There's Probably A Simpler Way

Here's an interesting filing from Quantify ETFs.

These guys run the STKd 100% Bitcoin & 100% Gold ETF (BTGD) which we've looked at a couple of times. BTGD has brought in $98 million of assets and you can judge for yourself whether the result is close enough to what it targets.

The idea of blending more of a plain vanilla holding like the S&P 500 or a broad fixed income proxy with short volatility from a far more volatile asset interesting. I realize the filing has all sorts of different combos but I am intrigued by S&P 500 combined with selling Bitcoin volatility and S&P 500 combined with selling gold volatility. I have no idea if they will work but I am intrigued.

Some of these did a whole lotta livin in just two years. YBTC sells calls on Bitcoin. The nature of a covered call fund is capped upside without any expectation of meaningful protection to the downside. If Bitcoin drops 50%, would you feel better if YBTC only fell 45%? Portfolios 1 and 2 endured two pretty big declines, the Tariff Panic last April and last fall when Bitcoin dropped from $126,000 to below $90,000. One challenge to the SPY/YBTC combo, which would be ISSB from the filing, is that the correlation between stocks and Bitcoin might go up in risk off environments. 

When stocks and Bitcoin both go up then yeah, ISSB would probably do very well even if the tracking may not be exact. 

The SPY/IGLD combo, which would be ISSG from the filing is a little more interesting. It's not less volatile than the S&P 500 but a 90% SPY/10% IGLD combo (so 80% SPY with 10% in ISSG if it lists with 10% left over) has lower volatility, a higher Sharpe Ratio and a lower beta than just the S&P 500. Yes, 90% SPY/10% IGLD outperformed just the S&P 500 but I would not count on gold's fantastic performance in 2025 repeating very often. 

I saw the following on Twitter.

My first reaction is to wonder if all of that can do anything in terms of improving risk adjusted results versus a plainer vanilla 60/40 portfolio.

The year by year returns are almost identical. In 2025, the WisdomTree's Cap Weighted Passive Allocation outperformed by 635 basis points thanks to the large weighting in gold. I don't doubt the accuracy of the weightings WisdomTree came up with but if anyone wants the effect captured by this portfolio, there's probably a much simpler way to do it. 

And a little fun from the NY Times, Is This Billionaire A Genius Or A Fraudster about Michael Saylor. You can probably guess where I land on this one. Gift link! 

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