Jack Forehand and Justin Carbonneau, President and Vice President of Validea, discuss their journey of launching and liquidating the Validea Market Legends ETF. They highlight the importance of timing, the challenges of value investing, and the state of the ETF market. The podcast also explores the role of AI in investing and the unlikelihood of future endeavors in the investment space.
Timing is crucial for the success of an ETF, as demonstrated by the liquidation of the Validea Market Legends ETF due to lack of assets.
The dominance of growth-focused strategies poses challenges for value-focused ETFs in a competitive market.
Deep dives
The Osh County Murders and the Land Ownership
Osh County, Oklahoma, is the setting of the film 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' which depicts the 1920s Osh murders, where white men killed Osh people for oil wealth. The podcast explores other ways in which white people acquired Osh land and wealth, focusing on a ranching family that became major landowners in Osh County. The family's ranching empire was built on land originally owned by the Osh nation, raising questions about how they acquired it.
The Story of the Villidia Market Legends ETF
The podcast features an interview with the President and Partner of Validia Capital Management, discussing the experience of launching and ultimately liquidating the Villidia Market Legends ETF. The strategy aimed to follow the investment methodologies of famous investors, creating an ETF portfolio based on their stock selection models. Despite initial optimism and attracting $30 million in assets, the ETF faced challenges in a competitive market and ultimately shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Challenges Faced by the Valia Market Legends ETF
The podcast sheds light on the difficulties faced by the Villidia Market Legends ETF in the ETF industry. It discusses the importance of short-term performance in determining the success of an ETF and reflects on the struggles faced by value-focused strategies in a growth-dominated market. The hosts also examine the role of marketing and the power of narratives in the success of ETFs, as exemplified by Kathy Wood's ARK Invest.
The Role of AI in Investing and Evaluating the ETF Market
The podcast delves into the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in investing and the evaluation of the ETF market. While AI shows potential in constructing value strategies and creating innovative indexes, the guests acknowledge the challenges of applying quant strategies to high-growth AI companies. They also discuss the role of thematic ETFs and the potential for naming strategies differently to attract investors.
Launching an exchange-traded fund is easy. Finding success is a different story entirely. About a quarter of all ETFs that have been launched have ended up having to liquidate. These stories can sometimes be forgotten given how much the successful ones are celebrated—but they can also provide a lesson about the marketplace and the importance of timing.
On this episode of Trillions, Joel Weber and Eric Balchunas speak with Jack Forehand and Justin Carbonneau, respectively the president and vice president of of Validea. They launched the value-focused Validea Market Legends ETF (VALX) back in 2014, right around the same time Cathie Wood launched ARKK. But they ended up closing it in 2020 due to a lack of assets. We speak to them about their journey, why timing is so important and the state of value investing today.