It’s like déjà vu all over again.
Last month, significant outflows across the global ETF industry caused more than a few dramatic headlines. But pundits had barely finished analyzing the month’s hemorrhage when flows started to turn around, and sharply at that. While it’s too soon to tell whether the current snapback is here to stay, it does nicely illustrate the whiplash involved in covering ETF flow news.
In total, ETFs in June lost a total of $8.2 billion – the first month of outflows since November 2011 (which were very minimal), and the first month of fixed income ETF outflows since December 2010. But through July 18, global ETFs rebounded to the tune of $34 billion in new inflows. [ETF Buying Spree in July]
So what’s causing this sudden (and drastic) change of heart – again? In order to answer this question, we thought it would be interesting to look back at other times when ETFs experienced dramatic outflows. As you can see in the chart below, there have been four periods of outflows of more than $2 billion going back to 2006 (excluding last month).
