ETF Trends publisher Tom Lydon just joined CNBC at the closing bell to talk about all the woes and joys that exchange traded funds experienced through 2016.
There are now 1,960 U.S.-listed exchange traded products with $2.550 trillion in net assets under management after the ETP industry attracted $283 billion in net inflows for the year.
Among the most popular ETFs, investors still threw billions into S&P 500-related offerings. For example, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) saw $24.4 billion in net inflows, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) attracted $13.5 billion and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO) added $11.4 billion, according to XTF data. The S&P 500 ETFs saw heavy inflows over the past month, with SPY bringing in $15.4 billion, as investors looked to a pro-growth environment ahead under the new Donald Trump administration.
The PureFunds ISE Junior Silver ETF (NYSEArca: SILJ) and SPDR Metals & Mining ETF (NYSEArca: XME) were the best performing ETFs of 2016, rising 134% and 111% year-to-date.
On the other end among the worst performers, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX) and VelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (NYSEArca: VIIX) fell about 69%.