Trillions
Episodes
KPOP’s Hit Factory Comes to Investing
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
South Korea is having a moment. Between the stellar rise of K-pop and worldwide film hits such as Parasite and Squid Game, the country has established...
Cash Is Still King
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Boring is beautiful this year as investors rush to the relative safety (and higher yields) of exchange-traded funds that hold short-term treasuries. B...
The Active vs Passive Scorecard
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Active managers have, historically, had a tough time beating their benchmarks. Yet this year may prove to be an exception; nearly half of large-cap ma...
The Case for Custom Indexing
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A new approach to investing called direct or custom indexing effectively lets investors own stocks but with some special enhancements, such as capturi...
Fedsplaining with Ira Jersey
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Inflation. Unemployment. Consumer demand. All important economic data—but more important is how the Federal Reserve interprets it all and reacts. Th...
Protecting Your Portfolio From Black Swans
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In investing, a black swan event is something almost nobody sees coming—and to make a bet on the outcome of that unforeseen event has always been ex...
The Single-Stock ETF Era Is Born
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A single-stock ETF might sound like an oxymoron, but it's about to become a massive new category. These ETFs, which aim to serve up inverse and levera...
Now There Are ETFs Making Money While You Sleep
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just when you think the world of exchange-traded funds has run out of new ideas, along comes something truly novel. Instead of slicing the market up ...
High-Dividend ETFs Are Having a Moment
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When markets plummet like they have this year, investors want to grab onto something—anything—that isn’t in free-fall. High-dividend exchange-tr...
Just Keep Buying
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Investing in stock and bond markets during a boring, decade-long bull market is easy enough. It’s a little more difficult when everything is tre...
The Psychology of a Selloff
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unlike most declines, stocks and bonds have been sinking together so far this year. Rising inflation and a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve are providing ...
The ESG Backlash
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
BlackRock and Vanguard collectively own about 15% of every US company, but are they voting their shares in a way that aligns with investors in th...
Inside "The Bogle Effect"
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Three years ago, Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber went to Jack Bogle’s office in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and recorded an...
The Great Emerging Markets Debate
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This past year has reminded everyone why they’re called “emerging” markets. But it’s gone further this time, with investors questioning whethe...
Words of Wisdom From Mr. ETF
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nobody deserves the nickname Mr. ETF as much as Reggie Browne, principal of GTS and a renowned market maker. He's had an amazing behind-the-scenes van...
When ETFs Stop Working
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If ETFs were living creatures, they might be cockroaches—they can survive almost anything. And yet Russia's invasion of Ukraine has presented a rare...
How Long Will the Commodities Boom Last?
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the best-performing categories since the beginning of last year has been commodities. Everything from oil to wheat to palladium to gold is up,...
When a Soccer Mom Tells You About Bitcoin Mining...
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody has a friend (or three) who's gone "full crypto." So Joel’s ears perked up when a friend from high school and college, Char Boger, told hi...
Your Guide to the 2022 Market Roller Coaster
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It looks like the "easy money" days of the last two years may soon end as the Federal Reserve readies to raise interest rates and fight inflation. Mar...
Return Stacking to Solve the 60/40 Dilemma
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody loves the 60/40 portfolio. And why not? It's worked really well for a long time, especially the past decade when both stocks (the 60) and bo...
22 ETFs to Watch in '22
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do copper miners, the metaverse and carbon credits all have in common? Absolutely nothing, except they are all tracked by ETFs that made Bloomber...
The 2022 ETF Outlook
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
State of the ETF Industry With BlackRock’s ETF Captain
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
ETFs Go Into the Metaverse
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 tr...
The Rise of the Anti-Woke ETF
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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-t...
The Bitcoin ETF Race Is Over—and Also Just Beginning
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cooking Up Returns with ETF Master Chefs
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ETF strategists are professional investors who create model portfolios that financial advisers can bring to their retail clients. You can think of the...
The Tax Idea That's Scaring ETF Investors
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 s...
Nukesanity: Inside the Melt-up In Uranium ETFs
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 nucle...
Meet the Unsung Hero of the $11 Trillion Index Revolution
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Future of Bitcoin Futures ETFs
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has all but made clear it will probably approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that hold Bitcoin futures, v...
What's Behind the ETF Feeding Frenzy of 2021?
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ETFs have already broken their annual inflow record—and summer isn't even over yet. The pace of flows has jumped from $2 billion a day to more than ...
Peak Everything with Gina Martin Adams
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Everything in the market is at or around all-time highs, yet the market feels fragile at the same time. Whether it's the delta variant or inflation, t...
David vs Goliath: Inside Engine No. 1's Activist ETF
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In late May, Engine No. 1 shook Corporate America. Despite owning just .02% of Exxon Mobil — not long ago the world’s most valuable company — th...
The ETF Ticker Premium
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the more colorful aspects of the exchange-traded industry are the tickers. The best are stuff of legend; others are totally forgettable. But wh...
The Closest Thing to a Meme ETF
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With meme stock mania in full bloom again, many are asking why there isn't an ETF to play it. While there is some debate over whether a meme ETF is po...
From LTCM to ETFs: Victor Haghani's Long Road to Index Investing
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Victor Haghani is an ETF investor with one of the most storied resumes as one of the founding partners of the famous Long-Term Capital Management hedg...
A Glimpse Into the Crypto ETF Future
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While the Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to approve a crypto exchange-traded fund, similar products are proliferating abroad. These exchan...
Re-Imagining ETFs with Simplify
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The stock market looks frothy, moves up and down tend to be steeper and quicker than the old days, and the bond market isn't the hedge it used to be. ...
Behind the First Mutual Fund-to-ETF Conversion
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In March, for the first time ever, a mutual fund went to sleep and woke up as an ETF. Two of them, in fact. And Guinness Atkinson, the issuer, couldn’...
Whoa, That ETF Got Big
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much like kids, ETFs can grow up so fast. And while you can expect the Vanguards and BlackRocks to keep hoovering up assets, there are many lesser-kno...
The REIT Stuff
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let's be honest, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) ETFs probably aren't going to make you blush or quicken your pulse. But they can be extremely pra...
Introducing: Doubt
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A few decades ago, nobody really questioned vaccines. They were viewed as a standard part of staying healthy and safe. Today, the number of people que...
Coming Soon: The Pay Check Season 3
05 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
More than 150 years after the end of slavery in the U.S., the net worth of a typical white family is nearly six times greater than that of the average...
How to Think About Inflation (and Other Stuff) With Jim Bianco
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month showed how much inflation concerns and an uptick in bond yields can mess with a portfolio. It showed the vulnerability of high flying inves...
ETFs Get Trippy in the Shroom Sector
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Magic mushrooms, LSD and ketamine used to be associated with psychedelic trips and fun weekends. Now they’re increasingly viewed as serious medicine...
Help, My ETF Got Hijacked by an Internet Flash Mob
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ETFs tend to sit in the back seat while active players drive prices in the stock market. But what happens when the driver is a hellbent Reddit message...
Welcome to 2021 With Barry Ritholtz
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a new year, and maybe a new you. There’s also a completely new political landscape in Washington DC and probably another big round of stimulu...
Is ARK the New Janus Twenty?
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cathie Wood of ARK is not the first highly concentrated active manager to shoot the lights out for half a decade while sparking a stampede of flows in...
The Jealousy List, ETF Edition
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Covering ETFs this year was like trying to hit a constantly moving target. Businessweek's annual “Jealousy List” -- stories by other outlets that ...
21 ETFs to Watch in '21
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s so much going on in the ETF world right now as all kinds of trends, strategies, themes and companies collide in this hotter-than-ever market...
Invasion of the ANT ETFs
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For years, active mutual funds sat and watched the boom in ETFs from the sidelines, unwilling to participate as it would mean showing their holdings e...
Robots and the Future of Health Care
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thematic ETFs need to do two things to attract cash: crush the market and capture the imagination. There's no better example of this than the ETFs com...
A Halloween-Inspired Stroll Through the ETF Graveyard (Which Is Getting Really Crowded)
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Death has become a growing part of life in the ETF industry. The number closures in 2020 has already blown away the old record with the total number o...
The 2020 SPAC Attack Hits ETF Land
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most interesting developments in finance this year has been the sudden popularity of the SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company. A no...
The Secretive Committee Behind the S&P 500
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Few organizations in finance are as mysterious as the committee that oversees the S&P 500 — a group that recently decided to exclude Tesla despi...
Goldman's Hit ETF Looks Like the Future of Active Investing
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the ETF Terrordome, nothing comes easy for issuers -- even if your name is Goldman Sachs. The asset management arm of the storied Wall Street firm ...
Climbing the Alps with Paul Baiocchi
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Selling an ETF has become less about about sales and more about adviser education, which has sparked many firms to create roles for ETF specialists. T...
The Unsung Art of Managing the First (Almost) Trillion Dollar Fund
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Most passive investors take for granted that their fund “tracks an index.” Well, that’s actually something of a feat because there’s so much m...
A Bunch of Really Important Questions for BlackRock
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
BlackRock is the undisputed king of the ETF hill; it’s also the world's biggest asset manager, with more than $7 trillion assets under management. A...
Gaming ETFs Are Having a Breakout Moment During the Pandemic
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The gaming industry is a juggernaut, and the pandemic has been especially good for business. The thematic gaming ETFs, tickers $ESPO, $HERO, $GAMR and...
Introducing: Blood River, A New Podcast From Bloomberg
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The killers of Berta Caceres had every reason to believe they’d get away with murder. More than 100 other environmental activists in Honduras had be...
Inside the Mind of a Young Retail Day Trader
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This year, millions of new young people -- many of whom are bored at home during the pandemic -- have started trading stocks, ETFs and options for the...
Introducing Foundering
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Neumann had a vision: to make his startup WeWork a wildly successful company that would change the world. He convinced thousands of other people ...
Halftime Report: A Roundtable Discussion
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The first six months of 2020 has felt more like five years, at least in ETF terms. So much has happened: the lockdown, the selloff, the rebound, the F...
Inside an ETF Platform Catering to 100,000 Financial Advisers
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the biggest rising trends in the ETF world is the rise of model portfolios, which are almost like pre-packaged meals. On this episode of Trilli...
Talking ETFs With the SEC's Hester Peirce
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Exchange-traded funds have upended investing, so how does the Securities and Exchange Commission feel about them? Eric and Joel, along with Nathan De...
JETSANITY: How a Obscure Airline ETF Became an Overnight Sensation
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The US Global Jets ETF (JETS) has seen over half a billion dollars worth of inflows over 50 straight days - unheard numbers for a thematic ETF - despi...
WTF WTI: An Oil ETF Goes Wild
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The lockdown has roiled oil markets and with it the world's largest oil ETF, USO, which has changed its exposure almost daily, gone through a reverse ...
A Conversation With ETF Issuer Jan Van Eck
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When you are an ETF issuer, you typically have some products doing well — and other ones doing less well. No better example of that than VanEck Vect...
Takeaways From the Carnage
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
March started in one place (high) and ended in another (low). Amid the carnage, traders and investors leaned on ETFs, which saw record volumes. On thi...
What the Actual ETF Is Going on Right Now
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Remember the good old days? An unloved, decade-long bull market that never seemed to end? When investments went only up? Well, the coronavirus crash o...
Biotech ETFs Vs. The Coronavirus
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While much of the stock market has suffered over the past few weeks thanks to fear of the new coronavirus and its global economic fallout, there are a...
The Secrets of an ETF Master Picker
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If exchange traded funds are ingredients and the portfolio is the meal, then ETF strategists are the master chefs.One of the best chefs out there is G...
Inside Inside ETFs 2020: What the ETF Industry is Talking About
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are active non-transparent ETFs going to be a hit or flop? How can ESG succeed when everyone’s definition is different? What can little issuers do t...
Everything Is ESG Now
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In his annual letter to CEOs earlier this month, BlackRock's Larry Fink pushed business leaders to prioritize climate change as a "defining factor in ...
Introducing Prognosis Season 4: America's Broken Health-Care Costs
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Americans are paying more and getting less for their health care than ever before. On the new season of Prognosis, reporter John Tozzi explores what w...
Half of America Doesn't Own Stocks. Here’s Three Ways to Change That.
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
ETFs have democratized investing -- everything under the sun is available with the click of a button, and for cheap. Yet this really only applies to t...
Hot Takes: The Outlook for ETFs in 2020
26 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s rarely a dull moment covering ETFs. And this year, as well as the past decade, was no exception. The industry has solidified itself as the h...
What Went Up: Talking Markets with Mike and Sarah
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was nothing short of a spectacular year for the U.S. stock market. Oh, and fixed income. And emerging markets. And gold. Basically everything went ...
Gatekeepers and Keymasters
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Just as a maker of organic salad dressing wants to get into Whole Foods, every ETF issuer is trying to get its products distributed by the fund supers...
Is Direct Indexing Coming for the ETF?
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
ETFs compete with just about everything, including mutual funds, options, derivatives, and even single security investing. Another competitor is direc...
Welcome to the World of VIX ETPs
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Despite -99% returns, burning through billions, and the occasional controversy, exchange-traded products (ETPs) that track a volatility index called t...
Coming Soon: Travel Genius Season 2
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bloomberg's Travel Genius podcast is back! After clocking another hundred-thousand miles in the sky, hosts Nikki Ekstein and Mark Ellwood have a whole...
Are “Buffered” ETFs the Next Big Thing?
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Would you give up some stock market upside for some downside protection? That's the value proposition for a fast growing new category of annuity-like ...
Hiding in Plain Sight: Inside the Non-Transparent Active ETF Race
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For years active mutual funds have been looking for a way to utilize the benefits of the ETF structure without having to show their holdings every day...
No Jacket Required: Inside the World of New School Wealth Management
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the main drivers behind the rise of ETFs and index funds is the fast-changing world of wealth management. RIAs have always been the early adopt...
Are Multi-Factor ETFs the New Active Mutual Fund?
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-factor ETFs are one of the fastest growing ETF categories. But what exactly do they do? Is the sum more than all the parts? Are they active or p...
Introducing Prognosis Season 3: Superbugs
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this new season of Prognosis, we look at the spread of infections that are resistant to antimicrobial medicines. You're probably more likely to hav...
Meet the SPY Kids
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's the Spy Kids and then there's the SPY Kids, aka the 11 millennials that unwittingly control the fate of the world's largest and most traded ET...
Showtime with Scarlet Fu
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You know ETFs have gone mainstream when there are multiple TV shows about them, including Bloomberg’s own ETF IQ. Nearing its 100th episode, the sho...
How to Invest in All These New Public Companies
25 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A number of high-profile companies have gone public this year -- Lyft, Uber, Beyond Meat, Slack, and Zoom, to name just a few. Yet these new entrants ...
Disruption as an Investment Thesis
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cathie Wood, founder of ARK Invest, is a successful stock picker in the era of passive. Her actively managed ETFs, which focus entirely on disruptive ...
The 2019 ETF Halftime Report
27 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the second quarter comes to a close, Trillions reflects on some of the interesting trends and takeaways that have emerged so far this year -- and a...
This ETF is Rated R
13 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Leverage and inverse ETFs are the bad boys of the ETF world - akin to Rated R movies or power tools. In the hands of a trained trader they can be help...
F-R-E-E-D-O-M
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Do investors value freedom? And do they really know what they're buying with emerging markets ETFs? Yes to the first, says Perth Tolle, who just launc...
Tell Us Something We Don’t Know About QQQ
16 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If ETFs had a Mount Rushmore, QQQ (aka 'The Qs') would definitely be on it. This $72 billion legend of an ETF just turned 20 years old and is now the ...
Introducing: Business of Bees
07 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
These days about one in three bites of food you eat wouldn’t be possible without commercial bee pollination. And the economic value of insect pollin...
5 Surprising Things About the European ETF Market
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While ETFs play an increasingly large role in U.S. financial markets, they're still in their infancy in Europe. The continent has regional markets, wh...
The Heartbeat Trade
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
ETFs provide unique tax capabilities. And according to a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek, some of those unique capabilities are being utilize...