Trillions

The ETF wrapper has become investing's Swiss Army knife, packaging everything from stocks and bonds to gold and Bitcoin — and now, perhaps, even prediction markets. As issuers race to push the boundaries of what's possible, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission are rewriting their playbook in real time.

On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber sit down with Brian Daly, Director of the ...

SpaceX's record IPO quickly turned into a feeding frenzy in the ETF industry. Within days, about a dozen leveraged funds tied to the company — many of them almost identical — launched at the same time, setting off a battle for assets, attention and trading volume. The frenzy is reminiscent of the rush to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs. And obviously there are many other noteworthy new ETF launches.

On this episode of Tri...

In the asset management industry, there are two undisputed heavyweights: BlackRock and Vanguard. They rival each other in almost every category, but this month Vanguard overtook BlackRock as the largest US ETF issuer — a title BlackRock had held for two decades. Despite their dominance, the two firms have very different reputations, cultures and approaches.

On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber spea...

Earlier this year, investors got hammered by the "SaaSpocalypse." The rise of AI sparked fears that software companies would need fewer workers, sell fewer licenses and spend heavily on technology with uncertain payoffs. Yet just a few months later, one little-known ETF — with only $2.5 million in assets — is quietly suggesting that software's death may have been slightly exaggerated.

On this episode of Trillions...

SpaceX is finally going public — and at a valuation that's likely to make it one of the world's biggest companies the moment it hits the market. So what happens when a company worth as much as $2 trillion suddenly needs to be folded into indexes, ETFs, and portfolios built for a different era?

On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts James Seyffart and Sh...

The 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 "...

What 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 s...

A 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...

Markets 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 wit...

Every 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 hit...

For 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 o...

Just 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...

With 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 Trillio...

As 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 anal...

The 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 sp...

Gold and silver exchange-traded funds just experienced eye-popping trading volumes, with sharp price swings that drew in speculators chasing the momentum. The frenzy has cooled a bit, but the underlying forces haven’t disappeared. So what’s really behind the surge in precious metals—and is this just a tactical trade, or something more durable?

On this epi...

Cathie Wood is best known for exchange-traded funds, especially her flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). But ARK also runs a less familiar product: the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), an interval fund that holds stakes in private companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic—firms expected to make a splash when they go public, perhaps as soon as this year. The fund has quietly become one of the few act...

Venezuela bonds were up 100% even before the US ousted President Nicolás Maduro. Then they went up another 30%. And one actively-managed exchange-traded fund was positioned perfectly after buying the bonds in 2025.

On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Jim Craige, portfolio manager of the Virtus Stone Harbor Emerging Markets High Yield Bond ETF ($VEMY), and Damian Sassower, who oversees emer...

To kick off the new year, Bloomberg Intelligence has its annual list of ETFs for your stocking-shaped portfolio. While these aren't buy or sell market predictions, the funds are worthy of your watchlist as they may help investors tap into or navigate important themes. And you never know, a few of them could even have a breakout moment you'll find yourself humble-bragging about.

On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel ...