BUFD

ChairmanMeow1986

That fits my read as well, it has it's place for *me* right now, but it doesn't fit well with the long-term principles, philosophies, or styles I adhere to to. It's a way to hedge exposure with a medium-term view. I appreciate your perspective, thanks for responding, I hate it long long and short term as well, but it's helping me manage psychology and risk intermediately for exposure and I think I will maintain into 2026. The expense ratio is very notable is and why I will only hedge exposure with it, I prefer GLD to hedge equities personally. I don't like not being in control, but I'd view it as a passive (if expensive) tool to manage risk. BUFD is, let's just call it excessive in every way and worse than GLD and Bonds IMO. 'Yield Max' funds are the worst development of this, but managed buffered Indices/ETF's (despite the fee) look like a tool to me. I think GSAM's acquisitions (if you look into it), makes some worth a glance at least. Thoughts?

PapaCharlie9

I had never heard of "buffered ETFs" until your mention of them. I had to look it up. The largest one by AUM, BUFD, has an expense ratio of 0.95%, more than 30x the ER of VOO (0.03%). I don't need to know anything more than that to decide that BUFD is a losing proposition. But on top of that, it's listed as actively managed, so not even a passive index fund, which is also a no-go for me.