Trillions

It will be tough to beat this year for ETFs, which saw record flows of nearly one trillion dollars as well as 450 new launches. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 returned an absurd 26%. Can this all this carry on and be repeated in 2022? Or should we brace for a much tougher landscape? 

Eric and Joel speak with Katie Greifeld of Bloomberg News and Todd Rosenbluth of CFRA about 2022 including flows, crypto, themes, mutual fund-to-ETF conversions—and yet another steak-dinner bet between Eric and Todd. 

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While the media — us included! — bestows a lot of attention on “shiny objects” in the investment world, almost all the real money goes to the massive firms such as BlackRock. The world’s largest asset manager is fast approaching $10 trillion assets under management, almost a third of which is in ETFs — many of them low-cost veterans.

Eric and Joel speak with Salim Ramji, the head of BlackRock's global ETF business, about areas of growth for ETFs, the widening investor base, potential threats such as direct indexing, mutual fund-to-ETF conversions, and when a iShares crypto ETF is coming out (probably not soon).  

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The day that Mark Zuckerberg announced he was changing the name of Facebook to Meta Platforms, the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF ($META) found a new trajectory. Since then, the ETF—which holds companies such as Nvidia, Roblox, Unity, Microsoft, and, well, Meta—has seen assets grow 6-fold and volume jump 50-fold. Much like $HACK, which also benefited from being the right idea at the right time, META is fast on its way to becoming a billion-dollar ETF—mostly because of a big news event.

Eric and Joel explore the metaverse—and the investing opportunities it could bring—with Matthew Ball, managing partner of EphyllionCo and the brain behind the ETF; Matt Kanterman, who covers gaming as a senior analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence; and Rebecca Sin, an ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. The group discusses how to think about the metaverse, what's at stake for companies, why investors are so excited, AR and VR applications, the size of the virtual economy, Robux vs crypto, and more.

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A new batch of ETFs seeks to appeal to right-leaning investors who want an alternative to "woke" Corporate America and ESG activism. While political-themed ETFs aren't a new idea, they've never really managed to attract meaningful assets. With Americans more polarized than ever before, could this be the moment that these ETFs actually find an audience?

Eric and Joel speak with Bloomberg Businessweek national correspondent Joshua Green about his magazine story on 2ndVote Advisers, which will soon introduce a new fund to complement their existing offerings ($EGIS and $LYFE). They also discuss the infighting with the $MAGA ETF, the practical considerations of putting these funds into a portfolio, and why this version of conservative investing is so challenged. 

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The quest for a bitcoin ETF has lasted more than eight years. Countless filings have ended in rejection. Then, finally, it happened—the SEC allowed a bitcoin ETF to come to market, albeit one that tracks futures as opposed to holding bitcoin. The unlikely winner of this race? ProShares, whose ETF $BITO broke all kinds of records for a new launch. Valkyrie's version, $BTF, was also approved. 

On this episode, Eric and Joel speak with ETF lawyer Jeremy Senderowicz of Vedder Price, Katie Greifeld of Bloomberg News, and James Seyffart of Bloomberg Intelligence about these developments. Their discussion includes how Greifeld's reporting moved the price of bitcoin, why the SEC allowed futures-backed products, who benefits from these investments, and what comes next.

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ETF strategists are professional investors who create model portfolios that financial advisers can bring to their retail clients. You can think of them almost like chefs — experts who know how to combine the right ingredients into recipes that, if everything goes as planned, can achieve a desired outcome.

On this episode — a special episode that coincides with the debut of their new Bloomberg Quicktake show, “Trillions Presents: ETF Master Chefs” — Eric and Joel host ETF strategists Shana Sissel, CIO of Spotlight Asset Group, John Davi, founder of Astoria Portfolio Advisors, Tushar Yadava, Investment Strategist at BlackRock and Ben Lavine, CIO of 3D Asset Management Group. The group discusses the investing process, portfolio construction, and, of course, everybody’s favorite tickers.

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Exchange-traded funds have a special super power: tax efficiency. Investors pay taxes when they sell, but not when others in the fund sell. Yet that super power is suddenly in jeopardy. A recent bill proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore) would repeal a tiny section in the tax code that allows for ETF's in-kind creations and redemptions to be non-taxable events. 

On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel invite Professor Jeffrey Colon of Fordham University, a tax expert who's critiqued ETFs before and influenced Wyden's bill, and Dave Nadig, director of research for ETF Trends, to discuss the proposal. Some chaos ensues. 

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Uranium ETFs are the among the best performers the last two years. Prior to that, they’d been in a decade-long bear market after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. But between growing acceptance of nuclear power for a carbon-free future and spiking prices with a supply shortage, you have the makings of a breakout ETF category. 

On this episode of Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with the two people behind $URNM: Tim Rotolo, founder and CEO of North Shore Indices, and Michael Alkin, CIO of Sachem Cove Partners. Joining the group is also John Ciampaglia, CEO of Canada-based Sprott Asset Management, which offers the only physically backed Uranium fund. They discuss the current surge in prices, how the market works and the long-term prospects of nuclear power. 

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Just as Steve Jobs didn't invent the computer, Jack Bogle didn't invent the index fund. The first index fund was actually launched back in 1971, about five years before Bogle and Vanguard brought it to the masses. 

On this week's Trillions, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the index fund with a conversation with John "Mac" McQuown, who worked with the head of Wells Fargo and a dozen academics (many of whom have Nobel prizes now) to develop the first, albeit short-lived index fund. We discuss the roots of the idea, the trials and tribulations of putting it into practice as well as his relationship with Bogle. 

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has all but made clear it will probably approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that hold Bitcoin futures, versus ones that hold the cryptocurrency itself. This has sparked a wave of new filings which, if approved, could hit the market by November. But how do they work, and how will investors respond to them?

On this week's Trillions, we get insight into this from two people who currently offer Bitcoin futures funds, Simeon Hyman of ProShares, who runs a Bitcoin futures mutual fund, and Steve Hawkins of Horizons, who runs a Bitcoin futures ETF in Canada. They discuss how the futures market works, how performance differs from Bitcoin, roll costs and what a wave of these hitting the market just might look like. 

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