Introducing Ryan Pannell, CEO of Kaiju ETF Advisors. Ryan Pannell is the focus of Episode 16, where he talks about his journey from pioneering cryptographic web-based messaging technologies to becoming a professional equities trader. With a background in theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology, film, and television, Ryan has a unique perspective on investment management and the applications of artificial intelligence in scientific trading.
About Ryan Pannell and DIP
Kaiju Worldwide, founded by Ryan, manages several private funds and an AI-driven ETF, the BTD Capital Fund (ticker DIP). The "Buy the Dip" strategy uses AI to identify oversold opportunities within the S&P 500. This approach to asset management and allocation is highly innovative and well thought-out. For more information on DIP visit dipetf.com
Deeper Dive: Insights from the Full Conversation
Beyond the headline strategy, the full conversation between Brad and Ryan Pannell covered several additional themes worth highlighting for advisors and investors.
On Process and Philosophy
Today we have Ryan Pennell, he is the founder of Kaiju Advisors. He runs a handful of private funds and also his ETF dip, DIP. The Ticker explains at a very high level to strategy, but there is much, much more behind the hood as Ryan is a true AI specialist. This is a 100% totally AI-wrong strategy. We get into AI and what it means and how it operates to make investments decisions specifically in his strategies. I could have talked to Ryan for probably three or four hours.
We go through this linear process, quantitatively, okay, the criteria that I had, flagged, were met. Now, I'm going to evaluate further, is your fundamentalist, your reading reports, doing fundamental forward-looking analysis, et cetera, to come to the yes-no-by-sell-hold decision that we make. So, AI doesn't do that. And black boxes, the most outside. So, you can't explain any of that. With us, we have an investment ideology that we teach the machine. And it doesn't, on the private one side, ETF side doesn't matter.
Market Context and Positioning
That door opens it to in 20. And the funds that run it effectively are usually like 3.5 and a sliding scale up to 40, right? Because they're generating these 40, 50, 60 percent returns. You look at Renaissance technologies. I mean, Medallion has been closed forever, but if Medallion was open to the public, it's 5 and 45. That's where you get that type of technology. So this is a way to get it liquid with very low risk for a percent and a quarter, right?
So it's nice to have an ETF that's publicly accessible, performance is publicly viewable. I think we're somewhere around 12% plus 12% in the last 90 days, so that's been good for us. And we're just looking forward to trying to make these type of AI curated and directed training systems more accessible. Because today, I mean, what you've really seen these in high-end hedge funds, which your average investor is never going to get access to. So this is a way to sort of bring it to a broader investment base and hopefully do some good with it.
And then so you have your beta correlation, like, right there. And then you're going to layer your alpha opportunities on top of that. But at the end of the day, responsible allocation, conservative investment will contain some sort of the data tracking allocation like that. And what we're saying is, okay, so we don't want you to replace that with us until maybe you get to a point where there's enough of a history there that you're confident doing so at this stage, but consider us instead of some portion of that.
Notable Insights
"In terms of like, are we going to see it get to the point where it just fundamentally changes the training strategy?"
"So why don't you take, you know, the opportunity to really just talk about the the high level investment strategy and what is trying to accomplish and what is trying to invest, really trying to get exposure and sure."
Key Takeaways
- With a background in theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology, film, and television, Ryan has a unique perspective on investment management and the applications of artificial intelligence in scientific trading.
- The conversation explores important themes in portfolio construction relevant to today's advisor landscape.
- The conversation explores important themes in crypto & digital assets relevant to today's advisor landscape.
What This Means for Advisors
For financial advisors evaluating options for client portfolios, this conversation with Ryan Pannell highlights important considerations around crypto & digital assets. 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 crypto & digital assets and portfolio construction 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 Ryan Pannell, including additional nuances and details, listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.