The Reformed Broker on Smart Money Being Stupid

Joshua Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, is known for a lot of things -- television appearances, tweeting as @downtownjoshbrown to his 86,000 followers, a widely read blog and his story of going from a commission-based broker to a fee-based adviser. It's a story captured perfectly in the name of his website: TheReformedBroker.com.

Brown, whose often-colorful commentary covers all things Wall Street, knows a lot about exchange-traded funds. He should, since the firm he co-founded with Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz last year uses them extensively. Ventured & Gained spoke with Brown after his keynote speech at ETF Boot Camp, a two-day event about all aspects of bringing new ETFs to market, hosted by ETF Trends. Here are edited highlights of the conversation.