It’s the time of year when you look back at all that’s been accomplished. VettaFi’s covered strong net inflows into fixed income ETFs, covered call funds, and many, many, many new product launches. But VettaFi also accomplished a lot as a firm.
For example, we hosted approximately 230 virtual events that were attended live by more than 60,000 people. This stemmed from more than 100,000 registrants. Some other highlights from our firm are covered in this thank-you video:
However, I want to recap our year using eight of my articles.
The Best Conference for Advisors to Exchange Ideas
In February 2023, VettaFi hosted a four-day Exchange conference in Miami. The preconference included a meet-the-press panel hosted by Bob Pisani, ethics training, and an ETF university to bring advisors up to speed. The latter was hosted by VettaFi Editor in Chief Lara Crigger and me. But we were joined by industry experts from Astoria Advisors, Bloomberg, CFRA, ETF Store, FactSet, Tidal Financial Group, and others.
See related: A Day in the Educational Life
Exchange was not only educational for me and the hundreds of advisors in attendance, it was also an opportunity to support the community through charity and networking. I was able to participate in a walk to help fight breast cancer, a youth mentoring session, and a meeting for Women in ETFs. There was also a beach cleanup walk that I missed out on.
See related: A Day in the Communal Life
Are you one of the approximately 450 advisors that signed up to attend Exchange 2024 (February 11-14)? Do you work for one of the more than 70 industry partners that has passes? If not, you should register today, as the fresh agenda looks amazing, and VettaFi has a lot of cool things planned.
VettaFi Keeps Growing in Size
Formed in May 2022, VettaFi has continued to grow. In April 2023, VettaFi acquired the ROBO Global suite of indexes. One of the more popular thematic ETFs, the now 10-year-old ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO ) follows a VettaFi index. In addition, the ROBO Global Healthcare Technology and Innovation ETF (HTEC ) and the +ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence ETF+ (THNQ ) follow benchmarks that are part of the VettaFi family. Artificial intelligence in particular is a key theme many advisors told VettaFi they are watching heading into 2024.
See related: ROBO Global Joins VettaFi Index Lineup
In September 2023, VettaFi acquired EQM Indexes. The +Amplify Online Retail ETF+ (IBUY ), the Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF (BATT ), the GraniteShares HIPS US High Income ETF (HIPS ), and the MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF (MUSQ ) are examples of ETFs tracking EQM Indexes.
See related: EQM Indexes Now Part of VettaFi
I love this quote from the VettaFi-EQM announcement: “A great investment idea can often remain just that: an idea. But with a well-constructed index, great investment ideas can become great investments,” explained Brian Coco, head of index products at VettaFi. As of early December, VettaFi indexes supported $30 billion in assets , led in part by the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP ) and the ALPS Sector Dividend Dogs (SDOG ).
VettaFi Wins Research Award Again
However, our research team further supports education across the ETF landscape. For example, we regularly write about actively managed ETFs and ETFs that track indexes from Bloomberg, FTSE Russell, Nasdaq, S&P Global, and many others.
Indeed, the breadth and depth of our ETF coverage, from a range of VettaFi Voices, was once again recognized. VettaFi recently won its second consecutive ETF Express Award in 2023 for Best Research.
See related: ETF Express Award
Advisors Are Learning Digitally Before Exchange
Earlier, I mentioned virtual events. We have hosted more than 200 of them this year. Advisors attend for insights, investment ideas, and continuing education credits. Asset managers like to work with us because we make it easy for them through marketing and event production. In addition, our moderator lineup — Lara Crigger, Tom Lydon, Dave Nadig, Robert Huebscher, and me — brings decades of ETF experience to the discussion. But in mid-2023, we started a new program: a monthly symposium. For two or three hours, we cover a range of investment styles under one broad topic.
For example, in July, we covered fixed income. We dove into government bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, CLOs, and more.
See related: VettaFi Fixed Income Symposium Preview
In September, we moved to equities. VettaFi heard from active managers on the best places to invest across large-caps, sectors, and thematic strategies. We also talked about index-based small-cap and equity income strategies.
See related: VettaFi Equities Symposium Preview
In November, we looked closely at alternative investments. These included a focus on commodities, cryptocurrency, private equity and real estate.
See related: VettaFi Alternatives Symposium Preview
One More Symposium to Wrap Up 2023
We have our final Symposium of 2023 on December 14. With the help of Jeremy Siegel and partners from Bitwise, BNY, Calamos Investments, Invesco, and others, we will offer a market outlook. While 2023 has been a great one, we know 2024 is going to be different. I hope to see you there and then at Exchange in February.
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