Dave Nadig

Dave Nadig

Contributor

Work:

Dave Nadig is currently an "independent financial futurist" and will tell you what that means as soon as he figures it out.  Dave is best known for his work over the years with financial advisors and the Exchange Traded Fund industry.  He co-founded Cerulli Associates in the early 1990s, went on to be Managing Director at Wells Fargo Nikko before selling the firm to Barclays to form BGI, before THAT got bought to become Blackrock/iShares as it exists today.  He ran money very badly in the dotcom era under the umbrella of "MetaMarkets" where he published now laughable commentary on "the New Economy" of that moment.  In the early 2000s he joined what would become ETF.com, where he helped build their ETF Data and Analytics business which was sold to FactSet in 2017 or so.  Most recently Dave was part of the team that formed and sold VettaFi to the TMX group from 2020 to 2023.

Reality:  Dave is a rabbithole diving curiosity monkey who lives in the woods of Western MA with his wife of some 26 years.  His kids are up and grown, so at any moment you will likely find Dave hiking, reading, flying drones, riding bicycles, making music, meditating, playing games, making content and generally trying to understand how to have meaning in life during the decline of Western Democratic Capitalism.

Not interested in diagnoses anymore.  Only focussed on the "... and thus."

Articles by Dave:

The ETF Market: A Zine

By Dave Nadig | September 17, 2024 | 3 Comments

ET contributor Dave Nadig is not only singlehandedly bringing back the zine, he’s using it to explain ETFs better than anyone!

The ETF Innovation Black Hole

By Dave Nadig | June 24, 2024 | 0 Comments

Welcome to regulatory stagnation: ETF Industry style.

Innovation is still happening inside the four walls of the established ETF ecosystem. But the structure itself?

Late-Stage.

Fidelity Reminds ETF Industry It Doesn’t Have To Care

By Dave Nadig | April 25, 2024 | 7 Comments

Free is a good price. It’s how we got Fortnite, and Radio, and a terrible internet. People hate paying for things.

That’s what Fidelity was counting on when they decided to make a stink about 9 ETF issuers not signing their revenue sharing deal.

And they’ll win. They always win.

Bitcoin Endgames & The New Hyper-Agents

By Dave Nadig | March 19, 2024 | 29 Comments

If the HODLers are right, they’re also the new Elites.

Not in a “my thumbdrive will make me the Duke of West Hartford in this post-apocalyptic hellscape” sort of way, but in ugly-but-mainstream scenarios with ugly-but-mainstream power/wealth transfers.

The Bitcoin ETF Tipping Problem

By Dave Nadig | February 6, 2024 | 12 Comments

ET contributor Dave Nadig was there at the beginning of ETFs, and he’s forgotten more about their structure and operations than I will ever know.

In this excellent note, Dave digs into the Bitcoin ETF “tipping problem”. It’s a fascinating read on where Narrative runs headlong into the real world of market mechanics.