QUANTUM COMPUTING: Healthcare and Banking Affected [B-QTUM Index Fund]

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

FUNDAMENTAL INDUSTRY CHANGES

By Staff Reporters

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Index Funds

An index mutual fund or ETF (exchange-traded fund) tracks the performance of a specific market benchmark—or “index,” like the popular S&P 500 Index—as closely as possible. That’s why you may hear people refer to indexing as a “passive” investment strategy.

Instead of hand-selecting which stocks or bonds the fund will hold, the fund’s manager buys all (or a representative sample) of the stocks or bonds in the index it tracks.

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Quantum Computing

Unlike traditional computers that use bits, quantum computers utilize qubits. These qubits are capable of being in a state of superposition, where they can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously, enabling the processing of multiple calculations at once. This could allow quantum computers to outperform classical computers in solving certain complex problems. However, the field is still overcoming challenges such as qubit stability and decoherence; especially in these three areas:

  • Quantum computing could fundamentally alter healthcare by accelerating drug discovery and improving individualized medicine. Rapid analysis of enormous volumes of biological data allows quantum computers to find trends that might guide the creation of more potent treatments. In addition to accelerating drug development, this will enable customized treatments tailored to unique genetic profiles.
  • Faster and more accurate financial models produced by quantum computing will transform the banking sector. Through real-time analysis of intricate financial systems, it can help investors to control risk and make better decisions. More precise market forecasts will help maximize portfolio management and trading strategies.
  • Through greatly enhanced medical diagnosis and patient care, quantum computing can transform the healthcare industry. Quantum computers can remarkably accurately find trends and possible health hazards by analyzing enormous volumes of medical data in a fraction of the time. Early diagnosis and more customized treatment alternatives follow from this.

B–QTUM Index Fund

Index Description: The BlueStar® Machine Learning and Quantum Computing Index (BQTUM) tracks liquid companies in the global quantum computing and machine learning industries, including products and services related to quantum computing or machine learning, such as the development or use of quantum computers or computing chips, superconducting materials, applications built on quantum computers, embedded artificial intelligence chips, or software specializing in the perception, collection, visualization, or management of big data.

Citation and Disclosure: https://www.defianceetfs.com/qtum/

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PRIMARY MARKETS: Exchange Traded Funds

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BY: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Primary Market: The primary market is also part of the stock market but differs from the secondary market because it only sells newly issued stocks.

Primary Market for Exchange Traded Funds: The primary market is where ETF shares are created and redeemed amongst ETF issuers and authorized participants. This is where the underlying basket of securities that make up an ETF is created. Shares of ETFs are made in large batches called Creation Units—usually 25,000 to 600,000 ETF shares are created at a time through this process.

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ACTIVE: Transparent Exchange Traded Funds

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

DEFINITION

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

By Staff Reporters

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Active transparent ETFs: Daily disclosure of portfolio holdings is an attribute of traditional index-based Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Active transparent exchange traded funds are actively managed by a portfolio manager or team of managers. As with index-based ETFs, their portfolio holdings are disclosed daily.

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ETFs: Happy 31st. Birthday

Posted on August 10, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Thirty one years ago yesterday, the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US launched. In the decades since, these once-niche investment products have become ubiquitous on Wall Street, disrupting the mutual fund industry and transforming people’s relationship with the stock market.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

Exchange Traded Funds

On January 29th, 1993, a spider decoration hanging in the American Stock Exchange heralded the arrival of the first US ETF—what’s now called the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. It had a measly $6.5 million in assets and no one really paid much attention to it. The first US ETF is now the world’s biggest, with $375 billion in assets, and the ETF sector in total had amassed $6.5 trillion in assets by the end of 2022. While mutual funds still have 3x the amount of assets that ETFs have, the tide is turning: Investors poured $600 billion into US ETFs on a net basis last year, but pulled out almost $1 trillion from mutual funds.

ETFs and Tax Efficiency

Definition: An ETF is simply a security that tracks the performance of a particular basket of investments, like stocks. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, for example, tracks the performance of companies in the S&P 500. Many other ETFs also track indexes, allowing people to park their money in funds that follow the ebbs and flows of the broader market.

If that sounds like a mutual fund…it’s similar. But ETFs have a few advantages over its stuffy, older cousin.

  • ETFs generally have lower fees than mutual funds.
  • They have built-in tax benefits.
  • They’re accessible to anyone with a brokerage account—you can buy or sell them like you would a stock.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

Finally, all these advantages aside, the rise of ETFs has been also fueled by the growing recognition that trying to invest in individual stocks is foolish. Passive index funds, which aren’t designed for frequent trading, have surged to represent almost half of US fund assets, compared to less than 2% in the early ’90s.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

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ETFs and Tax Efficiency

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Better Financial Product than Mutual Funds?

[By JD Steinhilber]

Exchange-traded funds are inherently more tax efficient than actively managed mutual funds, which have been rightly criticized for their tax-inefficiency. Tax-efficiency is a critical issue for financial advisors and physician-investors because delaying the taxation of appreciating assets normally enhances after-tax returns over time.

For example, it is estimated that between 1994 and 1999, investors in diversified U.S. stock mutual funds lost, on average, 15% of their annual gains to taxes. The tax inefficiency of mutual funds is the result of portfolio turnover at the fund level caused by two factors: the trading activity of the portfolio manager and the activity of other shareholders in the fund.       

The Mutual Fund Performance / Redemption Problem

Due to fund manager efforts to outperform benchmarks, actively managed mutual funds almost invariably experience more “manager-driven” portfolio turnover than ETFs, where trading is generally driven by change in the composition of the underlying indexes being replicated. Mutual fund portfolio turnover can also be caused by the actions of shareholders in the fund. 

In a mutual fund structure, redemption requests by shareholders can force the fund to sell securities to raise cash. These sales may give rise to gains that, by law, must be distributed and will be taxed to all shareholders in the fund.

Unique Architectural Structure

ETFs, in contrast, are structured in such a way that the actions of one shareholder do not result in tax consequences to another shareholder.  ETFs accomplish this through the innovative architecture in which ETF “units” (which are subdivided into individual ETF shares) are created and redeemed to accommodate the fluctuating demand for the shares of a particular ETF.

ETF units are created and redeemed by institutional investors though non-taxable, “in-kind” transactions, which means that only securities – not cash – change hands in the creation and redemption process. 

An example of this process would be an institution exchanging a portfolio of stocks constituting the S&P 500 index for an S&P 500 ETF “creation unit”. And, once created, the S&P 500 ETF can be subdivided into individual shares that are tradable by investors on the exchange.   

Assessment

As a result of the above – physicians may be insulated from a tax standpoint by the actions of other investors – because taxable transactions don’t take place at the fund level.  Instead, ETF shares are traded between retail investors in transactions on the exchanges, so the tax accounting becomes very similar to that associated with individual stocks.    

Have you used ETFs in your own portfolio, and what is your tax efficiency experience with them; truth or hype? 

Conclusion

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BITCOIN: ETF Ruling

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Bitcoin gets a boost from landmark ETF ruling

An appeals court said the SEC was wrong to reject an application from crypto investment firm Grayscale to create a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), sending the price of bitcoin up about 6.5%.

The slumbering crypto industry has been eagerly anticipating a spot bitcoin ETF (as opposed to existing crypto ETFs based on futures) because it could attract a torrent of cash and interest from individual investors. The SEC said it was reviewing the decision.

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