Sometimes you wait for a bus for ages and then all of a sudden two of them come along together. It felt a bit like that this week in Europe when it was announced ARK Invest was taking over RIZE and then that Robeco would be launching a European ETF business. Both of these are Active managers so we can assume they will NOT be launching passive products.
The biggest problem in ETFs right now
Anyone reading this sits within the ETF bubble, and within the bubble we all assume a base level of knowledge of the ETF ecosystem. However, outside of the bubble, the level of knowledge around ETFs is pitifully low and we are not talking about the man and woman in the street, but professionals within the wider asset management space.
Back to school time
Coming back after the summer break always reminds us of the return to school, those dreaded back to school adverts, buying school uniforms and getting new books for the year ahead. Yuck
For those of you shuffling back into the office you missed out on last week’s big news. Grayscale gave the SEC a bloody nose and the price of Bitcoin took a jump as a result. High drama indeed. Who said summer was always a quiet time.
Why build an ETF business when you can simply buy one?
Firms are simply apprehensive in building it themselves and screwing it up and so are content to pay more to ensure this scenario does not materialise. Building it yourself is cheaper long term and you create more value, 100%. It’s been done many times and the path is clear.
Can the Boutique ETF manager swim with the sharks?
There is no doubt that this has been the year of Fixed Income so far. Record inflows ytd, BlackRock calling this a “once in a generation” opportunity in the fixed income space”. But, what about those boutique ETF managers who only focus on say Thematic products or equity exposure to a particular market?
Who would like to be a mutual fund manager CEO right now?
It has been forecasted that assets managed by model portfolios will surge to $10 trillion (€9.1 trillion) over the next five years and PWCs predicts that one in six global asset managers will ‘fall to the wayside’ by 2027.
US Bitcoin ETF application frenzy reminds us of Jaws
It has been wild since BlackRock submitted its application for a Bitcoin ETF. Seemingly, BlackRock received some pushback from the SEC, but crucially the SEC issued guidance around what they have a problem with which has not led to a bunch of managers revising their filing and resubmitting.
ETF managers are nothing if an opportunistic bunch
Following last week’s news that BlackRock had filed for a Spot ETF in the US there has been a scurry of activity from other managers following in their tracks all hoping to join the party on BlackRock’s coat tails.
Semi-Transparent ETFs are dead
This week T.Rowe Price launched a bunch of actively managed ETFs. Nothing unusual about that but in this case, these funds are fully transparent vs their existing funds which were semi-transparent. When was the last time anyone launched a semi-transparent ETF? A long time ago is our guess.
A humble apology to the CBI and an exciting new launch
Exciting news about seeing another entrant to the European ETF market with the launch of Circa 5000, and really cool to see them partner with Tumulo and become the UK’s first ETF range to provide pass-through voting to investors.
