6 Pundits Walk Into a Bar at Future Proof

In this episode of ETF Zoo, ETF.com hosts Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy are joined by Aniket Ullal of CFRA Research and Jeffrey Ptak of Morningstar to break down the market reaction to the midterm election. The S&P 500 rose nearly 2%, but the real story was under the surface. Hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google rallied, while chipmakers such as NVIDIA and Broadcom slid and neocloud CoreWeave dropped 16% in the immediate wake of the election. All but one of more than 50 data center referendums went the restrictive way, and the Zoo crew explores how a slower AI buildout could reshape winners and losers. They also discuss why AI-related debt flowing into corporate bond ETFs may actually benefit fixed income investors. From there, the conversation turns to bonds and the ever-expanding ETF universe. Jeff Ptak explains why investors finally appear to be getting paid for duration risk, and shares research showing that active managers beat their benchmarks less often than index trackers. The group weighs in on new credit default swap ETFs, the staying power of leveraged single-stock funds, and whether uncapped sector ETFs are just single-stock bets in disguise. They close with a skeptical look at 56 newly filed long-call option ETFs. Follow along with the conversation at https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-how-election-splits-big-tech

Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy are joined by Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas and Baird Strategas’s Todd Sohn to talk crypto as a portfolio asset, the (maybe) promise of Trump kid accounts, and why small-caps keep losing to megacap tech. The crew also tackles thematic ETF drawdowns, the boom in income products, and how the ETF industry is just getting weirder. Prefer to watch this episode? You can do that here: https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-crypto-concentration-and-brewing-etf-chaos

With the CLARITY Act dead, the SEC and CFTC are writing crypto rules on their own. Is that progress, or a pile of future lawsuits? ETF.com's Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy are joined by Nate Geraci (Novadius), Brent Sullivan (Tax Alpha Insider), and Mike Akins (ETF Action) to dig into Treasury's crackdown on 351 exchanges, box spreads, and dividend-avoidance ETFs. They also cover the shift in flows toward fixed income, the case against single-stock covered calls, and a wave of head-scratching launches, from a binary bet on S&P 10,000 to OpenAI exposure via perpetual futures swaps. Plus, the crypto rally that skipped Bitcoin, and the innovations that U.S. investors are missing out on. Want to watch this episode instead? You can do that here: https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-no-clarity-and-new-treasury-tax-crackdowns

We took the ETF Zoo podcast on the road with an all-star panel hosted by our own Dave Nadig at Future Proof. James Seyffart (Bloomberg), Cinthia Murphy (VettaFi), Ben Johnson (Morningstar), Sumit Roy (ETF.com), and Todd Sohn (Baird Strategas) join in for a fast-paced, paddle-vote lightning round through the industry's biggest debates: prospectus reading habits, the fee war, income-ETF hype, the M&A wave reshaping the issuer landscape, crypto allocations, and whether Jack Bogle would recognize (or despise) the ETF industry he helped create. Recorded live at Future Proof Festival, September 16, 2026.

M&A mania hits the ETF world as billions in deals reshape the landscape, plus a wild ride through hourly-reset leveraged ETFs, NHL sports-betting funds, the AI concentration problem, and why farmland might be the market's next big diversifier. ETF.com's Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy are joined this week by TMX VettaFi's Cinthia Murphy and Bloomberg Intelligence's James Seyffart to break down the good, the gimmicky, and the genuinely degenerate in this week's ETF Zoo. Prefer to watch this episode? You can do that here: https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-industry-scale-speculation-and-sports-betting

Goldman Sachs' $2.3 billion acquisition of Neos kicks off this episode of ETF Zoo. Hosts Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy of ETF.com or joined this week by Brent Sullivan, Editor of Tax Alpha Insider, and Todd Sohn, Chief ETF Strategist at Baird Strategas. The Zoo crew discusses if the acquisition is a smart bet on retiree income demand and the implications for the broader options income category which has seen parabolic growth in recent years. Are younger investors flocking to these funds because bonds are simply too boring? Todd Sohn also delves into the bizarre and concerning market phenomenon of consumer stocks disappearing from major indices as tech eats their spending share, and whether this year's small/mid-cap rally has real staying power. Things turn serious as Brent Sullivan previews Treasury's growing scrutiny of 351 exchanges, box spreads, and dividend-avoidance ETF structures. The crew also weighs in on a controversial Bloomberg feature spotlighting Cliff Asness on tax-aware investing. The episode closes with a cautionary tale: a Market Wizards-famous manager's ETF down roughly 97% this year after betting big on short-dated options.

This week, Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy are joined by Eric Balchunas (Bloomberg) and Tony Dong (ETF Central) for a wide-ranging look at where money is actually moving in the ETF market, and where it isn't. Despite a flat-to-down market swallowing this month's inflows, plain-vanilla giants like VOO, SPY, and VTI keep pulling in hundreds of billions, even as commodities, crypto, and factor strategies get largely ignored as diversifiers. From there, the group discusses the Roundhill DRAM memory-chip ETF, which broke the inflow record previously held by iShares' spot Bitcoin ETF, took a 40% price hit, and somehow kept nearly all its assets anyway in a case study in how sticky hot money has become. Things get more pointed as the Zoo crew debates the recent wave of leveraged single-stock ETFs tied to the SpaceX IPO, with Tony Dong questioning the wisdom of the products and Eric Balchunas offering a spirited defense of leveraged funds broadly, pointing to $65 billion in real investor gains from products like TQQQ. The back half of the episode covers the new Trump accounts for kids and their potential to reshape generational wealth transfer, why crypto ETF flows have gone quiet as Bitcoin sits well off its highs, and whether the recent strength in South Korea, Taiwan, and emerging markets finally signals a real rotation or just another short-lived narrative. Watch this conversation over at https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-leveraged-lunacy-surpasses-65b-gains New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe to stay on top of the flows, fads, and fundamentals moving the ETF market.

Dave Nadig and Sumit Roy of ETF.com, sit down this week with Cinthia Murphy (TMX VettaFi), Jeff Ptak (Morningstar), and Todd Sohn (Baird Strategas) to unpack a wild first half of 2026 for ETFs. On the table: a trillion dollars in inflows and counting, Jeff's fresh-off-the-Hill testimony before Congress, and a new SEC comment request that could reshape how novel products get approved. Plus, the crew breaks down the AI-fueled ETF leaderboard, the messy SpaceX access-fund saga ahead of its Nasdaq 100 buy-in, Micron's bizarre life as a value stock,"and why leveraged ETF trading volume (and a scrappy new low-cost issuer) has everyone talking. You can watch the video version of this conversation here: https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-mid-year-check-ai-trade-wont-quit

The ETF landscape continues to expand at an impressive rate, with over 5,400 ETFs trading and $1 trillion in flows notched at nearly the halfway point of 2026. Find out what this week's ETF Zoo crew thinks of leveraged ETF demand, thematics, and more in this episode of ETF Zoo. Host Dave Nadig, President & Director of Research at ETF.com is joined this week by freelancer Lara Crigger; Mike Akins, founding partner of ETF Action; and Todd Sohn, Senior ETF & Technical Strategist at Strategas Securities.  Follow along with the conversation at https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-leveraged-etf-frenzy-picks-momentum

Tech is dominating everything, and this week's ETF Zoo panel has thoughts. Dave Nadig, Sumit Roy of ETF.com, Cinthia Murphy of TMX VettaFi, and Todd Sohn of Strategas dig into the staggering $27 billion that has poured into tech ETFs since March, why semiconductors now dwarf the entire defensive sector, and whether this rally has any ceiling. Plus: Vanguard's VOO just crossed $1 trillion to dethrone SPY as the largest S&P 500 ETF. Find out what that milestone really tells us about where investing is headed. Bitcoin is losing the attention war to AI, the SpaceX IPO is raising serious red flags, and there's a quiet tax strategy called the 351 transfer that more advisors should probably know about. Watch the video version of this episode at https://www.etf.com/sections/podcasts/etf-zoo-what-happens-when-tech-eats-entire-market