Podcast
Trillions
Hosted by Bloomberg · EN
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. Exchange-traded funds let you invest in everything from the stock market to gold like never before. This biweekly podcast will demystify them—and hopefully delight you in the process.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
New ETFs to Watch: POETs, HALOs and Corgis
6d ago00:15:45Tap to summarizeThe ETF universe keeps getting bigger - and weirder. This year is already on pace to shatter records for launches and inflows; it's also producing some of the most niche, speculative and oddly specific funds the industry has ever seen. From leveraged bets on obscure semiconductor firms to thematic products targeting everything from lithography to nicotine, the race to capture investor attention is officially in overdrive. In this "ETFs to Watch" episode, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by Isabelle Lee, a cross-asset reporter with Bloomberg News, to break down a few new launches fighting for investor attention. They discuss Defiance's POET ETF (ticker POEL); Corgi's lithography and photonics fund (ticker EUV); Hexis's nicotine-focused ETF (ticker NICO); and Roundhill's "real world assets" HALO strategy (ticker LOHA). Along the way they make some detours to discuss leveraged IPO mania, Reddit skeptics, and, well, corgis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Big Long: Risk and Reward With Ben Carlson
2w ago00:32:19Tap to summarizeWhat if you invested at literally the worst possible moments in market history? According to Ben Carlson, the co-host of the Animal Spirits podcast and an advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, even the world's worst market timer could still become a millionaire. Carlson's new book, Risk & Reward, explores why long-term investing remains so psychologically difficult. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Carlson about his new book, which implores you to stop panicking and just stay the course. They discuss the genius of boring index funds, "fun accounts" as a behavioral release valve, whether buffer ETFs are financial Xanax and how the ETF wrapper may help turn tax efficiency into the new alpha. They also drill into Carlson's other big launch: Goaltender (GTND), a new ETF from Ritholtz, and go over why wealth managers are becoming ETF issuers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →ETF of the Moment: A Budding Comeback for Cannabis
3w ago00:12:56Tap to summarizeA long-dormant trade is suddenly showing signs of life. Prices are climbing. Volumes are spiking. And in a corner of the market that’s spent years in the doldrums, one ETF is catching a fresh buzz — thanks in part to the US Justice Department’s move in April to reclassify medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber debut a new monthly segment spotlighting an ETF that’s having a moment. This time, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Andre Yapp joins to break down the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS). The only cannabis-focused ETF with more than $1 billion in assets, it uses swaps to access marijuana companies just as shifting tax rules begin to ease the industry’s burden. The setup looks promising—but is this a real turning point, or just another short-lived high?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →How to Invest During a Trump Presidency
4w ago00:22:11Tap to summarizeMarkets hate uncertainty — unless, it turns out, they don’t. Under US President Donald Trump, investors have endured tariff scares, geopolitical flare-ups and a steady drumbeat of headline-driven panic. Yet stocks keep climbing; April, in particular, was a blockbuster. Maybe the best way to understand this market is to stop trying to make sense of it. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Athanasios Psarofagis about what ETF data actually says about investing during a Trump presidency. His grab bag of stats — March is cursed, Thursdays are rough and some of the biggest gains happen while you sleep — paints a picture of a market behaving very differently under pressure. Together, they unpack why it feels more volatile than ever and explore why the investors who come out ahead are often the ones who do the least.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →ETFs to Watch From Morgan Stanley, Vanguard and ... Pzena?
Apr 3000:11:23Tap to summarizeEvery day, a handful of new exchange-traded funds come to market. Some rocket to instant glory. Others take their time, building assets month after month, year after year. And more than a few quietly disappear into oblivion.On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber debut a new monthly segment that sifts through the flood of launches to pick out three ETFs worth watching. Whether the funds are potential hits, future mainstays or squarely in the “good luck with that” camp, the goal is to figure out what distinguishes them — and how they might help (or hurt) investors. Isabelle Lee, a cross-asset reporter for Bloomberg News, joins to discuss a late Bitcoin arrival, a rare launch and an expensive swing at value investing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Memory AI Trade
Apr 2300:21:26Tap to summarizeFor a while, the artificial intelligence trade was almost comically simple: just buy Nvidia. But as the buildout of massive data centers accelerates, and the AI models running on them get more complex, some long-overlooked parts of the semiconductor world are suddenly back in view. One of the most important: memory. Dominated by a small group of global giants—SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron among them—it’s a corner of the market that’s been hard for investors to access in a targeted way. Until now. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence semiconductor analyst Jake Silverman to unpack the explosive debut of the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which pulled in $1 billion in just 10 days. They break down why this fund could become one of the most successful thematic exchange-traded funds ever, what actually makes memory different from other chips, and why—despite its critical role in AI—it still trades a lot like a commodity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Will Prediction Markets Come to ETFs?
Apr 900:32:23Tap to summarizeJust when it feels like ETFs have done it all, along comes some filings that push the frontier. A trio of issuers wants to launch funds tied to prediction markets -- letting investors wager, from their brokerage accounts, on outcomes like which political party will control the White House or Congress. But how would these ETFs actually work? What else might get packaged this way? And will regulators ever sign off? On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber interview Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise and one of the filers, about why prediction market ETFs might make sense, how they’d work, and whether this is the start of a much bigger wave of event-based ETF investing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →That Mutual Fund Has an ETF Now
Mar 2600:31:56Tap to summarizeWith each passing year, ETFs pull in trillions of dollars while mutual funds steadily bleed assets. And yet, mutual funds still hold more money overall. Now, a long-standing wall between the two may finally be coming down. Dimensional Fund Advisors has launched the first-ever ETF share class of an existing mutual fund, a structure made possible by the expiration of Vanguard’s once-protective patent. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Joel Schneider, Dimensional’s deputy head of portfolio management for North America, and Katie Greifeld of Bloomberg News. They discuss why Dimensional volunteered to be the guinea pig, why it chose its 45-year-old US Micro Cap Portfolio (ticker: DFMC), and whether this hybrid structure could reshape how trillions of dollars are invested.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →The Complexity of the Oil Trade
Mar 1200:29:40Tap to summarizeAs the US and Israel's attack of Iran has reminded the world, oil remains as integral as ever to the global economy. But the ETFs for investing in crude come with some caveats—and are a big reason why Bloomberg Intelligence introduced its traffic-light system. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence's James Seyffart, an ETF analyst, and Vincent Piazza, a senior energy analyst. They discuss Piazza's "delay, disruption and destruction" outlook; how the United States Oil Fund (USO) came back from the dead; and what to know about other noteworthy energy ETFs such as XLE, CRAK and even BWET.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Freedom Has Paid Off For this Indie ETF
Feb 2600:31:29Tap to summarizeThe Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM) is having a moment. Launched seven years ago as a way to filter out autocratic emerging market countries and invest more in ones that have more freedom, it took a while to get going but it hasn't recently caught fire with a five year return of over 100%, which is 5x better than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and even more than the Nasdaq 100. On this episode of Trillions Joel and Eric speak with Perth Tolle, founder at Life + Liberty Indexes and the creator of FRDM, about the ETF's methodology, her experience growing up in China, how her life has changed with all the recent success and comparing and contrasting the US' freedom score with other developed countries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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