We have rescued a donkey called Moolah and taught it everything about ETFs. Yes, it’s a donkey that can talk the language of ETFs (amazing, right?) and now it’s on a mission to share what it knows with the average Joe on the street.

Moolah Invest is a new platform we have launched dedicated to educating private investors about ETFs.

We believe a well-informed retail market benefits the entire financial ecosystem and we are passionate about democratizing access to it!

Here’s how we’re hoping to make a difference:

👥 Building a Community: We’re creating a vibrant online community where retail investors can learn the fundamentals of ETFs and make smarter investment decisions.

📚 Accessible Education: We will provide clear and engaging educational content and reach out to all types of investors, from beginners to advanced.

🤝 Collaboration Potential: We see an opportunity for collaboration with industry leaders to further empower retail investors.

So my ask to you dear reader is help us. Help us spread the word and show everyone how amazing ETFs really are.

Launches this week

Flows & performance

What’s the best performing fund this year? You guessed it, the Jersey domiciled WisdomTree Cocoa, up a whopping 132%.

And now for the bad news. The fund has only attracted new investment of $270k year to date. Someone has clearly missed a trick there.

Gold ETFs have had a terrible time of it in terms of flows, suffering outflows of $10bn this year. YET, the year to date performance is nearly +12% which is not too shabby. So what has taken the shine off gold? (no pun intended)

Thematics may be running out of steam. With the exception of Artificial Intelligence focused funds (which seems to be the only game in town these days) Thematic across the globe have suffered outflows of $6bn year to date.

Listen & learn 

A podcast series focused on exploring the career journey of industry leaders within the ETF and Digital Assets space. Get to hear their personal story and be inspired.

This week we hear from Johan Grahn, Head ETF Market Strategist at Allianz Investment Management.

In this conversation Johan talks about:

• How being in the special forces helped shape his career
• Why frequently moving throughout your career should not be perceived as a bad thing
• Why you should never let the bastards grind you down

Things of interest

The fundamental flaws of ETFs. Anyone who is a cynic of Active ETFs will enjoy this piece from respected FT journalist Robin Powell. My favourite quote is “the ETF is ultimately just a wrapper, and launching an active ETF is like putting bad fish in a pink wrapper instead of blue one. It certainly won’t mask the smell”.

The largest shareholder of WisdomTree has launched a renewed campaign to drive out the asset manager’s chief executive officer and prepare it for a potential sale, the Financial Times reports. ETFS Capital, which owns around 18% of the $107bn (€99.6bn) fund house, has called on shareholders to vote against the re-election of certain directors, including founder and CEO Jonathan “Jono” Steinberg as well as two other board members, at the annual general meeting on June 12.

A survey from Amundi found that on average 31% of retail investors globally hold at least one ETF within their portfolio.

Fidelity International is planning to roll out more active ETFs in Australia this year and could potentially increase its suite of such offerings three-fold. The products Fidelity may potentially seek to list as active ETFs include the Fidelity Asia Fund, Fidelity Australian Opportunities Fund, Fidelity Global Future Leaders Fund and Fidelity India Fund, the Financial Standard reports.

Hong Kong’s spot Bitcoin ETF launches are becoming a bit of a damp squib. According to data compiled by Farside Investors, the three spot Bitcoin ETFs that launched on April 30 have attracted a total of $262 million in assets, the vast majority of which was subscribed to before the listing. Meanwhile, their asset inflows amounted to less than $14 million in the first week of launch.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched an industry-wide review of the UCITS Eligible Assets rules.The European financial watchdog issued a call for evidence looking into the eligibility of assets including structured and leveraged loans, AT1 bonds, commodities, crypto assets and emission allowances. Considering that the last time such an update of the rules took place was in 2007, it’s certainly time for a dusting off of the old rule book.

Career corner

Movers and Shakers

• Cinthia Murphy has joined VettaFi from Tidal in a new position as VettaFi Voice Investment Strategist
• Dovile Silenskyte has joined Wisdomtree Europe as Director of Digital Asssets Research
• JJ Williams has joined Fidelity as ETF Strategist in Chicago

Salary Trends

Our recent ETF salary survey has already revealed some interesting trends. We’ll be sharing more details over the coming weeks to help you know your worth.

• The average base salary across the ETF industry is $171k
• The average bonus is $128k
• The average total comp $300k
• Women are paid on average 20% less than men

Tip of the week

Why you should always take a call from a Recruiter.

As long as you work for someone else, it means you will always be vulnerable. While things may be good today, it doesn’t mean the same will hold true tomorrow. Most large firms aim to serve their shareholders, not their employees so if they need to let you go, they will.

Loyalty in the workplace is only for the naïve. As an employee, your loyalty is to yourself. So:

• Always keep your options open
• Always keep your finger on the pulse of the market and
• Always know what your worth is