Being John Malkovich-Moment

Do you remember the movie Being John Malkovich, the one where John Cusack and his girlfriend go into Malkovich’s brain? Then along the way John Malkovich goes into his own brain? Yeah, it was a weird movie but it was funny too. The ETF business may be having its own Being John Malkovich-moment with the launch on April 20th of the ETF Industry Exposure & Financial Services ETF which is being sponsored by Toroso Investments and trades with symbol TETF.

It owns a good mix of companies including the parent companies of iShares and SPDRs but not Vanguard of course which is not publicly traded. It also owns a few publicly traded exchanges where ETFs trade, companies that make markets in ETFs, discount brokerages that offer their own ETFs, companies long known for traditional mutual funds but who are also getting into the ETF business as well as a couple of mega cap banks with tiny (for now?) ETF businesses and an index provider.

The bank exposure is big enough that the fund may not end up being immune from interest rate risk but that remains to be seen.