Thread by @EricBalchunas

There have been many 'Xerox' moments in the ETF industry but the GOAT has to be Nuveen filing for what would have been first bond ETF in 2000 and then balking bc worried about cannibalization/revenue. @tpsarofagis uses them in note today as case study for aspiring entrants.

Not to mention how balking chased away Bruce Bond and Hooten/Fulten who set up PowerShares and Claymore. Not a stretch to say had CEO had better vision, Nuveen could have been bigger than BlackRock. Good case study for all the legacy asset mgrs entering biz.

Also, Year 2000 (when Nuveen filed) has proven to be the best class of ETFs in terms of assets by far. That was when many stud products were launched (curr 2000 launches make up 14% of all aum). The assets per launch class have dwindled since. Great chart from @tpsarofagis

Here's Tim Hooten (who also left Nuveen after the CEO got cold feet): "I truly believe if Nuveen had gone into ETFs then, it would be bigger than Barclays (iShares) in terms of ETFs and assets." via @Lawrence_Carrel's ETF book

That said they still have a sweet $1.2T in total assets (the bull mkt subsidy makes strategic errors much less impactful than they would be in other industries). As well as $4.6b in ETF assets, albeit that's less a 0.1% mkt share.

Correction: *Dave Hooten