2011 will go down as the year of the bond exchange traded fund.
ETFs in Morningstar’s taxable bond category led the year with net inflows of $37.3 billion through the end of November.
Fixed-income exchange traded products have grown to 591 from 122 offerings in 2007. Over 110 new fixed-income products have launched this year alone. [Bond Investors Gravitate to Index ETFs]
U.S. stock ETFs have seen inflows of $31.5 billion year to date, while international stock funds have added $13.5 billion, according to Morningstar.
Commodities ETFs have gathered $3.1 billion so far in 2011 thanks in part to investors piling into gold ETFs in November.