ETF Central: GTS Securities Principal Reginald Browne

**Bilal Little** (0:12)
Welcome to another edition of ETF Central. I'm your host, Bilal Little. My next guest is Reggie Brown. He is a pioneer in the ETF landscape. Most importantly, he is a principal at GTS. He is known as the godfather of ETFs, and I'm excited about this discussion. And with that, welcome to the show.

**Reggie Brown** (0:27)
Thanks for having me.

**Bilal Little** (0:28)
It's good to see you.

**Reggie Brown** (0:29)
As well.

**Bilal Little** (0:32)
So Reggie, you're often here, you're a pillar here. When was the last time you were at the exchange?

**Reggie Brown** (0:39)
You know, I started my career on the floors of exchanges, notably in Philadelphia, the PhilX, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
I came to the New York Stock Exchange. I called to New York.
I think it was 1993, my first visit to the floor as an employee of a member firm. But I was here Thursday speaking to a bunch of kids on financial literacy. And careers on Wall Street. And using the backdrop of the New York Stock Exchange is always fun coming here. It's a powerful institution that conveys the message of what's America all about, which is best ideas, capitalism, raising capital, and pursuit of just greatness.

**Bilal Little** (1:27)
I think it's not lost on me that I get to come here every day and to sort of witness that experience every day. It's somewhat magical because it's not like a typical office. You know, anybody can be here at any given day.
This morning, an F1 team was actually doing the opening bell, so it's pretty neat.

**Reggie Brown** (1:45)
I got some great stories.

**Bilal Little** (1:48)
What's your fondest memory of being at the Exchange?

**Reggie Brown** (1:52)
There's so many. I mean, from Senator John McLean walking around saying, nice seeing you again, first time I've met him, Jesse Jackson, keep hope alive, to various sports stars, to a president of the United States. You know, this institution, this place is pretty powerful that conveys the bedrock of who we are. I mean, think about it. Look, the New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1792
Capitalism and the framework around nation building was instituted from the Dutch starting in 1602, but brought to this land five years later, 1607 And the United States was built on the framework of capitalism. It's who we are. And so this is a symbolism for that.

**Bilal Little** (2:42)
I love that. Reggie, you are known as the godfather of ETFs and I think it's important for you to level set and tell your own background. Let me just kind of preference it with this.
You often move behind the scenes.

**Reggie Brown** (2:55)
Sure.

**Bilal Little** (2:55)
And I think it's good to have some representation in the leadership space given where you sit and obviously the entire spectrum of what you just talked about in the early 90s to being here today. So I'll let you tell your background and share a little bit about who Reggie Brown is.

**Reggie Brown** (3:11)
Well, I think, look, everyone has a story about how they started their career.
And mine is well chronicled where I was influenced by my family to buy stocks at 11 or 12 I was like 11, I was given Money Magazine to say, hey, you know, the way to save money is through investing. My grandmother was an art and investor watching public television. Louis Rukeyser on PBS. And, you know, that is now replaced by influencers and people who talk about wealth building across different mediums. But that was my entry. And I was fortunate like many to start early where a summer job at 15 on the floor of a stock exchange turned into a career that has spanned it 40 years. Working for exchanges, then member firms, and now, you know, doing what I do, being an ETF educator to the masses.
I think that I've been fortunate starting so young, went to school full-time, worked full-time at the same time. So I think that there was clearly unbridled ambition for the exposure. And I grew up in a market, so it's like, it's not really a job, it's part of me. And it's very difficult to beat someone where you're trying to beat something to the part of a person.

**Bilal Little** (4:46)
Man, I love that. I love how cool and calm you are about that beautiful background. So for me, I think it's important that you level set your current role and what you're doing and what you work for.

**Reggie Brown** (5:01)
Well, I won't say, I won't characterize it in that matter.
My business partners, Darren Taub, Eric Lichtenstein, we've been business partners for 20 years. And the way that we organize our business, like so first of all, I'm ETF market maker. I launch GTS Exchange Traded Funds, I provide C Capital and think over the last call it, I don't know, 30 years, call it 27 years. I was the first full-time second market maker trading SPY when it was trading in 30 seconds and 64 It was trading 50,000 shares a day. The first person was a friend of mine named Todd Hollander.