Cohen rejects a strict active-versus-passive divide and describes index and active strategies as a continuum. Factor funds, specialized bond strategies, and other non-cap-weighted indexes embed deliberate risk choices, while active managers routinely use indexed beta allocations inside alpha-seeking portfolios.

Index strategies contain design and allocation decisions.
Non-cap-weighted indexes take active risk against standard benchmarks.
Active managers use ETFs as components of broader strategies.
Index technology can make sophisticated exposures accessible to individuals.

“you will never hear me use the word passive barrier.”
Samara Cohen · 14:24

“I really think of index and active as a really broad continuum”
Samara Cohen · 19:04

#indexing#active-management#portfolio-construction#beta

Myth Buster32:05

BlackRock's ETF Investors Own the Shares—not BlackRock

Cohen says a common misconception confuses asset management with beneficial ownership: ETF investors own the underlying economic interest, while BlackRock acts as a fiduciary. Regulation traditionally assigns voting duties to the manager, but voting-choice technology is beginning to let more institutional and individual investors direct those votes.

ETF investors are the beneficial owners.
Asset managers act as fiduciaries rather than owning client assets.
Voting concentration partly reflects regulation and operational constraints.
Technology can separate asset management from voting direction.

“We are a fiduciary, the investors own those stocks.”
Samara Cohen · 34:04

“if you want to vote your shares, go ahead and vote your shares.”
Samara Cohen · 34:32

#ownership#proxy-voting#fiduciary#governance

Explainer· 5

Explainer06:36

Why ETF Trading Surges During Market Stress

Cohen argues that ETFs provide an accessible outlet for risk management and price transparency when markets become volatile. During 2022, investors used them both to trade existing exposures and to reallocate portfolios, while fixed-income ETFs attracted substantial net inflows.

ETF trading volume is distinct from fund inflows.
Investors use ETFs to change risk quickly.
Fixed-income ETFs gathered more than $200 billion in 2022.
ETFs can improve access to an historically opaque bond market.

“investors need some outlet for risk management and for transparency.”
Samara Cohen · 08:39

“fixed income ETFs gathered really over two hundred billion dollars in twenty twenty two.”
Samara Cohen · 07:49

#etfs#volatility#fixed-income#risk

Explainer25:58

How ETFs Reveal Prices When Underlying Markets Go Quiet

ETFs trade continuously on exchanges and can provide price formation even while an underlying country market is closed or individual bonds barely trade. During COVID disruption, Cohen says one investment-grade bond ETF traded 90,000 times on a day when its ten largest underlying holdings traded only about 35 times each.

ETF holdings are disclosed daily.
Exchange trading creates observable real-time prices.
Country ETFs can trade while their underlying market is closed.
Bond ETFs can reveal prices when individual bonds trade infrequently.

“ETFs trade on exchange all day long and provide price formation in that way.”
Samara Cohen · 26:05

“the ETF itself traded ninety thousand times.”
Samara Cohen · 27:27

#price-discovery#bond-market#transparency#etfs

Explainer29:50

How ETF Creation Handles Excess Demand Without Cash Drag

When buyers and sellers balance on an exchange, the portfolio manager need not transact in the underlying assets. If excess demand pushes an ETF above the value of its holdings, a market maker can buy the underlying securities, deliver them to the fund, receive newly created ETF shares, and capture the arbitrage spread.

Most ETF trading occurs between investors on an exchange.
Demand imbalances can create premiums to underlying assets.
Market makers create shares by delivering an in-kind basket.
The mechanism limits transaction-cost drag for existing shareholders.

“The market has done that for me.”
Samara Cohen · 31:18

“I didn't have to incur transaction cost drag for the shareholders in my fund.”
Samara Cohen · 31:29

#creation-redemption#arbitrage#market-makers#etfs

Explainer37:47

Why Direct Bitcoin Access Wasn't Enough for Investors

BlackRock initially questioned why investors needed an ETF when bitcoin could be purchased on a phone. Feedback revealed dissatisfaction with high-fee trusts, futures products that underperformed spot bitcoin, and direct ownership's unfamiliar custody and infrastructure requirements.

Futures ETFs could diverge from spot bitcoin performance.
Trust structures could impose high fees and limited liquidity.
Direct ownership introduced custody and security complexity.
Advisors wanted bitcoin inside whole-portfolio solutions.

“The futures ETF actually underperformed spot bitcoin, which is what investors wanted”
Samara Cohen · 38:28

“the ETF would actually provide a better access path than was currently available out there in the market.”
Samara Cohen · 40:21

#bitcoin#crypto#etfs#access

Explainer50:21

What a Spot Bitcoin ETF Actually Holds

Cohen compares spot bitcoin ETF custody to a gold or silver ETF storing physical bars. A custodian holds actual bitcoin for investors in cold storage, with coin swept into custody daily, making direct ownership of the underlying asset central to the product's value proposition.

The ETF holds actual bitcoin for clients.
A specialist custodian stores the asset.
Bitcoin is moved into cold storage daily.
The model resembles physically backed commodity ETFs.

“we work with a custodian who is storing the actual bitcoin for our investors in cold storage”
Samara Cohen · 50:42

“they are actually owning the crypto.”
Samara Cohen · 50:57

#bitcoin#custody#cold-storage#crypto

Story· 1

Story01:49

How Theater Led Samara Cohen Into Financial Markets

Cohen studied theater because she loved creating live experiences, while economics initially served as a practical parallel track. She discovered that economics felt like “math with a purpose” and entered finance to test her backup plan, only to find that she loved markets.

Theater was Cohen's original passion.
She missed mathematics after arriving at college.
Economics connected quantitative work to a practical purpose.
A temporary test of finance became a long-term career.

“math with a purpose to me”
Samara Cohen · 02:43

“I wanted to take my backup plan out for a test drive”
Samara Cohen · 03:09

#career#theater#economics#markets

Q&A· 1

Q&A40:48

BlackRock's SEC Talks Focused on How a Bitcoin ETF Should Work

Cohen describes the approval process as an ecosystem effort involving regulators, market participants, liquidity, and operating design. BlackRock's conversations with the SEC focused less on whether access should exist and more on building a robust and resilient implementation.

Regulators are part of the ETF operating ecosystem.
Policy and crypto infrastructure evolved over several years.
Investor demand helped move the approval process forward.
Implementation quality dominated BlackRock's regulatory engagement.

“our engagement was much less about the if and much more about the how.”
Samara Cohen · 42:39

“Here are the ways to provide robust and resilient access to investors in an ETF.”
Samara Cohen · 42:43

#sec#regulation#bitcoin#market-structure

Tool· 1

Tool22:47

How Active Managers Use ETFs to Keep Cash Invested

When an active manager sells a position before selecting a replacement, holding cash can create benchmark underperformance in a rising market. Managers increasingly use an ETF tracking their benchmark to maintain exposure temporarily, a practice Cohen calls cash equitization.

Portfolio sales can leave unwanted cash exposure.
Benchmark ETFs provide temporary market exposure.
Managers can replace the ETF when a new conviction holding is ready.
ETFs became more economical than futures in some rate environments.

“using the ETF for the cash equitization has become a really standard active use of an ETF strategy”
Samara Cohen · 24:13

“it was much more economic for them to move into the ETF.”
Samara Cohen · 24:07

#cash-management#active-management#etfs#benchmarks

Takeaway· 4

Takeaway13:28

Forty Million New Accounts Changed the Investor Landscape

Cohen says roughly 40 million individual investor accounts opened globally within two years, exceeding the previous decade's total. Although pandemic-era speculation attracted attention, the data showed more people purchasing ETFs than meme stocks and potentially moving toward diversified, long-term participation.

New account growth dramatically accelerated.
Self-directed investors entered through both speculation and long-term products.
ETF purchases exceeded meme-stock purchases.
Accessible markets can move savers toward investing.

“there were about forty million individual investor accounts that have been open in the last two years. That's more than the past decade combined.”
Samara Cohen · 13:39

“more people were actually buying ETFs than we're buying meme stocks.”
Samara Cohen · 15:56

#retail-investors#etfs#access#diversification

Takeaway28:15

The Virtuous Cycle That Modernized Bond Trading

Demand for fixed-income ETFs forced dealers and trading desks to develop algorithmic pricing so they could make ETF markets effectively. Cohen says those capabilities fed back into the underlying bond market, increasing electronification and transparency beyond the ETF itself.

Bond trading historically relied heavily on bilateral voice transactions.
ETF market making required scalable algorithmic pricing.
Dealer investments improved underlying bond-market infrastructure.
A new wrapper can modernize its source market.

“there's been a virtuous cycle and effect back on the bond market.”
Samara Cohen · 28:20

“introduction of ETFs as a new bond tool has actually had an important modernizing effect on that underlying market ecosystem.”
Samara Cohen · 28:49

#bonds#market-structure#electronification#algorithms

Takeaway1:03:04

You Cannot Know Your Strengths Until You Try

Asked what advice she would give graduates, Cohen recommends entering the field and exploring its many possible roles rather than waiting for certainty about aptitude. She distinguishes eventually leaning into strengths from the earlier process of discovering passions and capabilities through experience.

Interest is sufficient reason to explore a field.
Markets offer roles across many types of firms.
Strengths are discovered through action rather than speculation.
An initial foothold provides information about long-term fit.

“You have no idea what you're going to be good at until you try.”
Samara Cohen · 1:03:34

“get your foot in the door, start to see if it is you know what you want it to be.”
Samara Cohen · 1:03:50

#career-advice#graduates#investing#experimentation

Takeaway1:04:06

The Worst Market Moments Can Define a Career

Cohen says crashes, dislocations, and black-swan events create opportunities to demonstrate risk management and produce lasting contributions for investors. Staying close to clients and learning from each crisis can shape both portfolio outcomes and a professional career.

Repeated crises are inevitable over a long markets career.
Risk management matters most during frightening periods.
Lessons from dislocations can improve future markets and portfolios.
Difficult periods create opportunities for meaningful contribution.

“The moments that feel the worst in markets, the scariest, the most volatile, are the moments where you can define the outcomes that you're delivering…”
Samara Cohen · 1:04:06

“what we learn coming out of them are the biggest contributions we can make from a portfolio perspective”
Samara Cohen · 1:04:41

#volatility#career#risk-management#crisis

Frameworks in this episode

ETF Total Cost of Ownership

Flow and Tell

Leadership as Casting

Insights & moments

⚡Myth Buster· 2

Why Index Investing Is Not Simply Passive