By focusing only on the asset-gathering proficiency of one issuer and the alleged losses share of another, experts forget to tell the world about important points about the ETF industry’s growth such as Invesco’s (NYSEArca: IVZ) PowerShares becoming the fourth issuer in the $100 billion club.
That is impressive in its own right, but even more so when seeing the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) lighter by $4.1 billion this year. The growth of PowerShares affirms the legitimacy of alternative weighting index methodologies, a topic that makes some traditionalists uncomfortable, but remember, there was a time when it was uncomfortable to admit the earth is round.
There are things some folks seemingly do not want to talk about when it comes to ETF industry growth. WisdomTree (NasdaqGS: WETF) has gotten no credit for slightly growing assets this year even as $1.6 billion has left the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DXJ).
It is safe to say the large amount of short sellers that dwell in WisdomTree stock know about DXJ’s lost assets but are blind to the fact that the WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund (NYSEArca: DFE) has seen its AUM swell by almost 70% since February. They also probably do not know that the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HEDJ) hit $1 billion in AUM in April and has since added over 85% to that total. [Hedged Europe ETF Tops $1B in Assets]
And precious little attention has been paid to First Trust’s ascent, though our friends at ETF.com did highlight just that earlier this year. At the end of last year, First Trust had $19.7 billion in ETF assets. Last Friday, that number was $27.7 billion.
So yes, big ETF issuers are gaining assets, but clearly they are not the only ones and that is a good thing. The problem is only part of the story has been told until now.
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of HEDJ and QQQ.