OI16: Return Stacking: Form, Function & Friction ft. Corey Hoffstein and Adam Butler

Corey Hoffstein and Adam Butler joins to unpack the mechanics of stacking returns inside an ETF — not as a branding exercise, but as a way to navigate the hard constraints of scale, structure, and investor behavior. They break down how Return Stacked blends top-down replication with a bottom-up trend engine, why most investors misunderstand what replication actually captures, and where the fault lines lie between mutual funds and ETFs. From margin management and bid-offer spreads to the limits of liquidity in a product built for growth, this conversation surfaces what it really means to package active strategies for a public wrapper — and what gets lost, or found, in the process.

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Episode TimeStamps:

02:08 - Introduction to Corey Hoffstein & Adam Butler

09:06 - How Hoffstein and Butler see the trend following industry going forward

12:24 - The possibilities and constraints of trading ETFs

20:52 - The philosophy behind their trading strategy

27:26 - How they calibrate their model to accommodate markets changes

32:03 - How they incorporate replication in their strategy

35:50 - Their process behind capturing beta

46:42 - The benefits of adding a longer tail for markets

49:25 - How much volatility can trend followers tolerate?

54:23 - How they maintain balance in their trend following portfolio

57:37 - Implementing different types of return streams

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