Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: There Are a Lot of ETFs

More ETFs than stocks

My theory of exchange-traded funds is that they are an easy way to package trades. Anyone — any broker or financial adviser or individual investor — can think up a trade, and there are infinite possibilities. “Buy Tesla stock” is a trade, and “borrow money to buy more Tesla stock” is a different trade, and “buy Tesla stock and also buy Ford stock” is a third trade, and “buy Tesla stock and short an equal dollar amount of Ford stock” is yet another trade, and “buy Tesla stock and also buy some Dogecoin,” and ...