ZFN vs SPY

Touted on LinkedIn: #ZFN #ETF units are up 22.6% Year to Date, compared with a gain of 13.92% for the S&P 500 Index 

Normalized performance since inception (12/10/2018 = 1000 ): Not so much!

ZFN = BMO SIA Focused North American Equity Fund ETF Series (ZFN.TO)
SPY = SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)
Source: finance.yahoo.com

Global X Funds - Emerging Markets Consumer ETF (EMC) vs SPY

 I don't get it! This fund is being touted on LinkedIn. WHO buys this underperforming stuff? 

Normalized continuously compounded return, adjusted for any distributions and splits, where the inception date of EMC, 5/16/2023,  = 1000

EMC = Global X Funds - Emerging Markets Consumer ETF 

SPY = SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

QQQ = Invesco QQQ Trust

Source: finance.yahoo.com

How many times do you have to prove it that paid managers cannot beat the S&P, let alone the QQQ??? Answer: Everytime!

Fundrise Flagship Fund versus the S&P500

While I admire Scott Galloway in many things, especially his "Prof G" and "Pivot" podcasts, I have questions about his personally touting/endorsing/selling the "Fundrise Flagship Fund". 

What is this fund? It's an LLC! Well here it is direct from the chatbot on the Fundrise website:

"Fundrise is not listed on a public stock exchange; instead, it operates a platform for investing in shares of its funds, which are structured as REITs and are not publicly traded. If you're looking for a stock symbol for Fundrise itself, such a symbol does not exist because the company's funds are not traded on public markets."

Sorry Scott, touting private investments to unaccreddited investors is irresponsible. Unsophisticated investors have NO place in underperforming illiquid investments. Of course anyone can buy real estate and almost anything else directly themself. But does anyone need an illiquid, non-public LLC to charge fees and lose money? Terrible returning private Venture Cap funds are usually the purview of billionaires.

Since this is NOT a publicly traded fund, information is hard to get and IMHO misleading, at best. As the website says: These publicly registered  [not publicly traded] funds are our largest and most diversified, and are akin to mutual funds of alternative assets.

Here's the best I could find from Fundrise.com:

Fundrise Real Estate Interval Fund, LLC

"During 2023, the Fund returned -11.79%, its third year of operations. During the same period the S&P 500® Total Return Index, a bellwether for the overall U.S. stock market, returned 26.29%..."

Fundrise Income Real Estate Fund, LLC

"The Fund returned 7.93% in 2023, its second year of operations. During the same period the S&P 500® Total Return Index, a bellwether for the overall U.S. stock market, returned 26.29%..."

Fundrise Growth Tech Fund, LLC

"...with the illiquid nature of the asset class... The Fund returned +1.53% during the year ended March 31, 2024. The Cambridge Associates LLC U.S. Venture Capital Index returned -2.53% in the third calendar quarter of 2023 and -0.47% in the second calendar quarter of 2023. The Fund returned 2.31% and -0.80% in those respective quarters."

Maybe this is not the big picture. From the Fundrise website itself , below may be the big picture (the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust - SPY added by me):

Who presents the returns of their client accounts*? How odd, how misleading and how dishonest is this? Even with these gerrymandered returns Fundrise STILL can't beat the S&P (represented here by SPY.

Conclusion: AVOID. Do not buy Fundrise funds.  

*Client account returns are NOT fund returns. Client returns depend upon when clients buy and sell. SPY client returns will vary significantly from SPY returns. I mean WHO just buys and holds SPY ALL the time? Nobody!