Exchange-traded funds became America’s dominant investment vehicle by being cheap, boring and relatively safe. Now, some investment firms...are taking the opposite approach: racing to sell new, exotic and riskier offerings....
Low barriers to entry — annual fixed costs for running an ETF can be as low as a few hundred thousand dollars — mean dozens of [smaller ETF providers] are trying their hand....
Many...have decided that the best chance of standing out in a crowded market is to cater to thrill-seeking investors. Single-stock ETFs are one example. The highly risky funds use strategies to produce a target of double or triple the daily return of an underlying stock....
Dozens of crypto-related funds, leveraged metals funds, and new applications for ETFs that would track event prediction contract prices from online gambling platforms are among the new offerings making financial advisers queasy.
– From an article in the Feb. 24, 2026, Wall Street Journal. Read more at bit.ly/4tTG83O.
