Welcome to the ETF Prime Podcast

One of the “most helpful plain-English resources for investors who want to demystify exchange-traded funds” – Bloomberg Businessweek

Latest Episode

GraniteShares’ Will Rhind on Rise of Options-Based ETFs

Will Rhind, Founder & CEO of GraniteShares, dives into their YieldBOOST lineup of ETFs and offers perspective on the growing demand for options-based ETF strategies overall. Zeno Mercer, Senior Research Analyst at VettaFi, breaks down one of the hottest segments in the market: artificial intelligence ETFs. He covers fund flows, performance trends, and the key drivers behind investor interest.

About the Podcast

ETF Prime is hosted by Nate Geraci. Learn how to make ETFs a part of your investment portfolio as Nate spotlights individual ETFs and interviews experts from across the country. ETF Prime is available on Apple Podcasts, Android, Spotify, and most other major podcasting platforms. Specific guest interviews can be accessed by visiting the ETF Expert Corner.

Recent Episodes

Victims of Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme Should Have Invested in ETFs

Nate Geraci January 8, 2011

The cost and tax advantages of ETFs compared to mutual funds are well known. A less well known benefit is their transparency. Unlike the holdings in a mutual fund, which are only published four times a year, the holdings of an ETF are published every day. As this Arizona Republic article so explains, with ETFs you won’t be surprised when your mutual fund manager invests in things you don’t know about. This kind of visibility makes ETFs perfect for someone who wants something “180 degrees different from what Madoff was up to.”

“When we see people moving to stock funds, they’re not using conventional funds – they’re using ETFs”

Nate Geraci January 6, 2011

Here at the ETF Store, we believe asset allocation is the most important investment decision and the primary determinant of long term investment success. We believe that ETFs are generally the best investment vehicle to use in investment portfolios because they are inexpensive, tax efficient and well diversified.

We are evidently not alone in that opinion as assets invested in ETFs recently topped $1 trillion for the first time. ETF assets grew nearly 30% during 2010 and are expected to grow over 20% a year for many years to come. As a Lipper research manager says in this USA Today article, “When we see people moving to stock funds, they’re not using conventional funds – they’re using ETFs.”

ETF Expense Ratios Headed to Zero?

Nate Geraci January 5, 2011

There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal about the price wars between different ETF issuers and what it means for investors. ETFs have been cheaper than mutual funds for a long time. Now the cost differentials are widening and there is speculation that some ETFs will ultimately have expense ratios of zero. The article notes that the average expense ratio of an actively managed US domestic equity mutual fund is 1.38%. That is an AVERAGE. Currently an investor can get broad exposure to the total US stock market via an ETF at a cost of 0.06% (and it may soon be 0.00%!).

Lipper: Mutual Funds Throw Away Nearly 1/2 of Your Investment Gains

Nate Geraci November 17, 2010

“Taxable investors (those who hold their investments in taxable accounts) owned approximately half of the $11.268 trillion invested in open-end mutual funds, and on average over the last ten years they gave up on an annual basis 0.98 percentage point to 2.08 percentage points in return because of taxes. Taxable equity and fixed income mutual fund shareholders surrendered over 49% and approximately 40%, respectively, of their load adjusted ten-year returns because of taxes.”

Lipper Research, “Taxes in the Mutual Fund Industry–2010: Assessing the Impact of Taxes on Shareholder Returns”

A Great Article in Barron’s This Week For Anyone Who Still Only Invests in Mutual Funds

Nate Geraci November 14, 2010

You can find the story here.