ETF conferences through the years

I have a couple of teenagers and do not want to go too far down a rabbit hole on things I think they could be doing better with their time. The bigger picture is that they are (generally) happy and healthy, so I really should not complain too much, especially given what I frequently hear from my friends about their teenagers. I can already picture many of my readers nodding in agreement.

Our neighbors across the street are a little earlier in their parenting journey—the age difference between their oldest and my youngest is around seven years. I thoroughly enjoy chatting with them when we see them returning from school or soccer practice and often those chats turn to conversations about parenting challenges. I had always thought that with little kids you got little problems and with bigger kids, bigger problems. But recently, I started realizing that’s not exactly accurate.

I would listen to our neighbors complain about the state of their front yard, with balls and monster trucks everywhere. Then walking into my own house, I’d see shoes and backpacks strewn about everywhere except the closet. They would complain about the challenges of getting their kids to go to sleep. Meanwhile, my kids routinely push the limits of bedtime for another few minutes of watching their phones or TV. They are exhausted on Sunday after a full weekend of kid sports—as are we! Maybe, seven years later, things are not so different after all.

The more things change…

I just finished attending one of the larger exchange-traded fund (ETF) conferences of the year and was eager to get a sense of the hot new topics pulsing through the industry. Listening (and participating) in the content, I could not help but feel that some of the panels and discussions were vaguely familiar. Yes, there was certainly chatter about new topics, such as ETF share classes. But overall, the themes seem consistent to past years.

Out of sheer curiosity and sticking with the age difference of the neighbor’s kids, I dug through my inbox to find the agenda from one of the larger 2018 ETF conferences. I could not believe the topics that were on our industry’s radar even back then (these are actual panel titles):

• Is now the time for active management?
• The next big idea, artificial intelligence, new alpha and the future of investing
• Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ETFs and the future of finance
• Understanding alternative ETFs

Topics that are hot today were already part of the dialogue seven years ago. Maybe that’s somewhat to be expected given the maturation of the ETF industry—US ETF assets are over $10 trillion, with 2025 net inflows on pace to exceed $1 trillion again.¹ Yes, there will always be some newer topics—for example, private credit ETFs—but the major themes are not going to change quickly. Active ETFs are a great example of a trend that was on the industry’s radar about a decade ago but is really becoming mainstream now. Active strategies now represent 40% of the $300 billion of net inflows this year.² I think that growth will only continue.

One other takeaway from the conference is that I feel folks ask fewer questions about whether certain ETFs are sufficiently liquid. A decade ago, there were multiple panels on ETF trading and liquidity. Heck, when I started this blog nine years ago, a main goal was to dispel many of the trading misconceptions around ETF liquidity, especially when using metrics like volume, assets under management (AUM) or bid/ask spread. Now, I’d like to think that investors are comfortable trading any ETF, even those with smaller AUM. The conversation has instead migrated toward which specific strategies work best for varying sizes. Less “Can I?” and more “How should I?”

Nine years and over 100 blogs later, that’s a development that makes me smile. On that note, off to spring break with my crazy kids.