Show Notes
The ETF industry is on pace for another record year of launches. But there’s another record within reach: closures. About 250 funds have already been laid to rest in 2026, including leveraged bets that barely survived infancy and funds tied to ESG, the metaverse and cannabis. With about 2,500 products now buried in the ETF Graveyard, launching a fund is clearly no guarantee of longevity.
On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber — joined by Andre Yapp, a senior ETF research associate with Bloomberg Intelligence, and Todd Sohn, ETF strategist at Baird Strategas — take another tour through the ETF Graveyard. They examine which strategies died out this year, why leveraged ETFs account for so many of the casualties, and which funds closed despite having substantial assets or strong returns. And because some ETF ideas refuse to stay dead, they nominate a few fallen funds that might someday join the “Lazarus list” and get resurrected. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Trillions
A new ETF seeded with $2.5 billion from the University of California's investment arm invests 90% in the S&P 500 and 10% in short-term bonds — essentially the same allocation Warren Buffett has recommended for his own family. At the other end of the spectrum, there’s now an exchange-traded product offering pre-IPO exposure to Anthropic — and another ETF that allows for a "highly speculative" bet on the S&P 500. On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber — joined by Bloomberg TV markets reporter Isabelle Lee — run through the latest ETFs to watch. They discuss the arrival of the State Street SPDR UC Investments 90/10 ETF (UCBG), a European product offering synthetic exposure to private AI giant Anthropic (CLAU), and an options-based ETF from Roundhill designed for investors betting that the S&P 500 will reach 10,000 by 2030 (XX). They also discuss a new ETF combining the S&P 500 with a managed-futures strategy (SPXP). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In sports, wins and losses determine standings. Soon they could help determine something else: a price. A group of financial firms is trying to turn sports results and statistics into something investors can actually trade. The idea starts with indexes that measure the performance of individual teams, creating the foundation for futures, ETFs and potentially an entirely new asset class built around sports.
Less than a year ago, Corgi Invest launched its first ETF. It now has more than 200, with hundreds more registered and potentially on the way. If they all make it to market, Corgi could soon offer more ETFs than BlackRock. The strategy is audacious: Launch as many products as possible, compete aggressively on price and see what catches on. Or, as the company's new chief investment officer puts it, try to become the Walmart of ETFs.
The 60/40 portfolio has been Investing 101 for generations. So why are ETF investors now closer to 80/20? Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic lawmakers don't agree on much — but their portfolios have some surprising stocks in common. And then there's September, historically the market's worst month but one of the busiest times of the year for new ETF launches.
A decade ago, Nvidia was the 387th-biggest stock in the market. Before it became the world’s most valuable company, some of the biggest active managers were buying it on the way up. In the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko had a code phrase for that kind of valuable tip: “Blue Horseshoe likes Anacott Steel.” Insider trading is illegal, of course. But the rise of active ETFs has created a perfectly legal way to peek at what some of the world’s biggest stock pickers are buying — every single day.