The desk at RBC Capital Markets that sits behind 90% of Canada's ETF market has a view of where flows are really going — and it's not what most advisors expect.
Pierre Daillie sits down with Valerie Grimba, Head of Global ETF Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, for a wide-ranging conversation about the forces quietly reshaping how Canadian advisors build portfolios. Valerie's team serves as designated broker to roughly 300 ETF mandates and acts as authorized participant across the majority of the Canadian ETF market — giving her a real-time, flow-level view of investor behaviour that almost nobody else has. From the structural fracture that 2022 opened in the 60/40 model, to the liquidity misconceptions her desk corrects every single day, to the explosive rise of asset allocation ETFs, covered call strategies, AAA CLOs, and precision thematic plays, this conversation covers the full terrain of where the ETF market stands today — and where it is heading.
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Introduction: The 60/40 failure and Canada's ETF rebuild
02:11 — Valerie's career arc: Bear Stearns, New York, New Zealand, RBC
04:21 — How the RBC ETF market making desk actually works
05:36 — What a designated broker does — and why it matters
08:18 — Flash crashes, Liberation Day, and ETFs as a release valve
10:08 — The RBC market view: yellow flags, narrow breadth, and a 12–18 month outlook
13:29 — How ETF flows changed: from net outflows in risk-off to rotation
14:05 — Gold: zero correlation, the incongruent timing, and the 2026 outlook
15:40 — Higher for longer: what advisors are missing about the rate environment
17:46 — How 2022 changed advisor behaviour and launched a new ETF ecosystem
21:49 — Covered call ETFs: what advisors are still getting wrong
24:19 — Retail vs. institutional: why retail has been outperforming
25:20 — Private assets in an ETF wrapper: the square peg, round hole problem
31:11 — What RBC looks for before taking on a designated broker mandate
32:28 — The Pac-Man of Canadian ETF flows: asset allocation ETFs
36:29 — CAGE, XEQT, FBAL: who is actually buying all-in-one ETFs
38:58 — TLT as widowmaker and the search for yield without duration risk
40:36 — AAA CLOs, active fixed income, and aggregate bond ETFs
43:07 — CTAs, trend following, and the rise of alternatives in Canada
44:30 — Why GIC sectors are becoming antiquated — and what's replacing them
45:48 — DRAM, memory chips, and the new thematic precision playbook
47:11 — Single stock ETFs: access, covered call overlays, and trade-offs
49:07 — The #1 ETF liquidity misconception — and the three layers advisors need to know
53:28 — Best execution practices: limit orders, timing, and when to call the desk
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