Another reminder of the growth of the exchange traded fund business was the increased presence of ETF providers at Morningstar’s annual investment conference, held recently in Chicago.
The first thing I noticed when I walked through the entrance was the size of the exhibit hall and the number of companies exhibiting compared to prior years. There were many new names looking for attention, especially ETF providers.
And size matters. It was immediately clear that many fund companies are confident in their current positioning in the marketplace as could be seen by the amount of money, people and space they put into their exhibit booths.
Big ETF names, such as iShares, BlackRock’s ETF business, had a huge presence; lights, big screens and tables to park and chat. They were also making a statement by taking pictures of people at their booth and tweeting their comments and pictures on their Twitter page. Not to be outdone in the social networking game, Morningstar was also tweeting like crazy.