How to Pick an ETF: The Four Checks Institutions Run
The expense ratio is the promised cost, not the delivered one. Four checks a professional runs before buying a fund — and the one that costs Europeans the most.
Series
Gold, bonds, property, Bitcoin, index funds, derivatives. What each one actually is, what it is for, and who it is genuinely wrong for.
9 episodes 4 written companions
10:00 Episode 1
The four-step audit a banker runs on any ETF — and why it filters out most of what is on the shelf.
9:49 Episode 2
Why the P/E ratio tells you far less than you think, and what professionals look at instead.
10:17 Episode 3
Bonds are the 'safe' asset — until they are not. What actually happens when a bond goes to zero overnight.
7:09 Episode 4
Index funds versus mutual funds. The cost difference is small, certain, and compounds against you for decades.
7:48 Episode 5
REITs or bricks? What institutional allocators actually own when they want property exposure — and why.
10:31 Episode 6
Central banks are buying gold at record levels while most institutional portfolios hold none. Both can be right — here is why.
13:37 Episode 7
Bitcoin is often sold as digital gold. Its actual correlation behaviour says otherwise — and BlackRock's own framing shows it.
10:55 Episode 8
The derivatives market is quoted at $846 trillion, and the number is almost meaningless. What it really measures.
13:05 Episode 9
The finale. Institutions do not win through access — they win through rules. The system behind $50 trillion, and how to copy it.
The expense ratio is the promised cost, not the delivered one. Four checks a professional runs before buying a fund — and the one that costs Europeans the most.
Over ten years, 98.44% of euro-denominated global equity funds lost to their index. That is S&P's own scorecard — so what is still worth paying for?
In 2022 US inflation hit 9.1% and gold went nowhere. It does not track prices — it tracks real interest rates. And it once took 28 years to break even.
Same year, same fears: gold rose 62.6%, bitcoin fell 6.4%. It does not trade like a safe haven — it trades like a leveraged tech stock.