's most powerful framework for life and practice — the PERMA-V model of human flourishing — and a striking parallel between the five factor model for investing and the five factors of a well-lived life.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 – Introduction: Who is Ben Felix and why your clients are already watching him
02:00 – From basketball scholarship and mechanical engineering to CIO: Ben's accidental path into finance
07:30 – How PWL's blogging experiment became a content empire — and the Costco parking lot moment
13:00 – What advisor content gets badly wrong: black boxes, sales pitches, and the trust deficit
17:00 – The hardest part of content creation: consistency, camera nerves, and why most people quit
18:30 – "Investing has been solved": PWL's evidence-based philosophy and the case against stock-picking
20:00 – The alternatives warning: gated private funds, client transfers, and why PWL passed
23:00 – How content became a beacon for like-minded advisors — and PWL's acquisition growth model
28:00 – The self-selecting client: why prospects arrive already sold on the philosophy
30:00 – Who Ben is actually talking to: DIY investors, advisors, and the 10-year referral flywheel
34:00 – Freeing advisors from the securities selection trap: what evidence-based investing unlocks
37:00 – Why a successful DIY investor hired PWL — and none of the reasons were about the portfolio
39:30 – Goal-setting, PERMA-V, and the structured process PWL tested with Morningstar
42:00 – PWL's financial planning app: systematizing the family office model at scale
44:30 – What makes people trust Ben Felix: evidence, sources, and STEM-grade intellectual honesty
49:00 – Where PWL goes from here: acquisitions, fiduciary growth, and a possible book
51:00 – The one thing to change: applying PERMA-V as a filter for how you live and invest
53:00 – Where to find Ben Felix: YouTube, Rational Reminder, The Money Scope
#BenFelix #PWLCapital #EvidenceBasedInvesting #IndexInvesting #RationalReminder #FinancialPlanning #AdvisorAlpha #DIYInvesting #FactorInvesting #WealthManagement #InsightIsCapital #PersonalFinanceCanada #ETFInvesting #FinancialAdvisor #FiduciaryAdvisor #InvestingCanada #MoneyScope #PassiveInvesting #BehaviouralFinance #PERMAModel
55 min
May 26 Canada's ETF Surge is Structural, not Cyclical | Ronald Landry
Canada's ETF market isn't just growing — it's being structurally rewired, and Ron Landry has a front-row seat to where every dollar is flowing and why.
Pierre Daillie sits down with Ronald Landry, Vice President and Head of Segment Solutions and Canadian ETF Services at CIBC Mellon, for a wide-ranging look at the forces driving Canada's historic ETF surge. With nearly $95 billion in net flows through May 2026 — 57% ahead of last year's run rate — Ron unpacks why this isn't a cyclical wave but a structural shift in how Canadians save, invest, and expect to be served. From the rise of income-generating ETFs and single-stock strategies to tokenization, TCR disclosure, and the regulatory cost burden quietly falling on investors, this conversation delivers the institutional vantage point advisors rarely access. Ron and Pierre also tackle what it really takes for a new ETF to survive, why advisor-guided portfolios outperform DIY by 3.6x, and what the next phase of Canadian ETF product formation looks like as active management quietly takes over the flow story.
⏱ Chapters
[00:00:00] — Introduction: Pierre sets the stage on Canada's surging ETF flows and welcomes Ron Landry of CIBC Mellon
[00:02:00] — $95B and counting: Ron breaks down the staggering 2026 YTD flow numbers and what's driving the pace
[00:03:30] — Mutual fund managers come knocking: Why traditional fund firms are now asking about ETF series
[00:05:00] — Geography of flows: Rotation from US equities into Canadian, emerging markets, and international mandates
[00:07:30] — Product formation trends: Single-stock ETFs, covered calls, high-frequency distributions, and the income yield wave
[00:09:00] — The 86% rule: Why the top 10 issuers still capture the lion's share of new assets
[00:10:00] — All-in-one ETFs: iShares, Vanguard, and BMO dominate the asset allocation category
[00:13:00] — Macro disconnect: Why flows keep surging despite inflation, tariffs, and geopolitical risk
[00:14:00] — ETF pipeline signals: Crypto and digital assets, tokenization workshops, and what the CSA is watching
[00:18:00] — TCR (Total Cost Reporting): What advisors need to know before January 2027 statements land
[00:23:00] — The covered call psychology: Instant income, generational behaviour, and the bear market stress test
[00:28:00] — The advisor value case: Portfolio growth 3.6x higher with professional guidance — know your product
[00:30:00] — ETF survival signals: First-mover advantage, the three-year rule, and when to pull the plug
[00:36:00] — Regulatory cost creep: Filing fee increases, the Emerge warning, and how costs ultimately reach investors
[00:43:00] — The road ahead: Active ETFs, advisor positioning, and what the next phase of Canadian ETF evolution demands
#CanadianETF #ETFInvesting #InsightIsCapital #WealthManagement #FinancialAdvisor #ETFCanada #CoveredCallETF #ActiveETF #InvestmentFunds #CIBCMellon #CanadianInvesting #ETFFlows #TotalCostReporting #PortfolioManagement #FinancialPlanning #DIYInvesting #Incomeinvesting #ETFIndustry #CanadianFinance #AdvisorAlyst
47 min
May 22 Larry Swedroe: The Adaptive Market & The Undiversified Investor
Larry Swedroe has spent 30 years proving the market will almost always beat you — and in this episode, he explains why that's about to become even more true.
In this episode of Raise Your Average, hosts Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick sit down with legendary evidence-based investing author and outsourced CIO Larry Swedroe for a wide-ranging masterclass on where markets are heading and what investors must do to survive them. Swedroe breaks down how AI is accelerating market efficiency rather than unlocking alpha, why the 60/40 portfolio carries far more equity risk than most investors realize, and why true hyper-diversification — across private credit, reinsurance, return stacking, and long-short factor strategies — is the only credible response to a world where correlation assumptions break at exactly the wrong moment. He confronts the behavioral mistakes social media is making worse, challenges advisors to stress-test risk tolerance with real dollar numbers, and argues the future of wealth management belongs to those who master alternatives.
⏱ Chapters
00:00 — Cold Open: AI and the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis
02:00 — Welcome to Larry Swedroe
03:00 — Post-Retirement Life: Consulting, Writing, and Giving Back
09:00 — AI and Market Efficiency: Does Technology Create or Destroy Alpha?
11:00 — Factor Model History: CAPM, Fama-French, and Shrinking Active Alpha
14:00 — Warren Buffett's Disappearing Alpha
21:00 — The Danger of AI Data Mining and False Correlations
23:00 — What Makes a Factor Worth Owning: Persistent, Pervasive, Robust
28:00 — Leverage Aversion: When a Little Is Good and a Lot Is Dangerous
30:00 — Private Credit and the Case for Senior Secured Loans
31:00 — Return Stacking and Portable Alpha
34:00 — Hyper-Diversification: Why Your 60/40 Is Really 90/10 in Risk Terms
39:00 — The 40-Year Period Growth Stocks Underperformed Long Treasuries
40:00 — Reinsurance and AQR Style Premium: Self-Healing Assets and Impatience
45:00 — The Real Definition of Diversification: Something Is Always Hurting
47:00 — Good Advisors Are People Managers, Not Money Managers
54:00 — Stress-Testing Risk Tolerance with Real Dollar Numbers
56:00 — Monte Carlo and the True Cost of Avoiding Alternatives
59:00 — Trend Following: Clustered Returns and Why You Buy Insurance at a Cost
01:05:00 — Behavioral Mistakes in the Age of Social Media
01:07:00 — Information vs. Value-Relevant Information: Why Reddit Won't Make You Rich
01:11:00 — The Future of Advisory Practice: Wealth Management and the Next Decade
#EvidenceBasedInvesting #FactorInvesting #MarketEfficiency #AIInvesting #ReturnStacking #BehavioralFinance #WealthManagement #AlternativeInvestments #PortfolioConstruction #FinancialAdvisor #RaiseYourAverage #LarrySwedroe #RetirementPlanning #ManagedFutures #TrendFollowing #PrivateCredit #Reinsurance #HyperDiversification #InvestmentStrategy #FinancePodcast #IndexInvesting #FactorPremium #ActiveVsPassive #AdvisorAnalyst #MikePhilbrick #PierreDaillie #LongShortStrategy #MonteCarloSimulation #SequenceOfReturnsRisk #PortfolioRisk
1 hr 19 min
May 19 Adriano Starinieri - No Filters, No Pitch, No Advisor
He replaced his paycheck with a covered call ETF portfolio, moved to Panama, and put the whole system on display — because transparency, it turns out, is the most powerful financial planning tool nobody in the industry is using.
What does it actually look like to live off your portfolio — not someday, but now? Pierre Daillie sits down with Adriano Starinieri, creator of the Passive Income Investing YouTube channel and the voice behind one of Canada's fastest-growing DIY finance communities, to answer that question in full. Adriano walks through his complete origin story: working-class Montreal roots, a father who speculated on penny stocks, a 20-year mortgage paid off in 7 years, and a decision in 2019 to sell the condo, invest the proceeds, and go all-in on covered call ETFs — just months before the COVID crash. Today he and his wife live in Panama, financially independent, drawing monthly income from a seven-figure portfolio he reviews publicly on YouTube every single month.
For investors, this episode is a masterclass in income-first portfolio construction. Adriano breaks down exactly how covered call ETFs work, why the 2021 arrival of lightly leveraged versions effectively solved the total return problem, how to evaluate any covered call ETF by asset quality, coverage ratio, and leverage, and why the buy-and-hold-forever mindset eliminates the behavioural mistakes that derail most portfolios. He makes a compelling case that for income-seeking investors, covered call ETFs don't just compete with bonds — they may make the traditional fixed income sleeve obsolete.
For advisors, this episode is a window into how the next generation of clients is already thinking — and who they're already listening to. Adriano's 250,000-subscriber community was built on a single, confronting idea: radical transparency. He shows his real portfolio, his real numbers, his real monthly distributions — and his audience trusts him completely because of it. Pierre and Adriano explore what that trust gap reveals about how advisors communicate, why proprietary product recommendations erode client confidence, and what it would look like for an advisory practice to meet younger investors where they actually are: online, sceptical, and hungry for education over salesmanship.
Chapters
00:00 — Introduction: Who Is Adriano Starinieri?
01:45 — Life in Panama: Why They Left Montreal and Never Looked Back
07:10 — The Decision to Relocate: From a Three-Month Airbnb to Permanent Residency
13:36 — Origin Story: Working-Class Roots, a Father Who Speculated, and Learning What Not to Do
20:41 — Swing Trading Phase: BlackBerry, Bombardier, and the Lessons of Getting It Wrong
22:27 — The Turning Point: Kevin O'Leary, Dividend Stocks, and Discovering Covered Call ETFs
24:51 — The System: Replace Your Paycheck With Passive Income
26:06 — Going All-In Before the COVID Crash — and What the System Proved
29:41 — Covered Call ETFs Explained in Plain Language
34:05 — The 2021 Breakthrough: Lightly Leveraged Covered Call ETFs and the Total Return Problem Solved
39:52 — Never Sell: The Automated Drawdown Solution and the Psychology of Buy-and-Hold Forever
47:17 — Why Crashes Are Good News for Income Investors
52:13 — The 20-Year-Old Who's Already at $3,000/Month: How Young Investors Are Using the System
54:41 — Transparency as Trust: Why Showing Your Real Portfolio Changes Everything
01:01:14 — The Biggest Misunderstandings About Covered Call ETFs
01:05:13 — How to Evaluate a Covered Call ETF: Asset, Coverage Ratio, Leverage
01:10:23 — Why Covered Call ETFs May Render Fixed Income Obsolete
01:15:31 — The Evolution of the Covered Call Space and Where It's Going
01:19:37 — What Advisors Should Learn From the Passive Income Investing Playbook
01:22:47 — Closing Thoughts: Meeting the Next Generation Where They Are
#PassiveIncomeInvesting #CoveredCallETF #CanadianETFs #PassiveIncome #IncomeInvesting #DividendInvesting #FinancialIndependence #FIRECanada #DIYInvesting #ETFIncome #HamiltonETFs #GlobalXCanada #HarvestETFs #EvolveETFs #QQCL #USCL #InsightIsCapital #AdvisorAnalyst #RetirementIncome #InvestingForBeginners #CoveredCalls #OptionsIncome #BuyAndHold #PortfolioIncome #MonthlyIncome #WealthBuilding #InvestingCanada #TFSA #PersonalFinanceCanada #FinancialFreedom
1 hr 25 min
May 15 The Covered Call ETF Gap | Zed Francis and Devin Anderson
Most investors think they understand what they own — Devin Anderson and Zed Francis of Convexitas are here to prove they don't, and to show what the next generation of derivative investing actually looks like.
Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick welcome Devin Anderson and Zed Francis, Co-Founders of Convexitas, for a masterclass in derivative investing that challenges everything advisors and investors think they know about covered calls, buffered ETFs, and options-based income strategies. Drawing on deep institutional backgrounds — Devin from two decades at Deutsche Bank's equity derivatives structuring desk, and Zed from UBS credit trading, distressed hedge funds, and Legal & General — the two founders lay bare the hidden complexity lurking inside "simple" yield products that dominate today's wealth management landscape.
The conversation pulls no punches: the hockey-stick diagrams used to explain covered call ETFs at point-of-sale actively mask real-time risk exposures that can shift dramatically intraday. A product sold as "half the risk of equities" can quietly become nearly full equity exposure within hours of a 1% market move — and most advisors and clients have no idea. Devin and Zed argue this isn't a reason to abandon these products, but a powerful case for active, continuous derivative management that delivers what the product actually promised.
The founders introduce Convexitas's philosophy: that the options market is structurally mispriced, and that most yield-seeking investors are sitting on the wrong side of that mispricing. They walk through the SMA-based approach — designed to generate accessible liquidity precisely when markets crash, enabling advisors to rebalance into distressed assets rather than being frozen by tax friction, behavioral paralysis, or trapped capital in fund wrappers. From the mechanics of short volatility to the case for unfunded overlays, return stacking, and Warren Buffett's alpha decoded through Fama-French factors, this episode is essential listening for any advisor navigating the derivative income revolution.
Chapters
00:00 — Introduction: The income wave reshaping wealth management
04:52 — Meet Devin Anderson & Zed Francis: Career arcs and the founding of Convexitas
12:16 — What investors actually own: The hidden complexity inside covered call ETFs
16:18 — Real-time risk exposure: How moneyness shifts dramatically intraday
19:17 — The silent danger: Stacking short volatility across multiple products
28:00 — Structural mispricing in the options market: Why sellers face a systemic disadvantage
38:00 — Investment products vs. trading instruments: A critical distinction for advisors
43:08 — The income stack: Gaining Gold and Bitcoin exposure with capital efficiency
50:43 — First-gen vs. next-gen: From buffered ETFs to actively managed derivative overlays
57:08 — Tax efficiency, rebalancing, and the SMA advantage
01:18:06 — Why accessible capital is the biggest benefit of risk mitigation — not mark-to-market
01:23:53 — Buying when there's blood in the streets: Liquidity, structure, and Warren Buffett's alpha
01:26:37 — Final outlook: Inflation, financialization, and the binary tail risks ahead
#CoveredCallETF #BufferedETF #DerivativeInvesting #OptionsTrading #WealthManagement #VolatilityHarvesting #ReturnStacking #TailRiskHedge #FinancialAdvisors #IncomeInvesting #PortfolioConstruction #AlternativeInvestments #RiskManagement #TaxEfficientInvesting #SMAInvesting #RaiseYourAverage #Convexitas #InvestmentStrategy #OptionsEducation #AdvisorAlpha
Copyright © AdvisorAnalyst
1 hr 30 min
May 12 Joe Canavan on Wealth, Risk, and Canada's Next Chapter
Joe Canavan built three companies that redefined how Canadians invest — then walked away, backed Wealthsimple before anyone knew the name, and now he's asking one question: why does Canada keep burning down what it builds?
In this episode of Insight Is Capital, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Joe Canavan, Principal at Canavan Capital and one of Bay Street's most consequential institution builders, for a wide-ranging conversation on wealth creation, entrepreneurship, and Canada's innovation deficit. Canavan traces his career from retail advisor to founding Fidelity Canada's growth era, GT Global, and Synergy Asset Management — and through to early-stage investing in Wealthsimple, Layer 6, Koho Financial, CapIntel, and Radical AI.
He unpacks why Canada's startup ecosystem was on the verge of becoming Silicon North before self-inflicted policy decisions reversed the momentum, and makes the case for a generational vision — "Innovation Nation 2047" — to build millions more millionaires, retain top talent, and attract global capital. The conversation also covers artificial general intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, financial infrastructure security, the leadership crisis in Canadian cities, and why incentives — as Charlie Munger said — determine every outcome.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – Introduction: What does it actually take to build wealth?
01:55 – Joe's origin story: From new-Canadian roots to Bay Street
03:23 – Building Fidelity Canada, GT Global, and Synergy Asset Management
06:38 – Stepping back, family first, and becoming the "accidental capitalist"
10:11 – How founders found Joe: Wealthsimple, Coho, Layer Six, Cap Intel
13:18 – Next Canada and building the entrepreneurship ecosystem
15:08 – Silicon North: How Canada almost became a global tech hub
18:01 – Policy failure: How capital gains tax changes broke the momentum
20:10 – Incentives drive outcomes: The Charlie Munger principle applied to Canada
22:30 – The case for millions more Canadian millionaires
24:47 – Innovation Nation 2034/2047: Own the podium for startups
39:24 – Leadership as the root cause: Cities, provinces, and the national vision
42:00 – Why financial infrastructure (the plumbing) matters more than the app
44:22 – AGI, artificial general intelligence, and the coming technological singularity
46:52 – Robotics, Elon Musk, and where the puck is going
48:14 – How Joe structures his 10-year investment thesis
52:52 – Early bet on Wealthsimple: Backing people before proof
56:39 – Altruism meets capitalism: The real cost of startup investing
58:55 – Final question: If you had the mandate to make Canada dramatically wealthier, where do you start?
#CanadianEntrepreneurship #InsightIsCapital #JoeCanavan #Wealthsimple #FinancialInfrastructure #AIInvesting #QuantumComputing #SiliconNorth #VentureCapital #BayStreet #StartupEcosystem #CanadianFintech #WealthCreation #InnovationNation #LeadershipMatters #CanadianInvestors #AGI #CapitalMarkets #Fintech #AdvisorAnalyst
1 hr 5 min
May 08 Dave Nadig: The ETF Bubble Nobody is Talking About
The ETF industry has never been more powerful — or more crowded. Dave Nadig, President & Director of Research at ETF.com, joins Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick for a no-holds-barred conversation on the structural risks building beneath the surface of the world's most successful financial innovation.
From a potential flood of mutual fund conversions to single-stock leverage ETFs, prediction market shenanigans, private credit illiquidity traps, tokenization timelines, AI's impact on the investment industry, and the quiet erosion of the ETF's greatest strength — simplicity — this is the ETF conversation the industry isn't having.
⏱ Chapters
00:00 — Introduction: Dave Nadig, President & Director of Research, ETF.com
00:46 — The Mutual Fund-to-ETF Conversion Flood: 5,000 Funds in the Pipeline
03:12 — The Plumbing Stress Test: Market Makers, Lead Market Makers & Capacity Limits
05:40 — Too Many Tickers: When Choice Becomes Paralysis
07:51 — The Case FOR Mutual Funds: Where the Structure Still Wins
10:34 — Private Credit ETFs: Retail Bag-Holding at the End of the Cycle?
13:06 — Private Equity ETFs, SpaceX Shenanigans & Liquidity Illusions
18:02 — ETF Proliferation: More Tickers Than Stocks
19:50 — The K-Shaped ETF Innovation Curve: Institutional Genius vs. Levered Junk
22:26 — Prediction Markets, Kalshi & Single-Counterparty Risk
25:04 — AI in Investment Management: Hype vs. Genuine Edge
27:18 — Tokenization: When Does It Actually Matter for Retail?
29:38 — Atomic Settlement, Blockchain, and the DTCC's Big Project
33:27 — Crypto, Prediction Markets & Where the Money Is Really Going
36:11 — 24/7 Equity Markets: Opportunity or Chaos?
45:25 — The Kitchen Drawer Metaphor: Good Tools vs. Junk Drawer ETFs
48:00 — Covered Call ETFs & the Yield Illusion: Total Return Is the Litmus Test
50:40 — How to Spot Extractive Products vs. Genuine Innovation
54:52 — Why Dave Came Back to ETF.com — and Why He Won't Stay in a Box
01:00:02 — ETF.com 3.0: Content, Pop-Up Events & the ETF Beach House
01:03:02 — The ETF Industry's Obligation: Keeping It From Going Extractive
01:07:13 — Where to Find Dave Nadig: ETF Zoo Podcast, Excess Returns & More
#ETF #ETFinvesting #DaveNadig #ETFcom #RaiseYourAverage #PassiveInvesting #MutualFunds #PrivateCredit #Tokenization #MarketStructure #LeveredETF #CoveredCallETF #PredictionMarkets #InvestingEducation #WealthManagement #FinancialAdvisors #ETFbubble #PortfolioConstruction #AIinvesting #IndexFunds
1 hr 9 min
May 08 Humble Process, Extraordinary Results—The Brian Belski Way
Brian Belski told a room full of Canadian advisors to lighten up on gold in February. They weren't happy about it. Not the popular view at the time.
That's Brian Belski in a nutshell — 36 years in the markets, built his reputation going the other way when everyone else is piling in, and he's not about to stop now. In this episode, host Pierre Daillie sits down with Brian Belski, CEO & CIO of Humilis Investment Strategies, and Steve Hawkins, CEO of Longpoint ETFs.
Belski's case is simple: the 25-year secular bull market has a decade left, earnings are rising, and the stock picker is back. Gold is overextended. Canadian banks need scrutiny. U.S. financials are the most overlooked opportunity in the market. And if the consensus is calling for recession — he's going the other way.
Steve Hawkins built one of Canada's largest ETF platforms, walked away, and built it again on his own terms. Together, they just launched three new ETFs on the TSX — HBTA, HBDV, and HBOP — powered by Belski's fundamental, high-conviction approach. No gimmicks. No spaghetti on the wall. Just process.
If you manage money for clients, or you are the client, this one's worth your full hour.
🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 — The Contrarian Gold Call
01:23 — Setting the Scene
02:09 — Meet Brian Belski & Steve Hawkins
03:12 — Why Longpoint and Why Now: Three New TSX ETFs
04:10 — Market Context 2026: Venezuela, Iran, Stagflation & the S&P Melt-Up
05:53 — Brian's Origin Story: Bill O'Neill, Warren Buffett & Iraq in 1990
10:02 — The 25-Year Secular Bull Market Thesis Explained
13:00 — Where We Are in the Cycle: Cyclical Bears Within a Secular Bull
15:30 — Why Fundamentals Win: Stocks Lead Earnings, Earnings Lead the Economy
16:23 — Private Wealth vs. Institutional Money: Who's the Smart Money Now?
19:12 — Steve Hawkins on Why Canadian Investors Were Missing Belski
20:34 — How the Humilis + Longpoint Partnership Came Together
22:23 — On Founding Humilis: "Equal Parts Excruciating and Exciting"
27:36 — The Biggest Investor Mistake Right Now: Behavioural, Not Analytical
28:11 — Gold at Four Standard Deviations: Why Belski Said Lighten Up
30:23 — Canadian Banks: The Math Behind Underperformance Risk
31:18 — AI Arms Race, Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Coke vs. Pepsi Analogy
34:44 — The Stock Picker's Market Is Back
35:35 — Most Compelling Opportunity Right Now: U.S. Financials
38:27 — Inside the Three Humilis ETFs: HBTA, HBDV, and HBOP
40:11 — Active vs. Index: The Return of the Stock Picker
42:37 — Belski's Canadian Convictions: Aritzia, Waste Connections, Shopify
45:20 — Great Company vs. Great Stock: The Distinction That Matters
46:17 — Google, Costco, and Contrarian Conviction in Practice
47:18 — What the Market Made Belski Revisit in 2026
48:44 — Longpoint's Vision: A Turnkey Platform for Global Asset Managers
51:14 — Wayne Gretzky, the Puck, and Canada's ETF Decade Gap
57:10 — $30M AUM in 25 Days Since Launch
57:38 — Brian's Biggest Surprise for Investors a Year from Now
59:15 — Closing: Keep It Simple, Stupid — and Stay Bullish
#BrianBelski #HumilisInvestments #LongpointETFs #SteveHawkins #CanadianETFs #InsightIsCapital #AdvisorAnalyst #SecularBullMarket #StockPicker #ActiveInvesting #ETFCanada #InvestmentStrategy #CanadianInvestors #EquityStrategy #MarketOutlook2026 #FundamentalInvesting #ContraryInvesting #HBTA #HBDV #HBOP #WealthManagement #FinancialAdvisors #TSX #NorthAmericanEquities #MarketVolatility
1 hr 1 min
May 05 The Portfolio Nobody Told You to Build | Tony Dong
What if the investing rules that protected you for 40 years just stopped working — and the world already moved on without telling you?
Host Pierre Daillie sits down with Tony Dong — founder of ETFPortfolioBlueprint.com, lead ETF analyst at ETF Central, and Columbia-trained risk manager — for a no-holds-barred breakdown of defense ETFs, tail risk hedging, the structural collapse of the 60/40 portfolio, and what a genuinely resilient Canadian portfolio looks like in a world defined by geopolitical fracture, regime change, and compounding uncertainty. Recorded April 2026 amid new all-time equity highs and an active Middle East conflict, this episode is essential listening for any advisor or investor still building for a world that no longer exists.
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Introduction: Who Is Tony Dong?
02:11 — Q1 2026: Markets, Macro & the K-Shaped Economy
06:24 — Defense ETFs: True Exposure vs. Industrial Sector Imposters
09:30 — Canadian Defense ETF Options: XAD vs. SHLD
11:38 — Are We at the Start of a Defense Super Cycle — or the Middle?
13:48 — NATO Rearmament, Europe's €800B Commitment & Valuation Risk
17:13 — The Hidden Risk of Being Long Defense
19:04 — Strait of Hormuz, Ras Laffan & Underappreciated Choke Points
22:01 — Why Tony Isn't Buying the Emerging Markets Rally
23:22 — Tail Risk: CAOS vs. TAIL — Two Products, Two Payoff Profiles
28:58 — How Much to Allocate to Tail Risk?
31:57 — What Risk Actually Is: Permanent Capital Loss vs. Volatility
34:12 — The 60/40 Portfolio: 90% Equity Risk by Any Honest Measure
36:28 — TLT Myths Debunked: Why Long Bonds Are a Structural Trap
39:10 — Fixed Income Alternatives: First-Lien Loans & LCRNs
41:53 — How Conflict Transmits Risk Into a Canadian ETF Portfolio
46:05 — Liquidity Cascades: When the ETF Wrapper Breaks
53:16 — Volatility Laundering & the Private Credit Illusion
56:36 — Building a Resilient Canadian Portfolio for the Next 10 Years
01:00:41 — Biggest Surprises of the Next 12 Months: China, Taiwan & Eastern Europe
#DefenseETF #TailRisk #ETFInvesting #CanadianInvestor #GeopoliticalRisk #CAOSETf #TAILETf #6040Portfolio #NATORearmament #InsightIsCapital #TonyDong #PierreDaillie #ETFAnalysis #PortfolioConstruction #WealthManagement #MacroInvesting #FixedIncome #BondAlternatives #ETFLiquidity #PrivateCredit #CanadianDollar #DefenseTech #MarketRegimeChange #AdvisorAnalyst #ETFCentral #PortfolioResilience #InvestingIn2026 #TailRiskHedging #GeopoliticalInvesting #SmartMoney
1 hr 4 min

About Insight is Capital™ Podcast

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The official podcast of AdvisorAnalyst.com, publisher of actionable market and investment insight, commentary, analysis and practice management for investment professionals and investors.