11 Investment Must Reads for This Week (Feb. 25, 2025)11 Investment Must Reads for This Week (Feb. 25, 2025)

Top 15 Value-Creating Stocks of the Past Decade “The stocks on my list created an estimated $20.8 trillion in shareholder wealth over the past 10 years. That’s more than 4 times my estimate of about $4.6 trillion for the top 15 funds. Owning shares in an individual stock is a lot riskier than owning a broadly diversified fund, and the odds of experiencing a loss are much higher. However, if you manage to invest in a profitable stock, the upside can be much greater.” (Morningstar)

PGIM Expands Semi-Liquid Alts Wealth Push “The firm is considering private equity secondaries, infrastructure, real estate debt, and hedge funds for the wealth market, at a time when wirehouses have become more selective with their alts managers, said Dominick Carlino, global head of alternative investments at PGIM Investments.” (FundFire)

Gold ETFs drew largest weekly inflow since March 2022, says WGC “Gold ETFs store bullion for investors and account for a significant amount of investment demand for the precious metal , which hit a record high of $2,956.15 per troy ounce on Monday. Gold ETFs saw an inflow of 52.4 metric tons worth $5 billion last week, the largest amount since the first week of March 2022, when global markets were grappling with immediate consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.” (Reuters)

Trump Media to Launch ‘America First’ Investment Fund “The company announced last week that it will partner with investors to build a portfolio of companies that can operate as independent subsidiaries while benefiting from Trump Media's branding and technology…. Securities attorneys have already raised concerns that the investment fund could create conflicts of interest if investors seek political favor through their contributions.” (Fund Fire)

BlackRock Crushes The Competition With Over 50% Of The Bitcoin ETF Market “According to data, BlackRock currently holds over $56.8 billion in Bitcoin, representing 50.4% of the assets under management of all U.S. Bitcoin ETF issuers, whose total assets exceed $112 billion. This milestone is reached just over a year after the approval and launch of the first Bitcoin ETFs in the United States on January 11, 2025.” (cointribune)

Microsoft reiterates plan to invest $80 billion in AI, but may ‘adjust our infrastructure in some areas’ “Microsoft said Monday that it’s sticking to its plan to allocate more than $80 billion of its cash to capital expenditures, following an analyst’s note on Friday claiming the company has canceled data center leases.” (CNBC)

BlackRock Launches ETF Certification Program in Partnership with Kaplan “The ETF industry continues to grow, and financial advisors need specialized training on the subject. In this context, BlackRock, in partnership with the Kaplan Financial Planning School, has launched a portfolio construction and ETF certification program for financial advisors.” (Funds Society)

What the public-private convergence means for advisers “However, the nature of the investment needs to be properly evaluated and understood. Within the idea of bringing liquidity to illiquid assets, there is the potential risk that liquidity may only be a feature in stable and improving market conditions, whilst it may quickly disappear at the first sign of stress.” (Portfolio Adviser)

Why Leveraged ETFs Are for the Birds “When I ran those numbers, I found that an investor could have earned a roughly 18% return by investing directly in unleveraged ETFs tracking the same reference indexes or by purchasing the stocks. This means that the average dollar that investors put to work in daily leveraged stock and bond ETFs earned only 5 percentage points more than could have been earned by conventional ETFs or the individual stocks concerned, while enduring much greater volatility along the way.” (Morningstar)

Meketa hires private markets execs for wealth management “Meketa Investment Group named Chris Rosato and Christian McCormick to lead the firm’s efforts to develop private markets investment solutions for the wealth management marketplace. These hires come as the firm is focused on educating financial intermediaries and their clients on the use of private markets strategies in their investment portfolios.” (Alternatives Watch)

Asset Managers' Sales Tools Cramp Some FAs' Style “In an era when data reigns supreme, asset managers view the ability to track how financial advisors engage with sales and marketing materials as table stakes. But after years of doubling down on analytics, distribution teams are grappling with the risk of alienating some financial advisors who prefer a traditional approach.” (Financial Advisor IQ)