BusinessInvestingNewsBusiness NewsNews Commentary

Trillions

Bloomberg

Money goes where it’s treated best. That simple truth is a big reason why more and more money (trillions, in fact) flows into a powerful, low-cost tool that’s quietly transformed investing. Exchange-traded funds let you invest in everything from the stock market to gold like never before. This biweekly podcast will demystify them—and hopefully delight you in the process.

Play

Open in

25 episodes
weekly
Avg 25 min
English

Episodes 25

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Yesterday · 24 min
Vanguard’s Plateau Is Exactly What Jack Bogle Wanted
Today, Vanguard is synonymous with low-cost index investing. But as the firm marks 50 years since the launch of the first index fund, something surprising has happened: After decades of relentless gains, Vanguard’s share of the fund industry has plateaued. For most companies, that would be bad news. Yet Jack Bogle might have seen it differently. More than 30 years ago, Vanguard’s founder said he’d know his mission was succeeding when competitors became so cheap that Vanguard itself began losing market share. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber — joined by Bloomberg News cross-asset reporter Isabelle Lee — revisit Bogle’s legacy. They trace the unlikely rise of the index fund, why it took decades to catch on and how Vanguard’s low-cost model eventually forced the rest of Wall Street to change. They also explore what Vanguard’s plateau means now that the Bogle Effect has become so much bigger than Vanguard itself. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 3 · 17 min
An ETF for a Wild Oil Market
Oil has been one of the wildest trades of the year, surging and retreating as US tensions with Iran — and US President Donald Trump's endless hopes for a deal — have repeatedly whipsawed markets. For traders, the go-to exchange-traded fund for playing those moves has long been the United States Oil Fund (USO). But another, lesser-known fund has been gaining momentum. The USCF Energy Commodity Strategy Absolute Return Fund (USE) can go long or short across a range of energy commodities, offering investors a more dynamic way to play the oil market. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by Bloomberg Intelligence's Andre Yapp to explain why USE is the ETF of the moment. They explore how its active strategy differs from USO, what “absolute return” actually means, and why trading oil through futures comes with risks most investors rarely encounter. They also dig into one potentially attractive feature of USE: Unlike USO, it won't leave investors dealing with the dreaded K-1 tax form. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 27 · 16 min
Can You Put Sports Into an ETF Yet?
The ETF industry has packaged everything from stocks and bonds to Bitcoin and leveraged bets on individual companies. So why not your favorite sports team? New filings from Volatility Shares would create ETFs tied to the performance of each NHL franchise. And those filings are just the latest sign that the worlds of ETFs and sports betting may start to converge. On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber is joined by Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Athanasios Psarofagis to examine the growing lineup of sports-themed ETF filings. They break down how the proposed NHL funds would work, review the filings for prediction market ETFs, discuss another filing for an actively managed fund that would essentially make sports bets on investors' behalf, and explore why ETFs face significant competition from existing sports offerings. None of these products has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but if history is any guide, it may be too early to bet against them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 20 · 21 min
Another ETF Triple Crown? Plus a Global Bull Market and More
The ETF industry had a record year in 2025. Somehow, 2026 is shaping up to be even bigger. More than $1 trillion has already poured into ETFs, launches continue at a breakneck pace and trading volume is on track for another record — putting the industry within reach of an unprecedented back-to-back “Triple Crown.” But the boom isn't just about more money and more funds. Some of the most interesting action is happening in places that looked settled not long ago. On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber is joined by Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Athanasios Psarofagis to spotlight five themes defining the ETF market right now. They examine the industry's record-setting run, a bull market that's gone global, Goldman's sudden appetite for ETF acquisitions, and new battles over the marquee S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes. Plus, they look at one of the year's more surprising comeback stories. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 13 · 30 min
351 Conversions: Smart Tax Alpha Strategy or Loophole in the Code?
ETFs are already famous for their tax efficiency, but a growing corner of the market is pushing those benefits further than ever. What if you could sell a massive stock position without paying taxes on it - at least not yet? Welcome the 351 conversions - custom built funds that allow investors to swap concentrated stock positions into diversified portfolios without paying gains taxes. On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber and Eric Balchunas dig into the growing world of 351 conversion ETFs and how it actually works. Bloomberg News reporters Denitsa Tsekova and Zachary Mider, two of the journalists behind the story "The Latest Tax Dodge For the Ultra-Rich Is a Customized ETF,” join the conversation. Is this a smart tax alpha strategy or a cheat code in the tax system? Where will the IRS draw the line? They break down how the 351 conversion actually works, why the Treasury officials are taking closer look and how billionaires like the family behind the Hot Pockets are using them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 6 · 20 min
New ETFs to Watch: A Nasdaq 100 Challenger, the SK Hynix Smackdown and…a Multi-Token Wildcard?
The ETF market is on pace for a record year - not just in the number of launches but also for the range of issuers entering the market. With competition intensifying, there’s no shortage of noteworthy funds to keep an eye on. In this week’s ETFs to Watch episode, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by Bloomberg news cross-asset reporter Isabelle Lee to break down the standout launches at the moment. They break down iShares’ and State Street’s long-awaited challenge to Invesco’s Nasdaq-100 dominance and the winner of the US-listed 2x leveraged SK Hynix ETFs smackdown. They also discuss the first actively managed multi-token ETF from T Rowe Price and whether Y’all Street Physical Gold ETF’s pitch for investors to store their gold in American soil is actually a good idea. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
July 23 · 29 min
How Leveraged ETFs Became Wall Street's New Obsession
The confluence of single-stock ETFs and leverage has reached a fever pitch this year. Products tied to companies like SpaceX, Micron and SK Hynix are proliferating, attracting billions of dollars from traders — and raising concerns they're beginning to influence the very stocks they're meant to track. In some markets — we're looking at you, South Korea — regulators have even stepped in to pause new launches. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart and Baird Strategas ETF strategist Todd Sohn about what's fueling the boom, how these products actually work, and whether fears that they're becoming a threat to markets are justified — or overblown. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
July 16 · 45 min
Tokenization, Digital Twins and the Future of ETFs
Tokenization has been a Wall Street buzzword, only now it's becoming real. Beginning this summer, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation — a little-known utility at the center of the US financial system that processed securities quadrillion in transactions — will begin creating blockchain-based "digital twins" of stocks, bonds and ETFs. The goal isn't to replace traditional investments, but to make them more portable, programmable and useful in ways that haven't been possible before. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by DTCC's global head of digital assets, Nadine Chakar, along with Bloomberg News reporter Isabelle Lee, to unpack what tokenization actually means. They explore how ETFs could evolve in a tokenized world, why investors might eventually want a digital wallet alongside a brokerage account, and whether blockchain technology represents the biggest challenge — or the biggest opportunity — the ETF industry has faced since its inception. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
July 9 · 19 min
Which ETF Won Big With Trump Accounts?
The new Trump Accounts are designed to give millions of American children a head start in the stock market. Besides the kids who are eligible for $1,000 in free money, there's another surprise winner: the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM). Thanks to its rock-bottom 0.02% fee, the fund has become the default investment for the new accounts — a designation that could funnel tens of billions of dollars its way and even reshape the competitive landscape for S&P 500 funds. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber explain why SPYM is the ETF of the Moment. They unpack how Trump Accounts work and how they could reshape stock ownership in the US. Then they explore SPYM's surprising backstory, its rivalry with its older sibling, State Street's legendary SPY, and why the policy could, in Balchunas's view, ultimately make the US stock market "too big to fail." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
July 2 · 45 min
Will the SEC Approve Prediction Market ETFs This Year?
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 SEC's Division of Investment Management, to discuss the explosion of "novel" ETFs, why the agency hit pause on prediction-market funds, and what it's learned from its handling of crypto ETFs. Daly offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how ETF filings are reviewed, explains why the SEC wants a more predictable process for evaluating new products, and discusses how regulators are balancing innovation with investor protection. Bloomberg News SEC and CFTC reporter Lydia Beyoud joins the conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
June 25 · 20 min
New ETFs to Watch: 2x SpaceX, -3x AI, Plus Bonds and Bitcoin
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 Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber — joined by Bloomberg News cross-asset reporter Isabelle Lee — dig into some new ETFs to watch. They discuss which leveraged SpaceX fund may emerge as the winner (SPCU), how to bet against AI (AIQD), Vanguard's long-awaited entry into high-yield bonds (VCHY), another addition to Corgi's rapidly expanding lineup (CBIL), and a Bitcoin fund (BTCK) that may have arrived a little late to the party. (Removes incorrect reference to AIQD in podcast published June 25, 2026.) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
June 19 · 32 min
Clash of the Titans: BlackRock and Vanguard LIVE
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 speak with Manuela Sperandeo, co-head of European iShares at BlackRock, and Jonathan Cleborne, managing director for Vanguard Europe. They discuss the rise of ETFs in Europe, passive investing in a market increasingly dominated by a handful of giant companies, and what it's like to compete with one another. This episode was recorded live at the ETFs in Depth Conference at Bloomberg's London headquarters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
June 11 · 13 min
ETF of the Moment: Software Isn't Dead, Yet
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, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence ETF associate Andrey Yapp about another ETF that's having a moment: Themes Cloud Computing ETF (ticker CLOD). They discuss what makes the ETF's holdings interesting, how recent earnings challenged the AI-doom narrative, and how such a tiny fund emerged as one worth watching. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
June 4 · 24 min
The Biggest IPO Ever Meets Passive Investing
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 Sharoon Francis to unpack the dawn of the mega-cap IPO. They explore how index providers are rewriting decades-old rules to accommodate SpaceX, why passive funds could become some of its biggest buyers, which ETFs and mutual funds already have exposure to the company, and what it all means as other private giants — including OpenAI and Anthropic — prepare to enter the public markets. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
May 28 · 15 min
New ETFs to Watch: POETs, HALOs and Corgis
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 "ETFs to Watch" episode, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber are joined by Isabelle Lee, a cross-asset reporter with Bloomberg News, to break down a few new launches fighting for investor attention. They discuss Defiance's POET ETF (ticker POEL); Corgi's lithography and photonics fund (ticker EUV); Hexis's nicotine-focused ETF (ticker NICO); and Roundhill's "real world assets" HALO strategy (ticker LOHA). Along the way they make some detours to discuss leveraged IPO mania, Reddit skeptics, and, well, corgis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
May 21 · 32 min
The Big Long: Risk and Reward With Ben Carlson
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 speak with Carlson about his new book, which implores you to stop panicking and just stay the course. They discuss the genius of boring index funds, "fun accounts" as a behavioral release valve, whether buffer ETFs are financial Xanax and how the ETF wrapper may help turn tax efficiency into the new alpha. They also drill into Carlson's other big launch: Goaltender (GTND), a new ETF from Ritholtz, and go over why wealth managers are becoming ETF issuers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
May 14 · 12 min
ETF of the Moment: A Budding Comeback for Cannabis
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 an ETF that’s having a moment. This time, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Andre Yapp joins to break down the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS). The only cannabis-focused ETF with more than $1 billion in assets, it uses swaps to access marijuana companies just as shifting tax rules begin to ease the industry’s burden. The setup looks promising—but is this a real turning point, or just another short-lived high? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
May 7 · 22 min
How to Invest During a Trump Presidency
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 with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Athanasios Psarofagis about what ETF data actually says about investing during a Trump presidency. His grab bag of stats — March is cursed, Thursdays are rough and some of the biggest gains happen while you sleep — paints a picture of a market behaving very differently under pressure. Together, they unpack why it feels more volatile than ever and explore why the investors who come out ahead are often the ones who do the least. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
April 30 · 11 min
ETFs to Watch From Morgan Stanley, Vanguard and ... Pzena?
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 hits, future mainstays or squarely in the “good luck with that” camp, the goal is to figure out what distinguishes them — and how they might help (or hurt) investors. Isabelle Lee, a cross-asset reporter for Bloomberg News, joins to discuss a late Bitcoin arrival, a rare launch and an expensive swing at value investing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
April 23 · 21 min
The Memory AI Trade
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 of the market that’s been hard for investors to access in a targeted way. Until now. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence semiconductor analyst Jake Silverman to unpack the explosive debut of the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which pulled in $1 billion in just 10 days. They break down why this fund could become one of the most successful thematic exchange-traded funds ever, what actually makes memory different from other chips, and why—despite its critical role in AI—it still trades a lot like a commodity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 25 episodes