Behind the Ticker

SpaceX in an ETF — Here's How They Did It | Yuri Khodjamirian, Tema ETFs

Yuri Khodjamirian spent a decade running institutional equity portfolios in London before leaving the industry entirely to get a master's degree in bioscience at Cambridge. That intellectual restlessness is what eventually brought him to Tema ETFs, where he now serves as CIO overseeing a suite of actively managed thematic funds — and most recently, the Tema Space Innovators ETF, ticker NASA. In this episode, Yuri breaks down what makes NASA different from every other space fund on the market — starting with the fact that it holds SpaceX. He walks through exactly how a private company ends up inside a liquid ETF, what investors need to understand about the SPV structure, and why Tema chose to absorb those costs rather than pass them through. Beyond SpaceX, we get into how Yuri and his team are building exposure across the full stack of the space economy — launch, satellites, connectivity, imaging, and the under-the-radar supply chain businesses that competing funds simply aren't finding. He also makes the case for why the 9% projected annual growth headline understates what's actually happening in commercial space, why active management matters more here than almost anywhere else, and how advisors should think about sizing a position like this inside a client portfolio.

The Entire US Bond Market in One Ticker | Steve Laipply, BlackRock iShares

Steve Laipply is the Global Co-Head of iShares Fixed Income ETFs at BlackRock — overseeing roughly a trillion dollars in bond ETF assets. His path into the category started not with a job posting but with a moment of personal frustration trying to buy a two-year treasury note and a colleague suggesting he just buy a bond ETF instead. That curiosity led him to BGI, the iShares predecessor, where he joined a small team that helped build the bond ETF category from the ground up. In this episode, Steve breaks down BTOT — the iShares Total US Fixed Income Market ETF — and makes the case for why the Bloomberg Aggregate, for all its utility, leaves meaningful parts of the bond market on the table. We get into what BTOT includes that the AG doesn't, how to think about duration extension in a world where money markets are still yielding in the high threes, and why Steve believes bond ETF prices function as leading indicators during market stress. He also addresses the individual bond vs. ETF debate head-on, explains how BTOT and BlackRock's active BINC fund are designed to work together, and closes with career advice that's more useful than most.

The Only Pure Play Drone ETF on the Market | Bill Birmingham, REX Shares

Bill Birmingham spent his career as a buy-side equity research analyst before joining REX Shares to help build their crypto product suite — and eventually take on a broader mandate of finding the next emerging investment themes before they're obvious. That search led him to drones. In this episode, Bill breaks down DRNZ — the REX Drone ETF and the only pure-play UAV fund on the market. We get into why existing defense ETFs were failing drone investors, how the index is constructed to capture emerging names before they dominate the cap table, and why the counter-drone market may actually be a bigger opportunity than drones themselves. Bill also walks through where commercial drone revenue is real right now, why he's revised his eVTOL timeline closer than he originally expected, and what the FAA's pending BVLOS rulemaking unlocks for industrial use cases that are technically ready but operationally stuck. If you've been watching the drone space and wondering how to get clean exposure to it — this is the episode. Learn more at rexshares.com and follow REX Shares and Bill Birmingham on X

$55B Built on Tools for Traders | Mo Sparks, Direxion

Mo is the Chief Product Officer at Direxion — and the person who first told Brad to start a podcast instead of a Netflix series. Years later, he's the guest. With a career that ran from Vanguard to the New York Stock Exchange to Raymond James before landing at Direxion, Mo brings a rare cross-sectional view of the ETF industry that few in the space can match. In this episode, Mo breaks down how Direxion — now managing roughly $55 billion across 130+ ETFs — builds tools for active traders to express short-term views with leverage. We get into how the daily reset mechanism works and why holding these products beyond a single day changes the math, how the firm decides which single stock names deserve a leveraged wrapper (and whether to offer bull, bear, or both), and why most trader assets still flow overwhelmingly to the bull side. Mo also walks through the new Titan series concentrated basket concept, the right and wrong ways advisors are using these products in client portfolios, and where the category goes from here — including what the team has publicly filed and what they're watching in the tokenization space. It's a candid conversation about a corner of the ETF market that is widely misunderstood and underappreciated as a legitimate portfolio tool.

The Multi-Manager ETF Built for Small Cap Alpha | Chris Tessin, Acuitas Investments

Chris Tessin, founder of Acuitas Investments, joins the show to break down AIMS — the Acuitas Multi-Manager Small Cap ETF and one of the most structurally unique products we've covered on Behind the Ticker. Rather than a single portfolio manager picking stocks, AIMS aggregates multiple deeply researched, truly active small cap managers into one ETF wrapper at a single all-in fee of 75 basis points. Chris walks through how the multi-manager model works, how Acuitas sources and underwrites managers — often finding them before anyone else is paying attention — why active management has a real edge in small cap, and why the valuation and earnings setup for small cap makes this a compelling time to pay attention to the space.