Of course, as firms begin to offer more ETF products at lower prices, it puts smaller companies at odds against the larger financial giants that can swallow up market share. For consumers, this provides more alternatives, but it could pose a challenge to ETF providers–a topic to tackle during the conference.
Future Trends in ETFs
Some hot topics at the conference include up and coming ETF sectors that are still in their nascent stages of growth. This includes niche ETFs that focus on sectors like disruptive technology and ESG.
Whether society wants it or not, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or any other type of disruptive technology is the next wave of innovation. For investors who missed out on the serendipitous run of FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) stocks, they can look to capitalize on disruptive tech options in 2019.
Although the idea of socially responsible ETFs that focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) is not relatively new, it’s still struggling to break into the investment mainstream, particularly in the fixed-income space. This is exactly what the next generation of financial advisors are clamoring for according to a survey by Incapital LLC, a leading underwriter and distributor of fixed income securities.
Among financial advisors with three to nine years of experience, 99 percent of those using individual bonds discussed the topic of social impact and ESG goals with their clients. This represents a 25 percent increase compared to advisors with over 10 years of industry experience.
To Lydon, however, future trends can be had in a variety of sectors, which will no doubt be discussed as the Inside ETFs conference is in the midst of its second day of what will be an interesting four days as the conference runs until February 13.
“It’s communication, it’s going to be technology, it’s going to be more FAANG stocks and we’ll talk about that later” said Lydon.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.