Remy Blaire: Welcome to FinTech TV. Active traders and tactical investors are navigating high volatility across tax semis and broad market indices. Now active traders may be looking for new ways to capture the continued semi and AI capex cycle while demand for private market access to pre-IPO heavyweights like anthropic reaches fever pitch. At the same time, tactical investors are moving beyond traditional daily reset products toward weekly. And monthly structures that match multi-week trading horizons. Well, joining us live here at City Winery in New York City at Stocktoberfest is Matt Markiewicz, who is head of product and capital markets at Tradr ETFs. Great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining me, Matt.
Matt Markiewicz: Thanks for having me.
Remy Blaire: Well, here we are counting down the months until the end of the year, and there are a lot of expectations when it comes to private markets and in particular anthropic. So give us your perspective.
Matt Markiewicz: Yeah, listen, we've been waiting for this IPO for quite some time. We have a couple of ETFs that are filed on Anthropic, so, you know, anticipating the the launch of that issue at some point. Um, I Uh, you know, as a, as a ETF issuer, we can only launch ETFs on publicly traded companies, right? So, the more the capital market cycle accelerates, the more excited we get, um, because there are these new exciting and mostly volatile issues that are coming. Um, but I think much like the SpaceX IPO ignited the interest in space companies and then then the space ecosystem, Anthropic should continue to do that for the AI ecosystem as well.
Remy Blaire: And when it comes to what's happening with artificial intelligence, not just the technology, but also what's happening within corporations, we are looking at this capex cycle and obviously the build out here. So give us your sense of where you Expect things will go as we head into 2027.
Matt Markiewicz: Well, the numbers are pretty staggering from just like a sheer notional amount that's being spent on this build out and um you know, we, we have a lot of companies that are involved all the way from power companies, semiconductors as you mentioned. Um, companies that are carrying the data whether they be, you know, copper or photonics, so, you know, I think new companies are coming to market that are, you know, involved in this AI build out with a couple of good IPOs that are, have been, you know, at least talked about for next year, um, you know, so like at trader we just wanna see as much capital markets activity as, as we can, and, you know, I think the AI. Super cycle is gonna be around for a very long time, uh, and of course like if you really think that it's overvalued or overstretched, we also have a bunch of short strategies too where you could take advantage of uh downward moves in a lot of the stock prices
Remy Blaire: and of course you are here at Stocktoberfest, so I do want to get a sense of the temperature here on the ground. And what are you hearing from some of the attendees this year?
Matt Markiewicz: Yeah, still, I'd say overall very bullish, uh, environment out there. Still a strong appetite for risk. Um, we see it in, in our products volumes are still very strong for our leverage products and both on the short and long side, you know, everyone has a differing opinion, of course, um, which makes the world go around, but. Still really excited about not only the anthropic IPO but the AI and AI adjacent trades that are out there. A lot of news flow that's driving the, the, you know, the movement in stocks and of course we're coming into earnings season, which is always, um, you know, a period of heightened volatility and also trading volumes.
Remy Blaire: Yeah, a lot of keywords you mentioned there, Matt. Since we just saw the NASDAQ 100, the NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500 hit record highs, but we're also talking about an environment where we're seeing volatility across commodities as well as the bond market. So when it comes to leveraged products, how do they compare versus other products out there?
Matt Markiewicz: Well, leverage ETFs have been around for about 20 years. Um, single stock leverage ETFs. Uh, we were the first ETF issuer in the US to launch these a little over 4 years ago. Uh, what they, you know, kind of the problem that they solve for a lot of investors, let's say you're trading options. If you're trading options, you need to pick a strike price, right? You need to pick an expert. You gotta be worried about your tenor. Um, that doesn't happen with leverage ETFs. You just, you have a bullish view on a stock and You want to trade it for a few days, you don't have to worry about like, you know, oh, which strike do I pick because that will affect the outcome of your of your trade, right? When you're trading on margin, your brokerage platform is charging you a fee to do that and of course if the trade goes against you, you may be forced to sell some of your position to cover the margin that doesn't occur with with our ATFs so you can kind of only lose what you put in and again you're avoiding the pitfalls of, you know, trading on margin or. Having to pay, as I said, an expiry or you know, an actual strike price when you're when you're trading options.
Remy Blaire: And Matt, finally, before I let you go, when we take a look at the stock wits community, it is an active, very involved community, and of course we're talking about the advent and the evolution of social media. So when it comes to actual funds and product innovation as well as evolution, what do you expect to see not just heading into the new year but also beyond?
Matt Markiewicz: Well, uh, as you mentioned, volatility is, you know, ever present, right? We've gone through lows where it's been low, and, but from a trading environment and kind of, you know, what we like to see is volatility actually be a little higher because that pres pre presents a lot of opportunities. To get into and out of positions, um, you know, the, the opportunity to generate alpha, uh, I think the interest in just trading single stock stories has really blossomed over the past several years because people are on social media and talking about the narratives, especially in AI. So there's, there's a lot to talk about. So I expect that to continue, but we also have a lot of headwinds heading into next year. Interest rate picture, what's the Fed gonna do? Are they gonna continue with two more rate hikes, um, you know, geopolitical, of course that weighs on everything. So you know there's always something to talk about and always something to trade, which is what makes it so fun.
Remy Blaire: Well Matt, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us here at Stocktoberfest in New York City.
Matt Markiewicz: Thanks for having me.
Remy Blaire: My pleasure.
