The ETF Year In Review: 2009 By the Numbers

Last year was an exciting one for the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry: new products, new assets, new providers. Let’s break the year down by the numbers to get a real sense of the progress that’s been made.

Here are a few numbers about the ETF industry in the year that was:

• 136: The number of new exchange traded product (ETP) launches – the breakdown is 127 ETFs and 9 exchange traded notes (ETNs). It was the fourth-busiest year for launches ever, says Ron Rowland for iStock Analyst. [Prepare for 2010 with a strategy.]
• 23: The number of new ETFs launched in December.
• 6: The number of ETFs de-listed in December.
• 56: The number of closures in all of 2009 (51 ETFs and 5 ETNs). This was the second largest number of delistings on record; 2008 takes the cake, thanks to the global economic crisis.
• 835: The number of ETFs at year’s end (that’s 924, if you count ETNs).
• 782: The number of billions in assets under management in ETFs, up 46% since one year earlier. Global and commodity funds were big winners: Long-only Commodity ETF AUM hit $72 billion, up 107% from a year ago; global equity AUM hit $209 billion, up 83% from a year ago.
• 125: The number of ETFs that have surpassed $1 billion in AUM. Another 414 ETFs have surpassed $100 million.
• 1.9: The total ETF share volume daily average. That’s a 20% annual increase.

New ETF players that entered into the industry include names such as Global X, PIMCO, Charles Schwab, Guggenheim (which acquired Claymore), and FaithShares, who brought their religious funds to market. [How do they decide which companies to track?] Active management within the ETF industry helped prompt big fund providers into the business and file for their own funds. Potential players we could be seeing soon include Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price. [Schwab's ETF market entry is faced with mixed criticism.]

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