Summary

The article discusses the potential for personalized ETFs, inspired by the launch of the BUZZ ETF, which tracks social media sentiment, and the transparency of investment strategies by firms like ARK Invest.

Abstract

The investing landscape is evolving, as evidenced by the recent introduction of the BUZZ ETF, which is associated with Barstool Sports' founder Dave Portnoy. This ETF tracks stocks with significant social media buzz, excluding high-profile meme stocks like GameStop due to its market cap requirement. The article ponders the idea of individual investors creating their own ETFs, similar to curating a music playlist on Spotify, allowing for sharing and transparency of investment choices. It suggests that platforms like M1 Finance could facilitate this concept by enabling users to build and share their investment portfolios. However, the article acknowledges potential issues with this idea, including resistance from large investment funds and regulatory challenges, as well as the social reluctance to share investment losses.

Opinions

The author finds the BUZZ ETF, which is not directly owned by Barstool but associated through Dave Portnoy's involvement, to be an intriguing concept that reflects the changing dynamics of investing.
There is an interest in the idea of personal ETFs, which would allow individuals to share their investment strategies and learn from others, much like sharing music playlists on

What if We All Made Our Own ETFs

A place to share investment ideas

The investing world is rapidly changing. Every week seems to offer something new. Yesterday a new ETF, BUZZ, launched.

BUZZ was referred to me by a friend as “Barstool’s ETF”. Just a few years ago who would’ve thought the media company producing content about sports and pop-culture would have an ETF.

BUZZ

It’s not entirely true that BUZZ is Barstool’s ETF. That’s a bit of an exaggeration.

The Van Eck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF (BUZZ) tracks stocks that are getting a lot of social media hype.

It contains about 75 stocks with the most bullish social media sentiment. Some include Twitter, DraftKings, American Airlines, Facebook, and Tesla. There is a $5 billion market cap requirement, so Reddit names like GameStop or AMC Entertainment don’t make the cut.

Barstool comes in because Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool, is part owner of Buzz Holdings, which owns the index the ETF is based on.

While it isn’t a Barstool ETF, Dave Portnoy is the face of Barstool, so any business with him is associated with Barstool.

The ETF itself is a really interesting idea. I can follow the logic; where attention goes, money flows. It will be interesting to see how the fund does. It’s also worth watching how it evolves down the line as social media changes. (Maybe one day they’ll track data from Medium.)

Individual ETFs

When I heard Barstool had an ETF it got me thinking, “what if everyone had their own ETF?”

I would love to tell people all my trades and thinking behind them. As well as follow my friends and other investors to see what they are doing with their money.

This concept isn’t too far off. Cathie Wood and her ARK ETFs update people every day on what they buy and sell. The only difference between me and ARK is they have billions of more dollars than me. And a whole team. And live and breathe investing. I’m sure the list goes on.

But imagine, bear with me here, if you could look at people’s portfolios as you do someone’s music playlist.

Spotify lets you follow friends and see their playlists. I use Spotify to see what new albums my friends are listening to or what artist they’ve been getting into. (If you’re curious I’ve been listening to a lot of Toro y Moi recently, more specifically Underneath the Pine (Instrumentals))

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would be really cool to have more analytics and tracking on your portfolio and to be able to share that with others. As well as see what others are doing.

Imagine seeing a pie chart of Mark Cuban’s holdings. Or the gains, losses, and position size of Chamath Palihapitiya in certain SPACs. You could learn a lot.

Issues with the idea

As cool as I think this would be, I could already see the potential issues.

Big funds would never get behind something like this. These funds charge fees to manage your investments; they aren’t going to give away their trade intelligence for free.

And I’m not a lawyer, but I’m sure there would be a variety of issues with the SEC involved. That would be such a headache.

Lastly, how could your friends lie to you about their investments? 9 out of 10 times when you talk stocks with someone, they mention a trade they made money on. Rarely do they talk about an investment that lost them money. Not many people would like their failures being publicized.

Enter M1 Finance

I don’t use M1 Finance. And I am not too familiar with it. But someone I know mentioned it as a “shareable playlist” for your fund (my description, not his.)

M1 appears to be a platform to build and maintain investment portfolios. Looks pretty slick too.

And of course, there’s a page on Reddit where people share and discuss their M1 portfolios.

There are probably other websites or programs out there that I’m not familiar with. Until they become mainstream, my dream won’t be realized.

Investing is becoming so mainstream nowadays, who knows what will be accepted next.