Jon Maier, Chief Investment Officer, Global X sat down with Julie Cooling, Founder & CEO, RIA Channel to discuss their suite of income, thematic, country funds, and factor-based ETFs. Maier moved to Global X from Merrill Lynch to offer his experience and knowledge of ETF model portfolio management. As the due diligence manager and gatekeeper for Merrill’s $40+ billion ETF model portfolio business, Maier has seen it all in terms of ETF offerings. Product innovation drove Maier to Global X, along with the opportunity to build their model ETF business from the ground up.
Two areas Maier intends to focus his attention on immediately, include delivering multi-asset, diversified income solutions, and strategies to use thematic investing wisely within a total asset allocation model. Lithium, robotics, and artificial intelligence have seen huge gains over the past several months. Sub-themes within traditional technology or industrial sectors are evolving and challenging traditional sector investing methodologies. New disruptive sectors or pure themes combined in a thoughtful, risk-managed portfolio may offer investors decent exposure to such innovation without the volatility of traditional single-sector investing.