1,508 New ETFs in a Year — And Nobody Has Enough Afternoons

U.S. issuers launched 1,508 ETFs in the twelve months through August — roughly 29 new funds every week. That is the central figure in a sharply argued industry critique, delivered as a 16-page zine and a 15-minute talk at the Future Proof conference in Huntington Beach last week by a longtime ETF specialist who has spent most of their career in the product category.

The author's count: 1,508 new U.S. ETFs. "You cannot give every new ticker a thoughtful afternoon. There aren't enough afternoons."

Advisors Are Doing Homework, Not Culling

The flood of products is not aimed only at retail traders. A Q2 AdvizorPro study of 5,400 registered investment advisors found the average RIA grew their approved ETF list from 88 to 93 tickers over the year. Each new ticker, the author notes, is a distinct product somebody has to understand, explain to clients and monitor.

That contradicts what advisors have said they want for years: fewer, deeper relationships. "It's not that I don't believe it when an advisor tells me they want to pare down their inbound wholesaler schedule, it's just that, honestly, as a group, advisors aren't doing it," the author writes. "Instead, the industry's product development onslaught has become advisor homework."

What's selling is no longer cheap beta. It's active, derivatives, income and alternatives. FactSet's Elisabeth Kashner found higher-fee funds gaining share in five of ten active segments — and active is where the flows are going.

The Options Boom

Advisors are paying up wherever options are involved. Todd Sohn of Baird Strategas supplies the math: JPMorgan's JEPI offers a 7.6% indicated yield at 8% volatility, against 4.8% and 14% for TLT. "These are not stupid people opting out of Treasuries," the author writes.

JEPI has pulled in more than $40 billion over five years, with $4.5 billion this year. The success has spawned hundreds of options-based ETFs, some promising exaggerated distribution yields that rely on returning investors' own money through levered single-stock bets.

Buffer ETFs get a pass. Despite arguments that more efficient strategies exist, Morningstar found buffer-fund investors beating their own funds' returns over 3- and 5-year windows — meaning they timed entries and exits correctly. The author's suspicion: a defined payoff keeps nervous investors in their seats during scary moments.

Leverage Losers and Stacked Winners

Leveraged and inverse ETFs, especially single-stock products, have been a big deal in 2026. Morningstar's study through August 14 estimated issuers collected $506 million in management fees while the average since-inception fund return was minus 38%. "Essentially nobody but issuers is making money with these things," the author writes.

Return stacking — using stocks and bonds to lever into diversifiers like managed futures or gold — is the constructive flip side. Even BlackRock has entered the space. The author predicts that after "a few hundred funds close," stacked products will rival options income in scale.

On private assets, ERShares drew both criticism and credit for "discovering" the 15% illiquid sleeve long used by mutual funds. TEMA's new Prediction Market ecosystem ETF (DICE) holds Kalshi and Polymarket in its private bucket. Expect this to become common — the author worries about too many ETFs loading up on the same illiquid shares.

The Real Problems: Gambling and Regulators

The author calls everything above "background noise" to two larger issues. First, U.S. gambling proliferation. Betterment's survey shows 52% of Gen Z investors redirected investing money into sports betting in the past year, and the Urban Institute found gambling penetration rising with income levels.

The proof of mania: 342 MLB and NHL ETFs proposed since mid-August — 150 baseball funds and 192 hockey funds, with all the baseball filings arriving September 21. Tick ers like FISH and QUAK are designed to sucker in fans.

Second, enforcement is shrinking. Total SEC enforcement actions fell from 784 in fiscal 2023 to 456 in 2025. The GAO counted 235 departures from Enforcement in 2025, out of 871 total departures. The SEC says it is "emphasizing fraud" over case volume. The agency is also scrapping monthly fund disclosures and has floated private, closed-door consultation on novel product filings.

The author's plea to advisors: "PLEASE ask your clients about their — and especially their children's — gambling and cowboy-trading accounts." Protect family assets from internal threats.

The Takeaway

Write down, on paper, why every ticker in a client portfolio is there. "Most good ETFs are boring. Each ETF should have a job, do it well, and be as cheap as possible," the author writes — and no portfolio needs a slot for every headline with a ticker attached. The author will expand on the argument in a Kitces webinar with live Q&A on October 6 at 3 p.m. Eastern.