Trillions

Movies get ratings, so why not ETFs? After all, there are more than 2,100 ETFs, with one new one launching every day, that provide exposure to every asset class, sector, region, country, commodity, currency, factor, theme, derivative and strategy that you can think of, as well as some you’ve never heard of. While most are “plain vanilla,” many come with twists, and some are downright dangerous carrying unforeseen risks.

Unforeseen risk was on full display this week as some inverse volatility exchange-traded products turned disastrous, falling over 90% in a day and forcing several banks to issue redemptions. In this episode, Joel and Eric discuss the recent market turbulence, welcome Eric’s new colleague James Seyffart to the show, and also introduce Bloomberg Intelligence’s new “ETF Spotlight” System. The green-yellow-red model couldn’t get any easier to understand and will help you discern safer products from the potentially lethal ones -- before it’s too late.

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What do you get when you cross ComiCon, the Catalina Wine Mixer and low-cost passive investing? You get "Inside ETFs," the world's largest ETF conference, which is getting bigger and more colorful by the year, in no small part to the growing mountain of flows coming into ETFs each year. 

The event – which has grown from 450 people to 2,400 in eleven years featured panels, presentations and booths on everything from Vanguard to VIX and from Bitcoin to Quincy Jones. 

Joel and Eric discuss takeaways from the event as well as some select interviews on the ground, which include issuers both big and small as well as self-described “ETF nerds” and one famous music producer.

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On the fourth episode of Trillions, we get a first-hand look at how a professional builds ETF portfolios that work for different types of investors with varied goals. We look at how ETFs are chosen and assembled as well as the psychological methods Betterment uses to keep investor eyes on the prize, and not the market. 

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What questions should you ask about an ETF before you make an investment? What about when two or three ETFs seem practically the same? In this episode, Todd Rosenbluth, a mutual fund and ETF analyst with CFRA, joins the podcast to discuss his due diligence checklist. This is a topic that can get weedy in a hurry; if you're new to ETFs, just think of it like you're looking under the hood of a car. Start by evaluating the holdings, weightings, and costs, and then you can start wading into next-level stuff like liquidity and volatility. By the end of this episode, you'll learn how expert analysts view any ETF.

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Right now there are about  2,100 ETFs -- 2,078 if you want to get specific about it. That's a lot of stuff to choose from. How should you approach navigating a store with this much selection? One aisle at a time.

On the second episode of Bloomberg’s new podcast, Trillions, we take a stroll through the most popular aisles to meet some ETFs and get a better sense of the offerings. From the Cheerios of equities to the fresh produce of bonds, this episode provides an entertaining and incredibly simple way to make sense of ETFs and why they allow investors to ride capitalists' coattails.

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Collectively, exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are doubling assets every couple of years. In order to achieve a feat like that in finance you need some attractive qualities. The ETF happens to have many. You can almost think of these as a disruptive technology, akin to the MP3 or Uber. They’re at once fast, good, and cheap—and few things combine all three of those ingredients for consumers. 

On the first episode of Bloomberg's new podcast, Trillions, we break down in plain English what exactly makes ETFs so powerful and popular, including their low-cost, diversification, liquidity, convenience, and transparency. Together, these elements are why ETFs are democratizing investing. And they’re not done transforming the investment industry yet, either. In fact, two evolutionary lines are already forming. In one, fees are plummeting toward zero; in the other, every “active” strategy and theme you can think of is getting repackaged as an ETF. 

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Money goes where it's treated best. That simple truth is a big reason why more and more money—trillions, in fact—flows into a powerful, low-cost tool that's quietly transformed investing in recent years. Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, let you invest in everything from the stock market to gold like never before. This podcast will demystify them—and delight you in the process.

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