Trillions

Single-stock exchange-traded funds seem like an oxymoron: An investing vehicle that usually contains an entire portfolio reduced to a single company? But whatever skepticism existed when this type of ETF arrived, it has since abated. Traders are hooked on this kind of hot sauce even if it sounds a lot like gambling. Assets in single-stock ETFs have doubled this year to more than $5 billion.  On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber explore single-stock ETFs with Will Rhind, founder and chief executive of GraniteShares, which currently has about a dozen such offerings. Rhind’s most popular, GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF ($NVDL), takes Nvidia’s performance—an incredible upward trajectory of late—and doubles it. (Its daily volume usually exceeds most blue-chip stocks.) You can also go short with the GraniteShares 2x NVDA Daily ETF ($NVD).  They discuss how these ETFs work, who uses them, what the risks are, why enthusiasm for a given stock is so important and where this interesting new category and the “Vanguard-free zone” could go from here. 

So far, this has been a banner year for ETFs. The S&P 500 is at record highs. Inflows keep soaring. And investors are taking more risk. BlackRock's Bitcoin offering, IBIT, even became the most successful ETF launch ever. On this episode, Eric and Joel discuss the most noteworthy themes and trends with Todd Rosenbluth and Cinthia Murphy of VettaFi. They review what the inflows reveal, how various sectors are performing, and which products and issuers have been the biggest winners and losers. They also talk about what to watch for in the second half of the year.

For the first time in its 49-year history, Vanguard has chosen a chief executive from outside the company. His name is Salim Ramji, who previously served as head of BlackRock’s global exchange-traded fund business. The move comes as Vanguard continues to lead the industry in flows, but the giant has other challenges—such as customer service. How much should we expect Ramji to change, or leave the the same, in the House that Bogle Built? On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber and Eric Balchunas are joined by reporter Silla Brush to answer all of these questions and look at the broader topics surrounding the constantly changing landscape of asset management. 

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was the most successful ETF launch in history by nearly all metrics. For most ETFs it takes years to hit $10 billion in assets. IBIT did it in less than two months. It's now closing in on $20 billion. How much bigger will it get? Who exactly is buying it? And how did BlackRock end up being one of the firms leading the charge on ETF-izing crypto? On this episode of Trillions, Joel and Eric speak with Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets for BlackRock, about the huge bitcoin ETF launch, the market for these funds, the potential ether ETF launch as well as his career at BlackRock and how he helped the firm evolve on this new frontier.

While most of the money flowing into exchange-traded funds goes into the cheaper ones, investors are willing to pay up for certain things. And after all, ETF issuers have to pay the bills somehow. Figuring out how to price an ETF so it’s both appealing to investors and generates revenue is one of the more unsung arts of the industry.   On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber and Eric Balchunas speak with Athanasios Psarofagis, an ETF analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, and Bloomberg reporter Katie Greifeld about BI’s recent ETF revenue study, which includes a breakdown of fee income generated by issuers and individual products. The conversation also touches on whether the rise of passive investing has impacted markets in the way some observers say.