Behind the Ticker

Brad Roth
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Behind the Ticker is hosted by Brad Roth, Founder & CIO of THOR Financial Technologies, a systematic investment firm with ETFs listed on the NYSE. Each week, Brad sits down with the sharpest minds in ETFs, asset management, and wealth technology — fund managers, CIOs, and the entrepreneurs building the next generation of investment products. From managed futures to structured credit, from factor investing to full downside mitigation — no topic is off limits. Brad also publishes The Signal, a daily market research brief for advisors and allocators. New episodes every week.

  1. 6 DAYS AGO

    Founder-Led Companies Beat the S&P by 3-5% | Michael Monaghan

    Michael Monaghan spent 15 years on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, the Carlyle Group, Sanford Bernstein, and UBS before leaving to build Beartooth, a technology company that let smartphones connect without cell service. That 12-year entrepreneurial journey — and a visit to the Smithsonian where he and his partner were struck by the iconoclastic nature of America's builders — led him to launch the Founders 100 ETF (ticker: FFF), a fund that owns the 100 best publicly traded companies still run by their original founders. In this episode, Michael breaks down the strict definition of "founder-led" that drives the portfolio, the 30-year, 11,000-stock database his team hand-built to validate the factor, and why founder-led companies have historically outperformed the S&P by 3-5% annually. We get into the actual fund mechanics — the Bernstein-style factor model, the 7% position cap at quarterly rebalance, and why the 80/20 rules-based vs. discretionary split exists primarily to catch IPOs between rebalances. Michael also makes the case that FFF is a direct replacement for QQQ, running 85% active share against the S&P and 70% against the Nasdaq, and explains his distribution playbook for breaking through in a market where 10 new ETFs launch every week. Plus, the names he's watching for that he can't own yet — including SpaceX, Stripe, and Anduril. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    30 min

  2. 1 MAR

    The US Reindustrialization Trade: A New ETF Play | Sam Klar, GMO

    In this episode, Brad Roth sits down with Sam Klar of GMO to unpack the thesis behind the GMO Domestic Resilience ETF (DRES). Sam shares his path from joining GMO out of undergrad to helping launch a strategy focused on U.S. reindustrialization, supply chain resilience, and long-term domestic economic strength. They break down how DRES is built, why GMO emphasizes quality and value even inside a thematic strategy, and how the portfolio is structured across manufacturing, transportation/logistics, energy/materials, and defense. Sam also addresses common pushback — including whether DRES is just an industrials bet — and explains why he believes stock-level selection and U.S. revenue exposure make the strategy distinct. The conversation closes with practical implementation guidance for advisors: DRES as a satellite allocation to complement global, tech-heavy core holdings, plus a candid look at policy risk, competition, and early investor response since launch. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    30 min

  3. 22 FEB

    Building an ETF Suite from a Wealth Practice | David Nicholas

    David Nicholas, founder of Nicholas X Funds and a financial advisor with nearly 20 years of experience running a private wealth practice in Atlanta, joins the show to break down how he's building one of the more ambitious ETF suites in the smaller issuer space. David walks through the origin story of X Funds, which started during COVID when he saw an opportunity to recreate insurance company balance sheets in a liquid ETF wrapper. His first fund FIAX was designed as a liquid alternative to fixed annuities, pairing a treasury underlay with short spreads on HYG to harvest junk bond yield, then using that income to buy long index call options for equity upside exposure. The fund attracted institutional investors including foreign governments and became the launchpad for everything that followed. From there, David built GIAX and then BLOX, a crypto fund that has now grown to just under 250 million in assets. The firm has since launched four new thematic funds — silver (SLVX), gold (GLDN), defense (Weapon), and nuclear — with two more Bitcoin-based products in the pipeline, an overnight fund and a Bitcoin tail hedge fund. The common architecture across the entire suite pairs roughly 50 percent commodity or core asset exposure with 50 percent equity positions in companies that benefit from that commodity, all layered with an active options overlay. In SLVX, that means silver spot exposure through ETFs like SLV and PSLV alongside miners like First Majestic, Pan American, and Wheaton. In Weapon, the commodity sleeve is rare earth materials used in defense manufacturing, balanced with traditional defense companies. David goes deep on why he built the options strategy around short put spreads rather than traditional covered calls. His core argument is that covered call strategies almost never beat their underlying in rising markets because the short call caps your upside. With put spreads on the equity side, the fund collects premium while preserving full upside participation. On the commodity ETF side, the team sells call spreads but also buys long calls above the spread to recapture gains on sharp moves higher. None of the funds track an index — they are all actively managed with the ability to switch between calls and puts, add protective hedges, or take them off at any time. The conversation also tackles NAV decline head on. David distinguishes between NAV decline caused by underlying positions dropping versus decline caused by over-distribution, and uses BLOX as a case study. The fund generates roughly 50 percent yield from options but only distributes 36 percent, targeting an 80 percent success rate on trades. Bitcoin is down 20 to 30 percent since inception yet BLOX has remained roughly flat, meaning the fund is outperforming its underlying without the distribution dragging the NAV. He could declare a higher yield like some competitor crypto funds but considers that irresponsible if the options income doesn't support it. David also gets real about the business side of scaling a smaller issuer — reinvesting essentially all revenue from the first three funds into launching six new products, navigating the compliance minefield of ETF marketing, and the leadership transition from having his fingerprints on everything to hiring specialized talent who can push the firm beyond his own ceiling. For advisors, he frames the funds through a picks and shovels lens: rather than just buying the commodity, own the entire ecosystem around it with an income-generating overlay on top. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    30 min

  4. 15 FEB

    Replicating Hedge Fund Returns at ETF Prices | Bob Elliott, HFND

    Bob Elliott, co-founder and CIO of Unlimited, returns to break down how his firm is bringing Vanguard-style indexing to the hedge fund world. After spending the bulk of his career at Bridgewater building proprietary investment strategies, Bob launched Unlimited on two truths the industry wouldn't say out loud — institutional hedge funds are largely no better than their peers over time, and managers take nearly all the alpha in fees. His solution: diversify across managers, cut fees to a fraction, and deliver it all through liquid ETFs. We get into the nuts and bolts of how Unlimited's third-generation replication technology actually works, why Bayesian machine learning picks up tactical alpha that older rolling regression approaches miss, and what separates strategies built by real money managers from those designed by academics and technologists. Bob walks through his full product suite — HFND, HFEQ, HFMF, and HFGM — explains why the 2X target return products are resonating with advisors, and makes the case for moving from 60-40 to 50-30-20. We also talk about the realities of growing a boutique ETF business on a guerrilla marketing budget and why the biggest risk for startup issuers is spending too much too fast. Learn more at unlimitedetfs.com. Read Bob's Substack "Non-Consensus" and follow him on social media at BobEUnlimited. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    39 min

  5. 8 FEB

    How to Play the Housing Recovery with REITs | David Auerbach

    David Auerbach, CIO of Hoya Capital, spent over a decade trading REITs at Green Street Advisors in Dallas before getting a front-row seat to the ETF industry's explosive growth at Esposito Securities. Now he runs two REIT-focused ETFs — HOMZ and RIET — managing over $135 million. In this episode, David breaks down the two biggest misconceptions advisors have about REITs: that they're all high yield and that they're all interest rate sensitive. He makes the case that most passive REIT ETFs are far more concentrated than people realize, with just a handful of large-cap names yielding 2–3% dominating the top holdings. David explains how RIET takes the opposite approach — overweighting small caps, mid caps, mortgage REITs, and REIT preferred stocks to deliver a 10%+ annualized monthly dividend across roughly 100 holdings with no single position above 1.5%. We also dig into the housing supply shortage driving the HOMZ thesis, why 4% on the 10-year Treasury is the magic number for REIT investors, and the current M&A wave that's seen 17 REITs merge or pursue strategic alternatives in just the past four months. David shares why private equity is scooping up REIT platforms trading below net asset value, how advisors should think about using HOMZ and RIET as complements to traditional exposure like VNQ, and why boring is exactly what you want from this corner of your portfolio. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    32 min

  6. 1 FEB

    How Institutions Beat Retail | Raymond Micaletti, MOOD ETF

    Raymond Micaletti built the MOOD ETF around a single idea: institutions consistently outperform retail traders, and you can measure the difference. After watching a relative sentiment indicator correctly call two major market bottoms while all his other signals failed, he stopped ignoring it and started building. In this episode, Ray breaks down how he uses Commitments of Traders data and sentiment surveys to construct signals across equities, bonds, commodities, and currencies. We dig into the structural advantages institutions have over retail, why his approach avoids the whipsaw problem that kills most tactical strategies, and where it can still get you in trouble. He also makes a strong case for pairing relative sentiment with trend following—two strategies that naturally offset each other's weaknesses. Website: www.relativesentiment.com ETF site: relativesentimentetfs.com Twitter: @relsenttech Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    36 min

  7. 03/08/2025

    Hedgeye Macro Research in an Active ETF | Rahman & McNamara

    Sam Rahman and John McNamara joined Brad to discuss the launch and philosophy behind the HGRO ETF. Hedgeye, originally built on delivering institutional-quality macroeconomic research to a broader audience, has now extended into the asset management space with active ETF offerings. Sam, who previously managed public equity investments for the Fidelity family office, explained how HGRO fills a gap in the ETF landscape: it offers a concentrated, actively managed large-cap growth portfolio that emphasizes risk-adjusted returns. He emphasized that most large-cap growth ETFs are either over-diversified and benchmark-hugging or overly concentrated and thematic, leaving little in between. HGRO aims to provide thoughtful portfolio construction and institutional-quality research to everyday investors. The strategy focuses on three core themes: deep moat compounders, innovators and disruptors, and special situations. Sam described the selection process as conviction-driven but bounded by disciplined portfolio risk constraints, with max 3% active weights on both stock and sector levels. Sell decisions are typically driven by fundamental deterioration or technical breakdowns. John shared that HGRO is intended to be a core large-cap equity position in diversified portfolios and is gaining early traction among large RIAs. He also confirmed that Hedgeye has more ETF launches in the pipeline and plans to build on its highly engaged research community and media platform to drive continued growth. Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    35 min

  8. 19/07/2025

    Efficient Growth: Quality and Momentum | Seth Cogswell

    In this episode of Behind the Ticker, Brad Roth speaks with Seth Cogswell, Portfolio Manager at Running Oak Capital, about the firm’s flagship ETF—RUNN, the Running Oak Efficient Growth ETF. With a background that spans fundamental equity research and derivatives trading, Cogswell shares his journey to Running Oak and how the firm’s roots in separately managed accounts (SMAs) laid the foundation for its ETF strategy. Originally launched in 2009 for advisors seeking a smoother ride through market cycles, the strategy behind RUNN has delivered strong results with an emphasis on downside protection. Cogswell breaks down how RUNN combines a core equity portfolio of 30–50 high-conviction U.S. large-cap stocks with a tactical allocation to fixed income and cash equivalents. What sets RUNN apart is its ability to dynamically shift its allocation between risk-on and risk-off environments. The fund can reduce equity exposure as low as 30% or raise it up to 90%, based on a rules-based framework that evaluates macro indicators, valuation metrics, and market trends. This allows the fund to dial down risk during market stress and re-enter more aggressively during recovery phases. The equity sleeve of the portfolio focuses on quality companies with strong free cash flow and sustainable growth—avoiding overvalued, speculative names. Meanwhile, the fixed income sleeve remains flexible, emphasizing high credit quality and shorter durations when risk is elevated. Cogswell notes that RUNN is actively managed daily, with oversight to ensure discipline in both the equity and fixed income allocations. The team also maintains a consistent philosophy that prioritizes risk-adjusted returns and long-term capital appreciation rather than chasing short-term performance. Designed for use as a core equity holding or a risk-managed growth strategy, RUNN offers advisors and investors an efficient, transparent vehicle to navigate unpredictable markets. With a track record rooted in the firm’s SMA history and now offered in a more tax-efficient ETF format, the fund aims to deliver smoother performance without sacrificing long-term upside.  Get Brad's daily market research: Subscribe to The Signal at thorft.com/newsletter More episodes: thorft.com/podcast

    38 min
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About

Behind the Ticker is hosted by Brad Roth, Founder & CIO of THOR Financial Technologies, a systematic investment firm with ETFs listed on the NYSE. Each week, Brad sits down with the sharpest minds in ETFs, asset management, and wealth technology — fund managers, CIOs, and the entrepreneurs building the next generation of investment products. From managed futures to structured credit, from factor investing to full downside mitigation — no topic is off limits. Brad also publishes The Signal, a daily market research brief for advisors and allocators. New episodes every week.

Information

  • Creator
    Brad Roth
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Behind the Ticker
  • Show Website
    Behind the Ticker

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