ETF Express Newsletter 13.09.24

Investors get defensive

Back in August, we reported on investors reflecting their fears of market volatility by moving into volatility ETFs and here they are, back again, as displayed in the Trackinsight data we have carried this week.
And defensive moves have also reappeared for investors in terms of the popularity of defence ETFs this week, as mentioned in HANetfs’ latest Thematic & Digital Assets Review. Their latest survey found that 94 per cent of respondents believe that investing in defence stocks can be compatible with ESG principles. The HANetf Future of Defence UCITS ETF (NATO) screens only for companies domiciled in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allied countries.
In August, we reported that The VanEck Defense UCITS ETF from asset manager VanEck had doubled its fund volume to USD1 billion in just under four months, after reaching the USD500 million mark in April 2024 and now we have two new ETFs in Europe from Global X ETFs, AIQU and ARMR, which focus on AI and the defence industry. The firm writes that these ETFs are tailored to offer European investors access to two evolving sectors, both of which are becoming increasingly interlinked due to the rapid development of technology.
Our interview this week is with Mike Venuto, co-founder and CIO at Tidal Financial Group, which has announced that it recently reached a new milestone, having supported the launch of 50 ETFs in 2024, more than any other white label ETF provider year-to-date, the firm says. "The common thread we are seeing right now is that everyone wants to launch an active product," Venuto says. "We’re seeing more complex funds too. We did a managed futures fund. We’re doing return stacking funds, options strategies – things like that."
And talking about options strategies, we have Bloomberg Intelligence’s Jackson Gutenplan writing about the boom in demand for options strategy-based ETFs in the US. The participants in the panels at last year’s IM Power Fund Forum all wanted to talk about defined outcome ETF products, and Gutenplan reports that they were on the money.
BI’s data shows that inflows to ETFs implementing equity options strategies have ballooned over the past three years, with 110 funds now holding at least USD200 million in assets, accounting for USD120 billion in assets under management. The strategy saw nearly USD4 billion in net inflows in July and USD24 billion through 2024’s first seven months.
This is the last week in which to place your votes in the ETF Express US Awards for 2024. You can vote for your favourite ETF service providers and issuers, based on data provided by Tracksight, in the US market, using this link. Please click here to vote on the shortlists for the ETF Express US Awards 2024.
Finally, we can offer readers wishing to attend the RIA Edge West event in Marina del Rey, California in October, a discount of 20 per cent using this code – ETF2024Exp. The event details are here.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor
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