ETF Minds: Tony Dong on the Reality Check ETF Issuers Need

Tony Dong, Lead ETF Analyst for ETF Central and Founder of ETF Portfolio Blueprint, offers an unfiltered look at what separates ETF success stories from the products that never gain traction.

As a writer, analyst, and educator focused on helping investors understand ETFs, Tony has worked with issuers across North America on strategy, positioning, and communication.

In this edition of ETF Minds, he shares candid insights on where issuers go wrong—and what needs to change to connect with today’s investors.

What’s your read on current market dynamics right now?

Political risk is finally coming home to roost for U.S. investors.

With the second Trump presidency and on-and-off again tariff threats, markets are becoming less about fundamentals and more about animal spirits, especially retail flows, which are driving price action like never before.

Add in a nonexistent equity risk premium and the widespread use of derivatives and leverage, and you’ve got a recipe for trouble. I’m not bearish, but the “line go up” mentality will eventually end badly.

Which ETF themes or strategies do you think are currently underappreciated by investors?

Hedged equity overlays using put spread collars deserve more attention.

These involve buying a 5% out-of-the-money (OTM) put, selling a 20% OTM put, and selling a covered call 4–6% OTM.

The structure limits downside risk, generates some income, and smooths returns over time.

If you ladder these positions, you can maintain near-continuous protection.

Historically, they’ve improved risk-adjusted returns and offered better consistency than buffered ETFs, which force you to pick the right “vintage” and often miss dividends since they’re pegged to price returns only.

How do you evaluate whether a new ETF launch has staying power or is just noise?

Ask yourself one question: “Who asked for this?”

If the answer is “no one,” the ETF probably doesn’t have a future.

Products that solve a real problem or simplify access to a desirable exposure tend to last.

The rest are just marketing exercises. If you can’t clearly define the target investor and use case in one sentence, it’s not going to gain traction—no matter how clever the ticker is.

What do you wish ETF issuers would do differently when it comes to producing insights and educational materials?

Understand your audience.

A five-page white paper looks great in front of a marketing committee but almost no one outside of institutional allocators or deeply studious RIAs will read it.

Retail investors want short, visual, plain-language content that helps them connect the dots between your fund’s strategy and their goals.

Advisors want data they can plug into their conversations. Issuers need to focus less on looking smart and more on being useful.

What are the most common mistakes you see young investors making when starting out with ETFs?

A few come up all the time.

Trading at the open or close, when spreads are widest.

Ignoring the difference between market price and net asset value (NAV), which can lead to overpaying during dislocations.

Oh, and chasing double-digit “yields” without realizing that much of the distribution is just a return of capital.

These habits erode returns before investors even realize what’s happening.

Where do you see the biggest knowledge gap between professional and retail ETF investors?

Professionals understand structure, execution, and context.

They use limit orders, monitor liquidity, and think in terms of tracking error and after-tax returns.

Retail investors often stop at performance charts. They don’t always understand how a 1% bid-ask spread or swap counterparty exposure can quietly eat into results.

Advisors and portfolio managers also look at ETFs as building blocks within a broader asset-allocation framework.

Retail investors too often buy them like stocks—standalone bets, not parts of a system.

What do you think will be the most effective medium for ETF education over the next five years?

X Spaces—or what Wolf Financial and others are doing with open, real-time forums—is the future.

Gen Z investors don’t want to log into a scheduled hour-long webinar where someone reads slides.

They want conversations where they can chime in, challenge ideas, and feel like they have a seat at the table with professionals.

When they talk, their peers listen.

Issuers and educators should see their role not as lecturers but as facilitators—steering discussion in a productive direction and keeping it grounded in facts.

What’s the most surprising trend or data point you’ve come across in your ETF research?

The push to bring private assets into ETFs.

Yes, there’s a 15% cap on illiquid holdings, but it’s still a bad idea. It goes against everything ETFs are supposed to represent—transparency and liquidity.

Combine those with private marks, and you lose both. It undermines the entire concept of an ETF. We already have closed-end funds and interval funds for illiquid exposures.

To put it bluntly, not everything needs to be “ETF’d,” and this trend should be stopped before it breaks investor trust and loses someone a lot of money.

If you could design your own ETF, what would it look like and why?

I’d call it "The Cockroach Portfolio."

It would hold 20% each in U.S. large-cap utilities, healthcare, consumer staples, gold, and broad Treasuries—essentially, the five asset classes that are most defensive.

The mix balances growth, defense, and real assets, and a quarterly rebalance would keep it disciplined.

Charge 50 basis points, keep it simple, and walk away. It wouldn’t shoot the lights out, but it would never die.

About Tony Dong

Tony is a BC-based freelance financial writer with extensive expertise in the field of investing and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As the Lead ETF Analyst for ETF Central, a NYSE x Trackinsight partnership, Tony contributes to a variety of prominent platforms including U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, TheStreet, Moneysense, Kiplinger, and The Motley Fool. Recognized in the industry, his work has been featured several times in Business Insider.

Please note this article is for information purposes only and does not in any way constitute investment advice. It is essential that you seek advice from a registered financial professional prior to making any investment decision.