In a recent episode of “Behind the Ticker,” Sylvia Jablonski, CEO & CIO of Defiance ETFs, shared her background in finance and the innovative strategies driving the firm’s success. Jablonski, who has a rich history in sales & trading and a decade of experience with ETFs, decided to join Matt Bielski to help launch Defiance, a company that aims to create ETFs targeting cutting-edge themes. Over the last four and a half years, Defiance has grown significantly, expanding its product lineup to include thematic, income, and leveraged ETFs.
About Sylvia Jablonski and Defiance ETFs
Jablonski discusses the firm’s thematic approach, with a special focus on their quantum computing ETF, QTUM. Launched in 2018, QTUM was ahead of the curve in recognizing the potential of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Jablonski explains that Defiance worked with Bluestar to construct an index that includes the top companies in quantum computing and AI, from major players like IBM and Hewlett-Packard to smaller, pure-play names like IonQ and D-Wave. The fund offers investors diversified exposure to the key sectors driving these transformative technologies.
Investment Strategy and Approach
The QTUM ETF targets companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from supercomputing, machine learning, and AI. The fund holds around 70 equally weighted names and is rebalanced semi-annually, providing exposure to both large and small-cap companies. This includes established tech giants like Nvidia and Google, which act as a ballast for the fund, while also capturing the potential high growth of emerging players in quantum computing. Jablonski highlights that quantum computing’s ability to process data exponentially faster than traditional computers can revolutionize industries such as biotech, aerospace, and defense, making QTUM a powerful thematic play for long-term growth.
In addition to discussing QTUM, Jablonski touches on the overall strategy at Defiance, emphasizing the importance of speed, adaptability, and listening to market demands. She explains that Defiance’s ability to be nimble and respond quickly to trends has been key to their success. The firm has also built an in-house marketing and distribution platform, leveraging AI and digital marketing to efficiently promote its ETFs. This unique approach has allowed Defiance to punch above its weight, attracting attention in a competitive market without the extensive budgets of larger issuers.
Deeper Dive: Insights from the Full Conversation
Beyond the headline strategy, the full conversation between Brad and Sylvia Jablonski covered several additional themes worth highlighting for advisors and investors.
On Process and Philosophy
I'm geared towards tech and AI which is amazing, but we need something else right so. And enter the enhanced income product suite and so, you know, we realize that there's this huge interest in in index base exposure with which with large monthly distribution payments. Or weekly distribution payments that investors are seeking and so we launched. You know, the enhanced product suite like the KQI, IW, my jeffy and then the target income funds and those grew right away.
So it's basically like the leading global companies in research, commercialization of anything related to cloud computing. So that could be like high powered computing data connectivity solutions. It could be cooling systems. It could be, you know, companies that specialize in like perception and collection and management of data used in machine learning. It can be semi-conductor companies that invest in super computing and high speed computing. And, and basically, you know, these are, and these all sound like foreign things, I guess, but you'll recognize a lot of the names in there, right?
Market Context and Positioning
So let's, let's stick on the those single stock levered theme for a moment, right? You mentioned micro strategy that's kind of also a little bit of a crypto play and it of itself. So you actually recently filed to increase the leverage, I believe it was 1.75, it's now you're filing for two. So what's the internal dialogue around like turning up that volume just a little bit and for the increase leverage is it just to make the product a little bit spicier is that what people are asking for like what's the thought processor on that?
And so we started to your point, we started having success with getting our brand out there and then other ETF companies would call us and say, like, how on earth are you guys, how are you doing this? Like, you can't possibly have any money or so small, you have like two or three ETFs. And then they offered to hire us to do their marketing. And so, you know, we, we do marketing for some of the top ETF providers in the marketplace right now and that ended up turning into a business and so we separated it out from, because it was just kind of under defiance ETFs originally, we separated it out now.
Now one thing to note, we did lose about the last 20 seconds of audio. So thank you Riverside FM. However, all you really missed was some thank yous and their website which is DefianceETFs.com.
Hey Sylvia, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me, happy to be here. So before we get started, why don't you share everybody a bit about your background and how you eventually decided to kind of start to finance.
Notable Insights
"I got the opportunity to join direction ETFs, which is the levered number of CTF issuers and I work there for like a decade or so."
Key Takeaways
- Jablonski, who has a rich history in sales & trading and a decade of experience with ETFs, decided to join Matt Bielski to help launch Defiance, a company that aims to create ETFs targeting cutting-edge themes.
- The fund offers investors diversified exposure to the key sectors driving these transformative technologies.
- The QTUM ETF targets companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from supercomputing, machine learning, and AI.
- The fund holds around 70 equally weighted names and is rebalanced semi-annually, providing exposure to both large and small-cap companies.
- She explains that Defiance’s ability to be nimble and respond quickly to trends has been key to their success.
- This unique approach has allowed Defiance to punch above its weight, attracting attention in a competitive market without the extensive budgets of larger issuers.
What This Means for Advisors
For financial advisors evaluating options for client portfolios, this conversation with Sylvia Jablonski highlights important considerations around income investing. Understanding the strategy behind each fund—not just the ticker—helps advisors make more informed allocation decisions and better communicate the rationale to clients.
The themes of income investing and growth investing discussed in this episode are particularly relevant in the current market environment, where advisors are increasingly looking for differentiated solutions that go beyond traditional benchmarks.
Listen to the Full Episode
This article is based on an episode of Behind the Ticker, hosted by Brad Roth, Founder and CIO of THOR Financial Technologies. For the full conversation with Sylvia Jablonski, including additional nuances and details, listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.