Episode 6: Reginald Browne, Principal of GTS, discusses the future of the ETF industry, and how to position your career for long term success.

• The history of ETFs
• How ETFs are supported with daily liquidity
• Positioning yourself for long term success

TRANSCRIPT:

Douglas Yones:

Hello and welcome to ETF Central, the podcast where we bring the latest and greatest ETF industry perspectives directly to you through in-depth conversations with key thought leaders from across the ETF ecosystem. I'm your host today, Douglas Yones, the Head of Exchange Traded Products at the New York Stock Exchange, the Home of ETFs. Today, I am joined by none other than Reginald Browne, the Principal of GTS, also known as the Godfather of ETFs. For those of us who've been in the industry for some time, Reggie is more than a godfather.

But as Principal of GTS, Reggie directs the strategy, vision, and customer engagement of GTS's customer business within the strategic partnership with Mischler Financial. With more than 30 years of experience in equities, equity derivatives, market making ETFs, client management, client support, Reggie has clearly spent over the last 20 years helping clients to build and grow their businesses. Prior to GTS, boy, Reggie, you've been at a lot of different ETF firms, most recently, Cantor Fitzgerald and Company. You've had senior leadership across trading firms, NewEdge, Susquehanna. The list goes on. We'll leave it there.

Reggie Browne:

Yes, I've been around the block a few times. I appreciate the introduction and I also like to note that I spent some time as a member of the New York. It's been a fabulous career that I had or currently undergoing. Who knows how it's going to end in about 10 or 15 years? But the New York is a fabulous place and I can recall some times that were most notable, particularly when new stocks were coming into the marketplace and when Blockbuster was being bought and how the crowd was probably 200 people around the trading post and just memorable times.

But thank you for welcoming, Doug, and definitely had to abbreviate your introduction. So, sorry for jumping in, but ETFs are amazing. It's been a fabulous ride. I think I was the first market maker on the AMEX, which is now a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, starting in 1996, making markets in SPY.

Douglas Yones:

So let's talk. I want to start with today, but we're going to go backwards in time as well and maybe we'll peek into the future. Who knows? Could you tell everyone what it is that you, your team, GTS, what is it that you guys provide support and lend to really make the ETF industry really be successful and breathe successfully each and every day?

Reggie Browne:

You'll find people in the ETF industry will say some walkie terms like ecosystem, partnership, participant, and it really is a dynamic industry. The role that my firm, Global Trading Systems, short for GTS, does on a New York perspective, one, we are the designated market maker on 1,200 securities on a New York Stock Exchange, a little under 40% of the listings on the floor. That side by side, we are lead market makers for ETFs listed on the New York Arca Exchange, but now also on the floor of the New York.

What we do, we bring ETFs to the marketplace, provide the initial seed capital to launch ETFs for asset managers, and then we present the two-sided market for all customers to buy and sell readily throughout the day. So, the function that we place or do, you can think of us as a mini IPO agent. We bring ETFs to the marketplace. We hold the initial outstanding shares for trading and then present a two-sided market in all market conditions to allow people to buy and sell readily.

Douglas Yones:

So, you and I, we go back now the better part of two plus decades, but I don't think I've ever asked you this question even though I've asked you lots of questions over the years. But did you exit college, did you leave La Salle and say, "Hey, I want to go trade ETFs?" What was the starting vision that you had if I take you back in time?

Reggie Browne:

It's funny, my story is well chronicle and I am somewhat of a unique bird. Way back when the exchange was first founded and then throughout, I want to say probably, 100 years, the exchange was organized under family businesses. People would own brokerage for brokerage operations and then some families would own the rights to be the specialist for securities on the Florida, New York. That ecosystem, here's a word again, basically had family controlled businesses that allowed people to get jobs from all stripes. My grandmother was a big fan of Wall Street Week, which was presented on public broadcasting television, PBS. She advocated when I was 11 to buy stocks actually that turned into entry into Wall Street by way of getting an Eagle Scout award.

I started at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange at 15 and I never left the business. I say all this, the road to Wall Street is not straight. There's different paths to it. If you talk to people old enough, people will tell you, "I carried lunches in the very beginning and now I'm a CEO of some investment bank." Those stories are out there and they're real today. So, in Philadelphia, where both Doug and I hail from and I met him when he was at a world-famous indexing firm, I went to school at night and I worked full-time during a day. Side by side, I'd loved the business. I didn't want to leave and I had a fantastic opportunity to remain and persist. Over the last 36 years, I think about I work five days.

Douglas Yones:

The thing that you raised, and I want to dig a little deeper on that, is the journey is not a straight line. You and I, we did meet each other at the time I was working with Vanguard. There was a bunch of us that were truly a project team. It was not as if even back in the day when ETFs very started with Vanguard that anyone really could see the future and think, "Boy, this is going to become what it became." So a lot of us were just project team members from various parts of the organization and I was working on the broker dealer arm. I had no idea or understanding of the markets, but that didn't mean that I couldn't raise my hand and say, "I'll learn, I'll jump in."

So I was thrown into the wolves a little bit. Here I am naive, I'm coming out of Pennsylvania and I come up to New York City. I remember knocking on the door of one of the trading firms and saying, "Hey, can I come in and are you guys trading ETFs? We're thinking about building out this ETF business?" I don't remember who, Reggie, but they pointed me to you and you were in the far corner of this group. They're like, "I think that guy's dealing with ETFs." You were there. I mean, this is literally the beginning, because I would've been in there in 1999, 2000. Was there something back then that you looked at it and said, "Hey, this is going to be something big"? Did you have this vision in your head of this could be something major?

Reggie Browne:

I don't think in the early days that the early people could have predicted that the ETF industry would've grown to be $6, $7, $8 trillion global business and as revolutionary as it has been. So, first of all, ETFs were founded or conceived as a solution to the 1987 crash where the SEC did a study said if there was some exhaust system to relieve selling pressure from the characteristics or program trading, the stock market won't go down 22%. So, through a lot of scholarship and study, a paper was put out and folks start racing to engineer an idea around what kind of basket or pool securities can allow for the exhaust to occur to allow for buying and selling to be easier.

Fast forward, ETFs or the biggest unit investment trust in the world was created called SPY. It's still here, and early days, it was trading a quarter wide trading at 64th and 30 seconds. No one really predicted just how big this industry would've gotten or the access that will allow retail players to come in to get complex and unique ideas alongside the pros. So, the answer is no one predicted how big. There was all kinds of signs saying that this could be revolutionary. I think the early people, and some are still around like myself, are still remembering what it was and what it can be in the future with just a lot of hard work and innovation still to come.

Douglas Yones:

I want to stick on this hard work piece because you brought it up. Going to school part-time, very similar journey for me. People come and they're like, "Oh, you're a Villanova grad." It's like, "Well, no, not really. I did my MBA part-time at night at Villanova." But there was always this journey of learning, journey of picking up new things and new skills and being surrounded by great people. Over the years, I've known you for a very long time. We get these occasions where I just remember peppering you with all these questions. I remember asking you many, many years ago about, "Well, why is your team over here and why are you the only ones at this firm trading ETFs?"

I just remember you telling me these things could be really big and there's a real opportunity for people who are the only ones standing in the room that know everything there is to know about something that could be really big. I don't know if you remember telling me that, but you did way back in the day. Are there pieces that you sit back today and after your journey where you say, "Hey, if I was a young person starting out today, these are the little gems of best practices," whatever buzzword we want to use, but pieces of advice where you would say, "Hey, these are the things, these are the ways in which you cannot guarantee, but at least increase your odds of being successful"?

Reggie Browne:

I think this is a pretty important question. I just finished 10 years of being a university trustee and I look at today's economy and where the jobs are going to be tomorrow, particularly around the evolution of artificial intelligence and just where the pockets of opportunity going forward. Then contrasting back to the ETF community, today, when you see opportunity and you see innovation, you want to jump into it and be a part of it and learn as you go. If you look at the ETF community in parallel to say crypto or other types of revolutionary concepts, ETFs, when it first came out in 1990 in Canada, 1993 in United States, the rules of trading and how ETFs were launched, they were not refined. It was a bumpy ride along the way for every market participant.

Even understanding what jobs that were going to be created as we go along, some of the jobs that are now are filled weren't really here 10 years ago in the ETF community. So, I would tell young people in particular, one, have a passion for learning, have a passion for discovery and asking questions. Then more importantly, have a passion for failing big, making mistakes, getting up, dusting off, and then learning from what you just learned, because you don't learn from winning. You learn from losing or you learn from a big challenge in your life. I would tell you that the ETF community has really addressed some interesting problems, such as fixed income, price discovery, how to get the price of a corporate bond, and then how to transact instantaneously.

There's been a lot of innovation around that pretty quickly, and then even how to buy exposure to commodities, gold, corn, cotton, hogs. You couldn't do this 12 years ago in a charitable format. So, I'm being a little bit talkative because I'm pretty excited about this topic, but I can tell you that the 21-year-old coming into the marketplace today, it's got to be open to be an open learner and then it's about relationships.

Douglas Yones:

Yeah, the relationship thing is just so key. I think of how many roles I was given, people I know were given came through those relationships, partnerships, and frankly just being a good person, but your key around education is so spot on. One of the things that you have done and continue to do is you focus a lot with young people and you give them a lot of exposure. You take the mask off of Wall Street a little bit, right? Because television, movies, we all watch The Wolf of Wall Street and we get these pictures of what we think Wall Street looks like.

Then you walk in the New York Stock Exchange and somebody gives you a hug and it changes your mind, I hope, pretty quickly. You do a lot of that with young people. You bring them into the exchange. You work around mentorships, education. For those that you can't reach, they don't come to you, they don't get to your network, are there things that you would share with that you share behind the scenes with that group that you'd like to share to the rest of the young audience out there?

Reggie Browne:

Yeah, I would tell folks, no matter who you come across, if you've come across someone interesting and let's say you're just trying to figure it out, I tell young people all the time, ask someone what they do, how they got here, and words of advice. If you keep asking those questions, those simple questions to anyone that appeals to you and then get them to talking to you, you'll learn so much particularly about what is topical, what is interesting today, what to do next.

A lot of young people, I have them in my house, my kids are in their early 20s and they think they have all the answers. In reality, they think they have the answers, but they really don't. So, what I would tell you is be open to meet people, ask questions, ask for advice, and just listen with your ears and your mouth closed.

Douglas Yones:

Yeah, that's good. I think about the statement you made about some of these jobs that didn't exist and my kids are a little younger, but they're late teens and they're starting to get ready to leave the house. At their age, they start to worry about what's my degree, what should I study. My job didn't exist when I graduated college, so it didn't really matter, did it? So go out there, try and meet great people, learn a lot. I don't want this to sound like an ad, but one of the things we're trying to solve at the New York Stock Exchange is an entry point way for people who want to be in this industry and want to learn. Through etfcentral.com, we absorbed the ETF Institute. You can now go in there and get certified as a certified ETF advisor. I got the designation a couple weeks ago.

My whole team's going through it now. It's a great way if you're in this industry and you want to round out knowledge or you want to enter the industry and you're saying to yourself, "What book should I read?" Maybe go get yourself that license. It's very inexpensive. We're going to keep it that way. We're continuing to invest in education on ETF Central. Reggie, for those that don't know you well enough, you're not really just an ETF guy. You might be the godfather of ETF, but one of the things I always try to get out of you is some of the other things you work on. You're involved in numerous other ventures. Would you mind sharing a little bit of how you spend some of your non-ETF related time?

Reggie Browne:

Sure. Pretty big on nonprofit work, particularly around education. So, in Philadelphia, my hometown, I live just outside of the city these days, but one of the things that I'm passionate about is giving folks the opportunity to get education. So, I started a program called LEAP at La Salle University that allows young people to get 30 college credits for low cost and start college at sophomore. So, that's one area that I'm passionate about. The second is the arts. I happened to donate a fair amount of time to art-related nonprofit organizations around artists. It's just an incredibly fun area to spend time. Artists are wacky in how they think and they're offbeat and we try to apply business principles to them.

They push back and I find it just amazing that they persist, but they're important part of the creative economy of what they do. So, those are the areas that I spend a lot of time with education and art. Then some of the times, I spend time and money around political fundraising, because helping politicians get in office, expressing your views, they tend to be interesting to listen to. I've learned a lot from a lot of interesting characters on both sides of the aisle actually. So, I'm let's say partisan, but generally, if you're a good guy, I want to hear from you. But Doug, I can tell you that the New York is pretty dynamic.

One of the things I learned the most from my time being affiliated with the exchange, the fact that it's a global business and some amazing people have come by the exchange that are global citizens. One of the launching pads that I found interesting is my love and gift of acceptance of foreign cultures and foreign business practices. I remember being a member as I was in Florida and New York, I mean the number of foreign dignitaries that would come onto the floor, it's just amazing. I think that's one of the gifts that I'll take away from my long career is to understand the business customs of certain countries and then what American values and what we do from a New York perspective export into other areas of the world.

Douglas Yones:

Yeah, the worldview. I mean, wow. I think one of the greatest gifts that the younger generation have, particularly with school, is the ability to just explore overseas. It was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, even personally. I had an opportunity. I lived overseas with Vanguard for a few years in Hong Kong and spent a lot of time throughout Asia. Anyone listening in, if we have some free time one day, I'll tell you the story of my time with Reggie in Singapore. I've got some great stories there, particularly around trying to utilize the taxicab system if I can make Reggie chuckle during our podcast. We won't tell that story here though.

Reggie, SPY turned 30 this year. We participated in a really neat event earlier this year when SPY turned 30. We spent time on the floor celebrating. The SSGA team came in and did a bell ringing. When you look at this $7 trillion listed in just the US alone, we're coming up on the 2,000th, if I can say that correctly, ETF listed at the New York Stock Exchange. Well over 3,000 now across the entire US, across all three markets. Did you always see this as something that would be this big?

Reggie Browne:

No, not necessarily. I had an idea when we were first trading SPY. The idea was to transfer the Chicago SB500 future market to New York City by competing against futures. Lo and behold, there was some success there. So, there was always let's go grab market share or investor interests from other vehicles or other areas and transfer them to ETFs. That's always been I think an early mantra.

So, if you look at the first fixed income ETF, the first commodity ETF, the first international ETF, there are always a lots of first in the very beginning and then there are still first today. The first option to overlay ETF is not that old. The first crypto future ETF is only two years old or so. Then who knows? Maybe we'll get the first crypto cash ETF with the change of administrations and a new SEC commissioner chair.

Douglas Yones:

We just launched the first electricity ETF, AMPD, A-M-P-D. So, they're still first happening, right?

Reggie Browne:

Actually, I was on the Florida to New York I think three weeks ago and someone said, "I just launched a first Puerto Rican Bond ETF."

Douglas Yones:

Correct. Puerto Rican debt, is also the very first one ever.

Reggie Browne:

Yeah, I turned around and I said, "Good luck to that." Just because when you start slicing up these thin slices, there are definitely investors for them. But as you go thin and into areas, the education of how they work and how they're applied in portfolios is really important. We're a big part of the education process. I tell people, I tend to spend probably a third of my time as an educator talking about how ETFs work, how they're included in a portfolio. I do a fair amount work with financial advisors and talking about ETF models. So, a lot of it is just explaining how things work, how to use them, and then making sure the regulators present a free and fair marketplace to have ETFs at the forefront. So, we have some wacky rules that invariably harm the user experience.

So, there's never a dull moment. I think going back to the education part, how do you start? I think being open-minded and being intellectually curious about a lot of different things and how to tie them together into concepts, that's the trait of some of the most successful people on Wall Street I know, is to understand the bigger picture, understand perhaps nuance and how to tie them together to come to an outcome. I met some pretty incredible business leaders and their gift of understanding and getting right to the core issues is fundamentally incredible. So, having that skill or learning how to get there in summary, I think, is seed for success long term for everyone.

Douglas Yones:

In case anyone does want to look into the Puerto Rican Debt ETF, it's ZTAX, Z-T-A-X. You can find it easily enough, go to etfcentral.com. You can put in the search bar, anything you want. We keep innovating in the ETF industry and I think it's so interesting. You never know what's going to really take off, whether it's an AI ETF. I remember when some of the shipping ETFs first started, just tracking shipping rates and people thought, "Boy, that's sliced a little too thin." Then sure enough, there's a massive market that that's looking to hedge their shipping business. So, places that even me, I never really thought of. So, there's a lot of really great and smart, innovative people out there. I think a lot, Reggie, about...

I don't know if you've had a chance to read it, but if you haven't read Bob Pisani's book, he's got some great stories in there about people who just saw the future or saw an alternate version of where Wall Street might head and some of the stories in there are just fantastic. It's a great fun read. If you haven't read, it's Shut Up and Keep Talking by Bob Pisani on the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Let's look into the future. Take out your crystal ball for me, Reggie. You and I, we're fortunate. We get to sit in the middle of whether we want to call it an ecosystem or just we get a lot of lay of the land views and we see what's going on with regulatory changes. We see what people are working on. Interesting ideas tend to come across our desk.

It's one of the things I love about my job. Where do we go from here? What are some of the things that you're watching, whether it be good or bad? Hopefully, more good than bad. Maybe some things you're excited about. Look into the future for me.

Reggie Browne:

Well, I think one of the things that has been incredibly, I think, important is the regulatory flush out of crypto. What we're just experienced over probably the last 18 months, I believe crypto tokenization of securities and how securities are settled through blockchain. I just said a lot in a very short sentence, but I think we're moving towards instantaneous settling of securities and counterparty risk, because the systems are getting mature enough where there could be oversight and good regulatory schemes around it. I think that's where we're heading, number one.

Number two, I think the death of the mutual fund industry has been long forecast and greatly exaggerated, but I think half those assets will move into ETF format over probably the next 25 years just because of investors want to have transparency. They want to see their investments. They want instantaneous price. I think consumer demand will just push those assets into ETFs with the launch of active and other types of vehicles. They're going to be there. So, I tell people the ETF industry is in tailwinds, wind to your back. I firmly believe that's the case. So, with the active managers understanding how to sell their ideas to the consumer, then they're going to pick ETFs first and the consumer wants it. There's a big transfer of risk with the baby boomers.

I think 75 million people are going to retire, I think, and that's the number I read recently, if it's right. Ultimately, they'll go off into glory land post living on this earth, and those assets will be inherited by a large swath of the next ruling class. What they want is they want transparency and low price and ETFs I think are right across here to grab a line share of that money. So, that's where we're going. As far as new ideas, there will always be a new idea on the whiteboard. There always will be debate around the efficiency, regulatory safeness of it, as well as it should be. We should be, I believe, open enough to apply scholarship around it and look at empirical data to make sure what comes out in a marketplace actually works.

So, that's where we're heading. Not only in the United States, but globally. The US will be a leader, and ETFs are listed in many different marketplaces. Surprisingly, they're even listed in Iran. So, ETFs will revolutionize, I believe, even emerging economies and investors who are plowing their money into local stock markets. I think that's where you're going to see the growth go crazy just because it's probably easier to go through some emerging economy than it is some regulatory scheme in the United States.

Douglas Yones:

So for those of you listening in that are thinking, "Should I build my career around ETFs?", I think both Reggie and I will give you a two thumbs up. There's just so much growth and opportunity that still exists. There's so many new ways that ETFs will continue to innovate. There's lots of opportunity out there. That being said, I want to ask you the alternative, is there something out there, Reggie, maybe I'll just say ETF or non-ETF related? Is there anything out there that you worry about?

Reggie Browne:

As far as? In what context? I worry about a lot of different things.

Douglas Yones:

So let's share. Lay down on the New York Stock Exchange sofa. We'll put on some calming music, maybe some incense. I've got some lemongrass going. It's very calming. What are you worried about right now, Reggie?

Reggie Browne:

Well, I look at the state of New York City and the work from home thing is contagious. No one wants to come back to work. I think you're seeing the effects of just empty buildings and particularly empty retail stores. So, I worry about on a large picture the health of larger cities given the cost structure and the ability to run a business that is nimble, profitable, but yet in an economic way, because New York is pretty expensive to operate in. So, I worry about just where our business is domiciled. That's a big picture thing. Secondarily, the supply of people coming into the workforce and their willingness to come into financial services over a tech and other exciting areas, grabbing enough people to come into financial services.

I think we just went through a period where it was tough to hire people, believe it or not. We saw that across many different firms. So, that's a little concerning in my opinion. Then I think largely when it comes down to investment management, I think it's going to be a shift of jobs, particularly out of portfolio management into other types of careers, like wealth for example. I think that young people need to tool themselves with the right skillsets around coding and programming and having the ability to be competitive on a global scape. Because if you line up people coming through the education system, I don't think that we're delivering enough prepared people for the next round of future jobs.

Also, a big picture item there. So, largely, it's an interesting business problem and businesses are adapting by hiring in Poland and Israel and India, but it doesn't really help the American college student find a job. So, I think being prepared to be a global citizen is really the future of work and speaking multiple languages.

Douglas Yones:

Let's talk about the American college student for a moment, because it's the time of year, we're recording this where I feel like probably you and I are in the same boat. We get lots of networked friends or people. Hey, could you chat with this young person? They're coming out of college or they're either graduating senior or they're going to their senior year. What tips do you have? What conversation would you have? I'll add mine and then maybe get the juices flowing for you. But one is I think the young people coming out of college underutilize, underrecognize how powerful LinkedIn can be as a platform. You've got this amazing free tool that's searchable. You can find people across varying industries, find a way to link to them.

But more importantly for themselves, they're just going through three, four years of really neat programs, exercises, portfolios. They're doing things in college that they could be posting and building this online presence for themselves. So, that when you and I are searching and you just heard from Reggie Browne himself, it is hard to find really great candidates. It's hard to dig through the varying platforms we use. That's one way to stand out and I think it's free. It's available to every young person and please build your profile so that we can find you easier. Any tips from you for those listening in?

Reggie Browne:

Well, LinkedIn's great. I mean, I have a profile up and I get hit up all the time for jobs and I don't respond. So, having a direct relationship I think is more important than having electronic profile. I think also too, being in the circles where you can meet people to launch you to the next phase of what you're trying to do is even more important. So, there's executives that go on campus all the time. So, when a business leader shows up on campus, actually go and strike up a conversation and be direct about what you're looking for. You never know what comes out of it. So, that's number one. Number two, going into professional circles that you interact with anyone in the business landscape can invariably take you someplace else you weren't there as of yesterday.

So, good old-fashioned, hey, can we just talk for a second and may I ask you a question about what you do and who you are, that invariably if you've had that spark can launch you into an area that you weren't necessarily there five minutes ago. So, those are more important in addition to having a profile LinkedIn, but also meeting people and being out, being available for those conversations. I've met some really bubbly college seniors and I know right away, I said, "We should follow up, because I like your attitude. I like your personality. You're bubbly and you're funny."

So having a personality that is open I think is incredibly keys to the future for future success. So, all those things that what I just said I think are just inputs. If you just are willing to talk to people, they'll take you a long way. I can tell you that, take you a long way.

Douglas Yones:

Couldn't agree more, Reggie. So, thank you. We talked a lot about what you're worried about. Do you look out in the marketplace today and say, "Hey, here's some real opportunities that people should be taking advantage of in today's market"?

Reggie Browne:

Yeah, I mean obviously, most people are trying to get into training programs out of school into the big banks, but don't discount going for small businesses and bouncing around with new ideas launched by entrepreneurs. Those are great ways to get into interesting situations where you're doing multiple jobs all at once. So, I look at the technology landscape and there's some incredible opportunities out there from marketing to tech to programming to business analysis. I walked into an office outside of the country about a month ago. It was like 15 people standing in a room, working on laptops, wearing a pair of shorts, wearing dark T-shirts.

They're all working towards the greater good of tackling big business. Those are fun jobs, where you're mission-driven, driven by a purpose, and you just think that what you're working on is really cool. So, the number one ingredient is be happy and be mission driven for an outcome. But when I look at the opportunity set, what's coming next, it's really about innovation, about converting an ordinary job into making it easier for the consumer to interact with next. ETFs have done that. Rural banking is coming up next and taking shape. So, those opportunities are widely available here right now.

Douglas Yones:

So perfect places for people to be thinking about their long-term career. I know we're getting close to the end here, Reggie, and we've used up a lot of your time. I got to challenge you though, of all the ETFs that you've helped launch, do you have a favorite one?

Reggie Browne:

Oh, that's not a fair question, because if I call one out, I'm going to get a phone call or a text saying, "How come you didn't say my ETF?" I think the most interesting ETF I launched, it was an ETF for Peru that allowed the Peruvian pension funds to move their portfolios through the settlement system into the marketplace to get liquidity, because the pension funds owned the entire float of the local market. That checker was EPU. That was out maybe 12 years ago. That was pretty exciting. The first series of bond ETFs, I was involved in bank loans, for example. Very interesting, lot of controversy. Are they liquid enough? Are they appropriate for ETFs? A lot of debate. So, those are always fun. So, my favorites were really the first of, controversial, and where you can argue your point and be right.

Douglas Yones:

I love it. Reggie, for anyone that's out there, they're thinking about launching a new ETF business. They're thinking about launching new ETFs. How should they be considering the way they engage with you and your team?

Reggie Browne:

Honestly, if you're thinking about it, just call us up. We are at the tail end of ecosystem where you're ready to launch, you need capital, you need a market maker, you need some advice around distribution. That's where we shine particularly. So, I think one's having a good, qualified idea, and then secondarily, making sure there's enough liquidity in the marketplace of the idea that you have. I referenced people have brought out some ideas before and thinly traded securities. You still got approved, but the spreads were wide.

I think that having a good understanding of the consumer set you're aiming for to move assets into the idea in the marketplace is pretty paramount. So, we can be your market maker. You need liquidity, you need a price maker. That's what GTS does the best. We can help you with distribution and education in the marketplace and those are all secondary superpowers, but that's what we do for a living.

Douglas Yones:

It is what Reggie and his team do for a living, but more importantly, they do it and have fun along the way and become friends with their clients and become partners. It's something that I've seen time and time again, year in and year out. Reggie, I have to say thank you so much for spending all this time with us today and sharing all of your insights. That is a wrap for this edition of ETF Central, the podcast. As a reminder, you can find this episode as well as many other episodes and you can spend time utilizing that free ETF screener on the website, etfcentral.com.

Thanks again, Reggie, for sharing all of your insights with us today. Please stay tuned for upcoming episodes featuring thought leaders from across the ETF ecosystem. I'm Douglas Yones, Head of Exchange Traded Funds at the New York Stock Exchange, the home of ETFs.

Reggie Browne:

Thanks, Doug.