First Look ETF: Ex-US International, US Equity, and Faith-Based ETFs

Hello everyone. You are watching the January episode of First Look ETF. Welcome to season 6. I'm Stephanie Stanton with ETF Guide. A very happy new year to all of our viewers. We have a fantastic episode to kick off the new year.

Coming up on today's show, the resurgence in international stocks is getting more attention these days. We're going to explore an ETF from Even Tide Investments that targets this rebounding trend. Plus, we'll tell you about an ETF suite from SSNC Alps that uses a factor-driven rules-based equity strategy with an emphasis on quality and income. And finally, we'll take a look at an ETF from GQG Partners that blends active management fundamental stock selection with a risk-aware philosophy, all of it inside a single ticker.

But first, before we go any further, let's welcome ML Legum with the New York Stock Exchange. ML, thank you for joining us. Happy 2026.

>> Thanks, Stephanie. It's great to be back for the first episode of 2026. All right, let's kick things off with the latest update on ETF launch activity. How are things shaping up?

>> As we closed out the year, the industry is inching towards 5,000 ETFs in the US market, a milestone that speaks to incredible growth. Here at the New York Stock Exchange, we're proud to say that about 75% of all US ETF assets under managements are listed right here. December alone saw 135 new launches, capping off a year of unprecedented product development. In total, the market welcomed over 600 new ETFs, smashing all previous records.

And it wasn't just ETF launches. ETF inflows hit nearly 1.5 trillion in 2025, averaging about 6 billion a day. That's another record for the books. With innovation investor demand at an all-time high, ETFs continue to redefine the marketplace. And I certainly can't wait to see what this year has to bring.

Last year was a remarkable year. The ETF industry hit many big milestones. For 2026, what trends in the ETF marketplace are on your radar?

>> Active ETFs continue to surge. In fact, they captured nearly a third of all inflows last year and now represent a majority of new launches. Expect fierce competition on performance and fees. After many years of waiting this year, multi-share class ETFs become a reality, giving issuers new flexibility in structuring products.

We also see cash-like ETFs remain in high demand as investors seek safe haven with ultrashort treasury and money market fund like ETFs setting new records. Defined outcome strategies, adoptionbased ETF are also booming. Covered calls and derivative overlays are attracting investors looking for income, even more complex structures. And finally, crypto ETFs enter a new phase with streamline SEC guidelines.

We could see over a 100 new launches, including multicoin products, though we're likely to see crowding and consolidation in that space as well. The future for ETF continues to be bright. They've truly become the rapper of choice with strong retail adoption and innovation at driving the next wave of growth.

And ML, we have a great guest lineup as always. What are you looking forward to on today's show? First up, we have Alps Oshares, who made headlines late last year by bringing four of their funds back to the NYC. Always great to see that kind of commitment to our marketplace. Event joins us bringing their unique investing in good approach to the ETF space. And rounding out the lineup, GQG Partners, a boutique investment manager that recently debuted their first ETF.

With innovation and fresh ideas from these issuers, today's conversations are going to be insightful and forward-looking. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss it.

>> And we're going to wrap it up right there. May Tall, thank you so much for the update. Keep up the good work and we will see you very soon.

>> Thank you.

>> And just a quick reminder to watch First Look ETF on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku. Also, we simoc cast First Look ETF on iTunes and Spotify, so don't miss it. The Alps Oshare suite of ETFs is one of the more unique ETF lineups. To select stocks, the funds use a rules-based and factor-driven strategy with an emphasis on equity income quality and minimal volatility.

Well, here to tell us more along with recent changes in the lineup is Paul Maki, head of fund sales and strategy with SSNC Alps Advisors. Paul, always a pleasure to see you.

>> Always great to see you as well, Stephanie. So your firm recently transferred the listings of four Alps OShares ETFs to the NYSC ARCA. Explain why this was done and then what impact it will have on ETF shareholders.

>> Yeah, so the most important venue for trading securities of any type in the world is the New York Stock Exchange. They've been an incredibly important partner to us for a couple decades now. And this is really just about optimization of our business and of our lineup. And given that the NYC Arca is home to some of the most important products and securities in the world, it was a natural way for us to continue to provide the appropriate venue for the allocators who interface with Alps products on an ongoing basis.

Just anecdotally, we were there last year to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of AMLP, our largest flagship ETF. And it was an experience that was meaningful to me having been in the industry for a long time, but also was a really important opportunity for us to engage with our clients at a very important place in financial services.

>> Yeah, absolutely. Let's take a deeper dive into this lineup, the Alps OShares lineup. You've got these four products inside of it. What makes it a compelling solution for ETF investors and maybe give us some nuggets of some of these four products?

>> Yeah, so O gig, the global internet giants ETF is kind of the one sore thumb if you want to call it that within the lineup because it's distinct in terms of what it's trying to do for investors. And so I'll just focus on the quality components of the lineup. OEFA, the developed XUS version as well as the small cap version O USM and the large cap version O USA. And ultimately what all of these products are trying to do is take a segment of the market and improve the overall quality through screening for things like return on assets.

So are you able to generate profitability on your asset base, net debt to IBIDA, are you able to generate that profitability without excess leverage? and then also make sure that the portfolio doesn't have a vicious draw down profile and doesn't have significantly higher volatility. And so if you're looking at large caps, if you're looking at small and midcaps, if you're looking at developed XUS stocks, what the Oshares lineup does is take that universe, that starting universe, which is made up of a number of different types of companies in different sectors, and ensure that the companies you own have profits that are generated without excess leverage.

They pay a dividend, they grow a dividend, and they have low relative volatility. And so at its core, the strategies do exactly what they say they do in their name, which is quality dividends. So quality companies with a strong dividend profile driven by really their ability to grow their dividends over time and cover those dividends.

>> Yeah. I mean, obviously back to basics, right? So how do you see advisers and investors using these ETFs as part of an overall investment portfolio strategy?

The way we try and message the OSHA's lineup to investors is are you looking at a segment of the market and trying to take on an allocation but are not necessarily trying to take the full risk of that allocation. And I think O USM is a great example of that because as you know off of that tariff tantrum bottom in the spring of last year we saw quite a rally in small caps and out of the COVID bottom we saw quite a rally in small caps but it was often led by the lowest quality companies in that universe companies that don't generate profits.

40% or so of the Russell 2000 famously doesn't make money or is unprofitable and those are the types of companies that are excluded from O USM. And so O USM is never going to promise to give you full participation in a rally like that. But what it's also typically done historically is avoid the violent draw downs that come in that segments of the market in many cases without warning.

And so some draw down protection, draw down avoidance, but also ensuring that when you're allocating on a core basis to large caps, to small caps, to developed XUS, that you're doing so with a portfolio that's been called down based on that factor methodology to ensure that those companies generate profitability without excess leverage, pay a dividend, grow their dividend, and have dividends that are well supported by fundamentals. And that is really the core philosophy.

This is a way to take the market and orient it toward that quality factor while also ensuring that you get a dividend profile that is also well supported.

>> Good stuff. We are going to leave it right there. Paul, it's great to see you again. So happy to have you join us here on First Look ETF and good luck to you.

>> Always a pleasure. Thank you so much and you have a great year.

>> After more than a decade of US dominance, global equities have quietly flipped the script. Over the past year, international markets have begun to outpace the S&P 500 powered by cheaper valuations, improving economic sentiment abroad, and a rebound in regions like Europe and China.

Well, here to discuss that, plus a new ETF targeting this area of the global stock market is Chris Grogan, portfolio manager, director of asset allocation services with Even Tide Investments. Chris, thank you so much for joining us.

>> Uh, thanks Stephanie. Thanks for having me.

You're very welcome. Before we launch into your latest ETF, please familiarize our audience with Even Tide Investments and what makes your firm investment approach unique.

>> Sure. So, Even Tide Investments, we've been around for 17 years. We manage roughly 7.5 billion dollars in assets across our mutual funds and ETF business lines. We've been a thought leader in the faith-based investment move investing movement. I think when folks think about faith-based investing, they typically think about maybe you know a restricted list or a Catholic screening approach.

We've been at the nexus of implementing an investment philosophy that seeks to our tagline is investing that makes the world rejoice. And so what does that mean? As as a faith-driven investors, we try to avoid profiting from many different issues. You know the big the big obvious ones related to addiction and the destruction of life but we've also implemented this investment philosophy where we believe as a way to love our neighbors we're seeking businesses that are loving their neighbors and we interpret that as a company's stakeholders.

So we take a particular focus on employees and customers as the primary stakeholders in a business, but we also consider other stakeholders and we're doing this in a way to achieve of course you know our mission that's driven by Christian values and the ethics behind that. But we also believe that value creation is an underappreciated source of alpha in the marketplace.

And so we've grown from this kind of boutique shop. Our you know primary our our kind of legacy competence is in the high conviction fundamental active strategies. We have a particular expertise within the biotech space. But since we've entered the ETF business line a little over a year ago we've expanded our offerings to include other factors like dividend growth, midcap, but also you know your typical style boxes. And now our latest creation, if you will, is our our first XUS mandate in this international ETF.

>> And let's dive into that. The Even Tide International ETF, your ticker is ESIM or EIM. Recently joined your ETF lineup as you said. The fund is listed on the NYC ARCA. So big congrats on that. EIM targets international stocks. And you guys had a solid 2025 by outperforming US stocks.

Tell us more about the investment strategy behind EIM and then what types of companies it might hold.

>> EIM, yes I am. It's within our systematic lineup and what does that mean? It means we use rules-based portfolio construction to implement the investment philosophy and that's really useful as we look at international markets. You know it's a very very broad universe. There's some international indices that have you know between 8,000 or you know more than 10,000 securities. And so using a rules-based quantitatively driven way to implement portfolio construction is a great way for us to try to derive alpha from our curated list of securities that our fundamental and values based analysts have you know selected for inclusion in the strategy.

We just launched the strategy or the ETF if you will a few weeks ago and so it's that the ETF is in its infancy but we spent a considerable amount of time vetting that universe and we consume a lot of data from external vendors and we do our own web scraping and we have our own team of pro programmers and developers that help to kind of build that view of a company and how its products and practices impact human flourishing and their stakeholders. We call that process business 360.

And so as we think about the strategy, we educate our allocator clients to think of it as a business 360 factor strategy for international markets. And in its current state, it's roughly 100 holdings and it's pretty relative to you know XUS acqui mandates it's skewed towards developed markets but it has some developing emerging markets exposure. We don't have any exposure to China which our you know valleys based or faith-based audience tends to appreciate.

>> Okay. So then on that note how do you see financial adviserss and investors potentially using EIM inside a diversified portfolio?

>> We do a lot of work on consulting with financial adviserss that are using even tithe only strategies or a combination of various managers to build values-based or faith-based portfolios for their clients. We've observed that within this kind of exus international mandate there's a lack of options for the very discerning values based investor especially if they're very costconscious we priced this strategy very aggressively at 59 basis points it's it's our you know in our observation we've seen international mandates are typically used as you know if you look at the average allocator as a beta exposure of course there's can significant opportunities for alpha if the allocator has a high conviction view.

Usually, you know, very often we find that in emerging markets, but for your average allocator, they're typically with if they're for a US-based client, their overweight US equities and their international allocation is typically on average 20% of their equity allocation. So we wanted we wanted to serve that betalike client by using a systematic approach that seeks to reduce tracking error as much as possible but doesn't violate a lot of the discerning screens we have on areas of of avoidance as I mentioned addiction and destruction of life issues.

And we wanted we wanted to give them a compelling story for their client. So instead of you know picking an ESG aaware or very light touch screening strategy or that's typically you know packaged in a direct index we want them to bring investing that makes the world rejoice to their total client portfolio. And until we've launched a strategy that you know they've they've many of our clients have just stopped short of saying that holistically on a portfolio level we're you know seeking to find best-in-class companies that are contributing the most to human flourishing.

And so now they're able to do that with it with a this this strategy that enables total portfolio solutions that implement our investment philosophy of investing that makes the world rejoice.

>> Yeah, making the world rejoice. We could all use a little more of that. Chris, thank you so much for joining us and sharing more about your latest ETF. Good luck.

>> Yeah, thanks so much, Stephanie. Appreciate it.

>> Managing downside risk while still delivering attractive long-term returns over a full market cycle is no easy task. The GQG US equity ETF and your ticker GQGU could be a compelling solution for ETF investors.

Here to tell us more about the fund and its unique strategy is Alex Hoy, client portfolio manager with GQG Partners. Alex, thank you for joining us today. So before we dive into your latest ETF launch, can you familiarize our audience with GQG Partners and tell us about your firm's investment philosophy?

So, GQG Partners was founded in mid 2016 and today we are very grateful to be running roughly 160 billion dollars on behalf of our clients. Our four main strategies are our US international emerging markets and global equity products and our new ETF GQGU is the ETF vehicle for our US equity strategy. Our unique investment philosophy is this concept that we call forwardlooking quality and it's our belief that you can't invest with simply an eye in the rearview mirror.

You have to invest with an eye to the future and identify companies that are exhibiting highquality characteristics that will enable them to compound their earnings on a go forward basis instead of just looking at their history and assuming that that will play out as it once did.

>> The GQG US equity ETF and the ticker again GQGU was recently listed on the NYC ARCA. So congratulations on that. So how does the fund select stocks and what types of companies might we expect to see inside the portfolio?

>> Our investment process is entirely focused on bottomup stock selection. So using that investment philosophy of forward-looking quality that I already discussed, our investment team is out there meeting with management teams and looking at companies one by one to add to our portfolios. But in terms of what types of stocks you may find in our portfolio, we are a benchmark agnostic strategy.

And this investment philosophy gives us the ability to be really adaptable into whatever area that that we are finding attractive opportunities at that point in the market. Um, so sometimes we may look like more traditional growth managers to use the the typical style box terms and sometimes we may look more valueoriented based on our assessment of companies exhibiting attractive earnings growth potential on a go forward basis.

>> So Alex, how do you see financial adviserss and investors potentially using GQGU inside a diversified portfolio?

It's a great question and it's one that's sometimes difficult to answer because our historical performance pattern has been one that is quite strong, but it's been notably one where we generate a significant portion of our alpha in down market periods and we're really proud of our downside protection historically. But that said, we don't ignore the upside. We typically keep up and up market periods.

And so the way that folks use us in the equity buckets within their portfolios can vary from time to time. We do see a healthy amount of clients pairing us with maybe a passive index option where we are in a 50/50 split or maybe the satellite to a core passive allocation just because our investment approach is one that does tend to move around or rather the portfolio does tend to move around. But we all are also commonly used as a growth manager within a client's portfolio.

But in these instances, clients need to understand that we're not always going to look growth in the stylebox sense of the word. But we we have are of course looking for companies that are growing their earnings. And so in that approach, we really do need clients to understand that it may take a full market cycle for our investment opportunities to play out. So keeping that long-term focus in mind is important.

>> And we're going to end it right there. Alex Hoy, thank you so much for joining us. It's been great to have you here on First Look ETF. And that does it for today's episode of First Look ETF. If you enjoyed the show, please tell us in the comment section below and by hitting the like button. Want to give a big thanks to all of our guests along with ML Legum at the New York Stock Exchange. Be sure to check out ETF Central.com to learn more. I'm Stephanie Stanton with ETF Guide. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time.