In looking at the growth rate of exchange traded funds, the industry has been quickly expanding, garnering over $2 trillion in assets globally, and it has not shown any signs of slowing.
Bob Pisani for CNBC notes that U.S.-listed ETFs had just $100 billion in 2002, grew to $400 billion by 2006 and then doubled to $800 million by 2009. The industry then tacked on another 25% asset growth to $1.3 trillion at the end of 2012.
“ETFs are the most important development for investors – and the fund industry – in decades,” Pisani wrote, highlighting the diversification qualities that ETFs brought to the retail investor.
Next week, I will see Bob Pisani at the IndexUniverse Inside ETFs Conference in Florida where industry players and advisors will exchange ideas on actionable ways to navigate the current markets with ETF investments. That is, unless Bob gets stuck in New York due to the blizzard dumping snow on the Northeast.