On this week’s episode of ETF Prime, Kirsten Chang, senior industry analyst at VettaFi, joins host Nate Geraci to highlight key takeaways from VettaFi’s Midyear Market Outlook Symposium. Later, Lance Humphrey from Victory Capital discusses the VictoryShares ETF lineup and offers insights into the current market environment.
Highlights From VettaFi's Midyear Market Outlook Symposium
More than 1,200 advisors registered for VettaFi’s Midyear Market Outlook Symposium, and nearly 500 advisors attended live. The event covered topics such as the macro environment, international investing, thematic ETFs, and AI.
Chang had several key takeaways from the event, but right off the bat she noted the strong interest in investment-grade bonds and muni securitized debt notable.
“Obviously, the market’s near-record size, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty out there between the Fed fighting inflation, the tariff rhetoric softening but still a lot of question marks in the air,” she said. “IG corporates have remained resilient, with attractive spreads. Yields are actually close to cycle highs. For long-term investors, locking in yields of over 5%-6% makes a lot of sense.”
Next, Chang noted that thematic ETFs are seeing a comeback, focusing on long-term structural trends.
“Spot bitcoin ETFs [are] topping the flow charts this year,” she highlighted as an example of investors looking to thematics for outperformance.
Finally, investors are watching international markets but hesitant to fully invest, Chang said.
“It’s interesting to see that U.S. exceptionalism story kind of fade to the back burner,” she added. “On a performance basis, European stocks have outshone the U.S. this year and appear well on track to continue doing so, but investors have still been severely under-allocated to these markets.”
The Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK ), the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM ), and the Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF (AVEM ) have seen some flows, but it’s not substantial just yet.
Victory Capital Focuses on Innovative FCF Strategies
Lance Humphrey joined to discuss Victory Capital’s ETF strategy, which focuses on active and systematic rules-based approaches. The firm aims to improve existing investment ideas rather than creating entirely new concepts.
Humphrey highlighted the VictoryShares Free Cash Flow ETF (VFLO ) and the VictoryShares Free Cash Flow Growth ETF (GFLW), two funds in the firm’s free cash flow (FCF) ETF lineup. VFLO focuses on FCF yield with a portfolio of 50 stocks. It incorporates forward-looking estimates and growth metrics and is designed to provide balanced returns across value and growth markets.
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