When your “diversifiers” stop diversifying, what do you do? ETF analyst Tony Dong has a few ideas—some that may just torch your traditional playbook.
Listen on The Move
Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick welcome Tony Dong—Lead ETF Analyst at ETF Central and founder of ETF Portfolio Blueprint— to the show to explore why investors may need to rethink their reliance on traditional portfolio diversifiers like long-term bonds. Dong pulls no punches, calling out the pitfalls of covered call ETFs, explaining how to think critically about buy-write strategies, and championing capital-efficient alternatives like return stacking, trend-following CTAs, and risk-managed overlays. The trio also dig into the strategic case for overlooked assets like Swiss equities and the Swiss franc, while sharing practical insights into investor behavior, rebalancing discipline, and building resilient portfolios in a stagflation-prone world.
🔖 Key Takeaways:
- Why blindly chasing high-yield covered call ETFs is a mistake
- The underrated power of trend-following as a crisis alpha tool
- How to use return stacking for smarter diversification
- Why Switzerland may be the ultimate geopolitical safe haven
- The behavioral traps investors fall into—and how to avoid them
🕒 Chapters:
00:00 – Tony Dong’s Risk-First Origin Story
03:45 – The Problem with Index-Based Covered Call ETFs
08:30 – Gold, Volatility, and Opportunistic Buy-Write Strategies
13:10 – QYLD: A Yield Trap in Disguise?
19:45 – When Bonds Fail: Gold and Trend as Alternatives
23:20 – Leveraging Diversification with Return Stacking
28:00 – Retail’s Dangerous Love Affair with Leveraged ETFs
31:40 – The Rise of Structured Protection: Put Spread Collars
36:20 – Why Low Vol and Min Vol May Be Broken Concepts
39:10 – Trend Following: The Case for Buying the Shop, Not the ETF
43:00 – Behavioral Risk and Staying the Course with Alternatives
47:30 – How to Rebalance for Real-World Portfolios
53:00 – Investor Psychology, Crisis Alpha, and Staying Invested
57:00 – The Case for Switzerland: Stability, Strength, and Sanity
Where to find Tony Dong
ETF Portfolio Blueprint - https://etfportfolioblueprint.com
Tony Dong, Lead ETF Analyst, ETF Central - https://www.etfcentral.com/author/tony-dong
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