The Incredible Growth of ETFs In 2015

Globally there are for the first time now over 6,000 ETFs/ETPs with over 3 trillion US dollars in assets at the end of October 2015.  ETFs/ETPs listed globally gathered US$35.6 billion in net new assets in October 2015. This marks the 21st consecutive month of positive net inflows, according to ETFGI’s Global ETF and ETP insights report for October 2015.

We are on track to end the year with record net inflows and assets in the global ETF/ETP industry. In the first ten months of 2015 record levels of net new assets have been gathered by ETFs/ETPs listed globally with net inflows of US$287.3 Bn marking a 22.3% increase over the prior record set at this time last year. In the United States net inflows reached US$174.8 Bn, which is 12.4% higher than the prior record set in 2013, while in Europe year to date (YTD) net inflows climbed to an all-time record of US$68.6 Bn, representing a 22.7% increase on the record set YTD through end of October 2014. In Canada, YTD net inflows are at a record US$10.1 billion which is slightly ahead of the prior record set in 2012. In Japan, YTD net inflows were up 121.9% on the record set last year, standing at US$35.0 Bn at the end of October 2015.

Equity markets performed well globally in October: the Dow was up 9%, the S&P 500 was 8%,  all 10 sectors of the S&P 500 were up for the month, developed markets gained 7%, emerging markets were up 8%.  Investors put net money into riskier assets including emerging market equities in October.” according to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

The global ETF/ETP industry had 6,015 ETFs/ETPs, with 11,598 listings, assets of US$3.001 trillion, from 271 providers listed on 63 exchanges in 51 countries at the end of October.

In October 2015, ETFs/ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$35.6 Bn. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with US$22.6 Bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with US$14.5 Bn.