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Nasdaq's Shame

keubiko.substack.com

21–30 of 181 posts

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#21

Uh, can someone explain this to me like I’m 5, but somehow still have money invested in index funds? It makes me sound like my invested-in-vanguard-total-market-indexes-and-fidelity-target-date-funds money is going to be mechanically dumped into Elon Stock because of FinanceWord FinanceWord FinanceWord gobbledgook FinanceWord but is that the correct reading?

[deleted]

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#22

Uh, can someone explain this to me like I’m 5, but somehow still have money invested in index funds? It makes me sound like my invested-in-vanguard-total-market-indexes-and-fidelity-target-date-funds money is going to be mechanically dumped into Elon Stock because of FinanceWord FinanceWord FinanceWord gobbledgook FinanceWord but is that the correct reading?

Yeah the ETFs have sold off their trust quite a bit in the past year. No longer can anyone with skin in the game trust the stewardship of the fiduciaries. They are simply showing that they are bad at what they do and people should not entrust their future to them. Pull your money out of the target date funds and into a responsible mix of indexes.

I think you have it backwards. Many (most?) funds underperform the market as a whole, showing they really don't know anything. ETFs that mirror indexes exist exactly because of this... their managers don't make trades based on their insight of the market, they are contractually obligated to mirror the index, period.

The article shows that at least some ETFs -- NASDAQ index funds -- will now be undermined by this SpaceX scam using those contractual obligations to extract money from ETF investors.

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#23

Does this only affect money invested after June 15th, or does this also devalues money invested before this date? If you don't invest anymore money in the index during the interim rebalancing period refered to by the author, then one should be alright. Right? It's really expensive to get all your marbles out, I'd rather not do it if I don't have to.

QQQ rebalances on a schedule. Existing holders are affected because the fund’s underlying composition will change.

This. If you are invested in a Nasdaq index (e.g. QQQ), it will have to sell some of the tail and buy the necessary weighted percentage of Snake Oil. Apart from you buying snake oil, you will realise some extra capital gains/loses due to the rebalancing.

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#24

Uh, can someone explain this to me like I’m 5, but somehow still have money invested in index funds? It makes me sound like my invested-in-vanguard-total-market-indexes-and-fidelity-target-date-funds money is going to be mechanically dumped into Elon Stock because of FinanceWord FinanceWord FinanceWord gobbledgook FinanceWord but is that the correct reading?

My understanding: It depends on what index the fund is tracking. QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 so QQQ is vulnerable. VT tracks the FTSE Global All Cap Index so VT is not directly affected by Nasdaq’s choices but is still exposed to some extent because spacex is likely going to be in the aforementioned FTSE index, Nasdaq’s actions impact spacex’s market cap, and thus Nasdaq’s actions impact spacex’s position in the aforem…

VIFAX?

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#25
Transparent enough, just trade it based on the new weightings and price direction of the underlying SpaceX

The index will have cheaper options contracts than SpaceX while disproportionately subject to the same volatility

That’s the biggest and most egalitarian wealth creation engine in history, aside from some government moves this administration with the currency and commodities

This is only controversial because

A) you’re too married to indexing and told too many people to do it

B) you consider indexing to be sacrosanct for some reason, and consider inclusion to be a reward when it means nothing. this is a symptom of prosperity preaching

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#26
post #11

[flagged]

Simple solution is to not invest in funds that track NASDAQ indices. There are plenty of other funds out there that track other indices from other providers.

This is not a simple solution if one purchased QQQ a decade or two ago.

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#28

Uh, can someone explain this to me like I’m 5, but somehow still have money invested in index funds? It makes me sound like my invested-in-vanguard-total-market-indexes-and-fidelity-target-date-funds money is going to be mechanically dumped into Elon Stock because of FinanceWord FinanceWord FinanceWord gobbledgook FinanceWord but is that the correct reading?

If you are an index investor, it is probably not worth your time and energy to make any drastic changes because of this particular incident. Space X will comprise a small percentage of the indexes in question, and any impact on your portfolio will likely be imperceptible. And if your holdings are in a taxable account, the tax hit from selling are probably not worth it.

Longer term, folks should be aware that Wall Street has fully caught on to the normalization of index investing and have been looking at ways to use passive investors as exit liquidity. Private equity and private credit are the two recent high profile examples. There was an executive order recently that directed the federal government to consider allowing these asset classes into 401k's. And these sectors have been increasingly making there way into the public markets in various ways (which is ironic considering the name of the asset class). Same story with crypto.

In the past, most passive index investors worried about fees and portfolio composition and diversity. But moving forward it is probably worth thinking about index governance as well. For example the S&P500 has a one year waiting period before an public company can be considered.

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#29
post #17

Uh, can someone explain this to me like I’m 5, but somehow still have money invested in index funds? It makes me sound like my invested-in-vanguard-total-market-indexes-and-fidelity-target-date-funds money is going to be mechanically dumped into Elon Stock because of FinanceWord FinanceWord FinanceWord gobbledgook FinanceWord but is that the correct reading?

The claim is that Nasdaq is going to artificially admit SpaceX to the Nasdaq-100, an index they control, in order to win their business away from NYSE. If the index you invest in is derived from the Nasdaq-100, that's problematic. It seems kind of likely that SpaceX would make it into most of the major indices on the merits, relatively quickly (the S&P has a 1-year waiting period), just based on its likely size and l…

[deleted]

Re: Nasdaq's Shame

#30

Does this only affect money invested after June 15th, or does this also devalues money invested before this date? If you don't invest anymore money in the index during the interim rebalancing period refered to by the author, then one should be alright. Right? It's really expensive to get all your marbles out, I'd rather not do it if I don't have to.

QQQ rebalances on a schedule. Existing holders are affected because the fund’s underlying composition will change.

And to be clear it's not just QQQ; countless retirement target date funds have a Nasdaq component. That's the real target of this grift, your retirement fund.
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