Nasdaq Talk Your Ticker: SETM

December 5, 2025 | 7 mins

Steve Schoffstall joins Nasdaq’s Talk Your Ticker to discuss the Sprott Critical Materials ETF (SETM), highlighting its pure-play exposure to miners of nine essential metals and its role in diversifying portfolios amid rising energy demand and security concerns.

Video Transcript

Jillian DelSignore: I'm Jillian DelSignore, Head of Retail and Wealth, Distribution Strategy at Nasdaq. This is Talk Your Ticker. Today, I'm joined by Steve Schoffstall, Director of ETF Product Management at Sprott. Steve, thanks for joining me.

Steve Schoffstall: It's great to be here. Thank you.

Jillian DelSignore: Fantastic. Tell me, who is Sprott?

Steve Schoffstall: We're a Canadian asset manager. We manage approximately $50 billion in assets. Over the last several decades, we've built extensive experience in the metals and mining sector. We offer a range of private strategies and managed equities. Still, we're perhaps most well-known for not only our expertise in metals and mining, but also our physically backed trusts, which encompass assets such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium, uranium and copper. We also have a growing lineup of U.S.-listed ETFs, which focus on either precious metals or critical materials. It's been a great time here over the last several years at Sprott, as we've expanded our lineup and strengthened our relationship with Nasdaq.

Jillian DelSignore: Fantastic. We're here today to talk about SETM. Can you tell us about it?

Steve Schoffstall: That's the Sprott Critical Materials ETF. This is one of our flagship products, launched about two and a half years ago, dedicated to providing investors with pure-play exposure to miners of nine different critical materials. When we discuss pure-play exposure, we refer to companies that have at least 50% of their revenue or assets tied to one of the underlying metals.

The metals are categorized into three distinct groups, all based on their energy properties, whether it's the storage, transmission, or creation of energy. Items such as uranium, silver, rare earths, copper, and battery metals are all eligible for inclusion in the index. As we transition to the next generation of energy technology, we're witnessing significant growth in energy demand. A lot of that's being driven by whether it's increased standards of living in developing nations or the rise of artificial intelligence.

But we're also seeing energy security really move to the forefront. We believe that critical materials will play a crucial role in the evolving economies and the shifting global landscape of the future.

Jillian DelSignore: For those who may not be utilizing something like this in their portfolio yet, where do you see it fit within a broader asset allocation?

Steve Schoffstall: What we hear from most investors is that they look to either add SETM as part of a thematic or a growth sleeve, or sometimes as an alternative investment. We see it getting an allocation. It's one of those areas where investors may struggle to gain significant exposure on an individual ticker basis. However, what we see is that investors appreciate the ability to have exposure to a cross-section of critical materials. At the same time, some of these miners can also offer some diversification benefits. This is accompanied by the favorable growth characteristics that we also observe.

Jillian DelSignore: Are you seeing any particular type of investor utilize this ETF?

Steve Schoffstall: In the early days, it was retail-focused, but we've seen a noticeable shift over the last 18 months or so, where we now see advisors becoming the largest holders of SETM. There are really two main reasons for this. First, if an advisor is running a model portfolio, there are often only one or two areas in their model dedicated to a specific theme, typically reserved for a single or maybe two tickers. SETM gives them broader access to critical materials.

The other is that advisors don't necessarily want to pick winners and losers, or which commodity might be outperforming another at any given point in time. It provides broad-based exposure without the need to determine which commodity is more favorable at any given moment. What we're seeing with the news flow is that a lot of the investment from public and private sources isn't dedicated to just one specific metal. It is across the entire critical materials spectrum.

Jillian DelSignore: I would imagine the latter use case makes a lot of sense for those who just don't feel equipped, and this is a great solution for that. What, from your perspective, makes SETM particularly unique?

Steve Schoffstall: This is a strategy we developed in collaboration with Nasdaq. It enables us to leverage our expertise in the metals and mining sector, combined with Nasdaq's renowned index capabilities. First and foremost, this is a pure-play strategy. We are focusing on pure-play companies so that investors won't have too much unintended exposure. Another key differentiator is our semi-annual rebalance, which involves reviewing and scoring each individual company twice a year to ensure that we capture any new additions to the index universe.

Finally, unlike some competing ETF strategies, this strategy isn't overly focused on just one or two metals. We do see some cases where some strategies could have 85% to 90% of exposure concentrated in just two metals. We have caps in place to ensure that doesn't happen, which allows us to spread the exposure across eight or nine different materials.

Jillian DelSignore: What a great overview. Thank you, Steve. Let's pivot to you and to Sprott. What are you reading or listening to right now?

Steve Schoffstall: The obvious one is given the news flow that we see with critical materials and the energy security debate, and how that's really taken off in the last six months, a lot of reading around industry publications, what that means for metals markets, and how that's playing out. I would say on a more personal level, Charles Swindoll has a great series called Great Lives. He has written several books, exploring the lives of historical figures and providing insight into their faith, perseverance, wisdom and leadership qualities they drew upon during difficult times. That's been a series I've enjoyed.

Jillian DelSignore: That's fantastic. Where can we find Sprott on social media?

Steve Schoffstall: We're all over social media, very active on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter (X). For investors seeking the most recent information, you can visit either sprott.com or sprottetfs.com. There we have the list of our Insights, which are basically monthly market insights. It's not behind a paywall, so there's no need to register to access that. Also, you can learn more about our ETFs at sprottetfs.com.

Jillian DelSignore: Fantastic. Well, Steve, thank you so much for your time.

Steve Schoffstall: Thank you. It's great to be here.