Not even a quarter into 2025 and we’ve been on a roller coaster of economic and market events. It’s the perfect time for the Exchange conference, where advisors, issuers, and other market experts can come together and share ideas. These are just a few of the topics I’m looking forward to this year: 1) portfolio building; 2) international equity; and 3) disruptive technology/artificial intelligence.
1: When did we forget about the big picture?
Investors, advisors, and analysts are back to thinking “big picture.” It became a problem recently due to several exciting opportunities like bitcoin and AI-play Nvidia Corp (NVDA). Many investors piled into relatively large allocations, while pushing aside some principles of diversification.
While I’m still a believer of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence, the pullback in the market proves that we can no longer get away with riding on a single investment. Now we’re thinking about the whole portfolio — including international equity, alternatives, and more. How do we build a balanced portfolio in a world where stock picking comes easy through social media? Even among ETFs, there are over 4,000 choices — how do we pick the best options for building our portfolio?
You can find out more at my Sunday session at Exchange. I’m moderating a segment of a larger session on Sunday called ETF Portfolio Best Practices: Building & Trading. I will be moderating a segment with John Davi (CEO and CIO of Astoria Portfolio Advisors) and Alex Varner (director of research for Main Management).
2: Leaving home & looking internationally
For the past few years, many investors were stuck with a home bias in equity investments. Led by the same equity rally mentioned above, U.S. large-cap stocks were almost too good to be true — particularly the iterations of tech stocks like the MAANG, the Magnificent Seven, etc. But now as U.S. domestic equity has weakened in 2025, investors are regaining interest in international equity.
China has unexpectedly stolen the show after earlier tariff fears. Investors have shown interest in large-cap Chinese tech like the Roundhill China Dragons ETF (DRAG) and the KraneShares Hang Seng TECH Index ETF (KTEC ). Both are up 38% year-to-date (6th and 7th, respectively, by performance in the nonleveraged U.S. ETF universe).
Investors have since tried to diversify and turn their attention to broader China ETFs like the iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI ) and the Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (ASHR ) this past month. Also, European ETFs have dominated among the top performers. The Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense ETF (EUAD) and the Global X Defense Tech ETF (SHLD ) have stood out in particular as European countries gear up for potential geopolitical conflicts.
On Monday, I am moderating a session called International Equity: Time to Reduce Your Home Bias? with Eric Biegeleisen, CFA and Brent Leadbetter, CFA. Eric is partner and deputy CIO of 3EDGE Asset Management. Brent is partner and head of solutions distribution of Research Affiliates. They will discuss some of these trends and more surrounding the international equity space.
3: 2025 is not the end of disruptive tech
Long-term trends are still supporting artificial intelligence and the broader technology sector, despite the recent weakness. But there’s still room to diversify beyond some of the popular large-cap tech names into international technology and other disruptive tech/thematic trends to help cushion your portfolio while still capturing alpha.
These include digital payments (including digital assets) and e-commerce, which have the opportunity to grow alongside artificial intelligence as retailers, manufacturers, and other service providers become more intelligent.
On Tuesday, I will be moderating a session called Under-the-Radar Thematic Trends with Dominic Rizzo, CFA. Dominic is global technology portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price, where he manages the T. Rowe Price Technology ETF (TTEQ), an active global technology ETF.
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