In short: ETF Edge guest John Davi (Astoria): the way to play AI from here is to "evolve your portfolio to AI adopters" — "we like banks: heavily invested in AI, a strong IPO calendar, strong M&A calendar, cheaper than the market, strong balance sheets, and a favorable rate environment setup. KBWB is one ETF that we're using to play that." Not a committee position.
KBWB is a fund holding the large US banks. ETF Edge guest John Davi (Astoria) uses it to express a specific idea: instead of buying the companies that build AI, buy the industries that adopt it and get more profitable. Banks fit — they are heavy AI spenders internally, they earn fees from a busy IPO and merger calendar, they trade cheaper than the overall market, their balance sheets are strong, and the interest-rate backdrop suits them. This is a guest's view, not a committee position.
In short: Named inside the bear case as the vehicle that has already won: "the money-center banks (via funds like KBWB) have crushed the regionals on deregulation and capital-markets strength. Put another way, the regionals are the laggards, and sometimes you're considered a laggard for a reason." The honest counterweight to the KRE pitch — the big banks got the deregulation and trading-revenue benefit first — rather than a recommendation to own it.
KBWB is the fund that holds the big money-centre banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and their peers — and Hay raises it against himself, in the section where he argues the bear case. Those large banks have already trounced the regionals, because looser regulation and booming trading and dealmaking revenue benefit them first and most.
The uncomfortable implication he states outright: "the regionals are the laggards, and sometimes you're considered a laggard for a reason." He is not telling you to buy KBWB instead; he is warning that the gap between big and small banks may exist because the big ones are genuinely better positioned, and that his regional-bank call has to overcome that.
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Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.