As someone very wise recently said to me when referring to the ETF market “the barrier to entry has never been lower but the barrier to success has never been higher”. How true is that.

Despite all the positive vibes about the market:

• It’s hard to scale
• It’s hard to get access to the big fund selectors and
• It’s hard to get access to Retail

So, when a small firm like Graniteshares announces it has surpassed USD5 billion in assets under management, then that is something everyone should stop and applaud because achieving that is no small feat and something firms a lot bigger than Graniteshares have struggled to achieve. Here’s to the little guy.

Launches this week

Flows & performance

Some big managers are having a stinker of a year.

In the week in which Wisdomtree and 21Shares listed crypto ETPs on the London Stock Exchange, it’s interesting to note that cryptocurrency ETPs across Europe continue to bleed assets with $270bn of outflows year to date.

But it’s not only Europe. Since their big launch a month ago the much-anticipated inflows from Hong Kong listed crypto’s have largely failed to materialise.

Things of interest

In the past two years, retirement investors have funneled over $20 billion into US Buffered ETFs taking market share from the annuities and structured notes market. The size of the market has grown to over 200+ defined outcome ETFs in the US, totaling a staggering $37bn and has enabled firms such as Vest, Allianz and Innovator to carve out a nice for themselves.

Despite such phenomenal growth the buffer ETF market has yet to really take off in Europe. First Trust and Global X have launched a few products but the flood of investors has yet to reach the same levels as we have seen in the US. As everything eventually finds its way across the pond, I’m sure it’s only going to be a matter of time before European investors wake up to this opportunity.

The Europe ETF market continues to attract new entrants with news that American Century Investments plans to launch a trio of actively managed equity strategies. The US firm intends to launch three Ireland-domiciled ETFs investing in global equities, global value smaller companies and emerging market equities. The funds will be managed by American Century’s quantitative investment unit, Avantis Investors, which is among the largest active equity ETF brands in the US.

Career corner

Movers and Shakers

• Euronext has hired Arnaud Llinas, former head of ETFs at Amundi, as their new head of ETFs and indices
• Ciaran Fitzpatrick has joined JP Morgan from State Street as global head of ETF product management in the securities services division
• Vivian Tung has joined MFS Investment Management from BNY Mellon to be part of their ETF Product team

Salary Trends from our 2024 salary survey

• Operation roles are the lowest paying in the industry, the average paying salary being $141k

Tip of the week

Building your brand will get you noticed.

Companies spend billions on brand building but as individuals its something we often don’t pay attention to.

Think of every famous person you know. Are they famous by accident or has their story and image been carefully curated over time?

A strong personal brand:

1. Gets you noticed in the work environment

2. Enhances your chances to get promoted

3. Strengthens your opportunities for getting headhunted

So don’t leave your personal brand to faith, work on it every single day.