Exchange traded funds have grown increasingly popular among the investment community as more mom and pop investors, financial advisors, money managers and institutions utilize the convenient investment tool.
About $188 billion in new assets have flowed into U.S.-listed ETFs in 2017, according to ETF global research and advisory firm XTF. The inflows is an all-time record for this year-to-date period based on XTF historical data since 2003.
There are now 2,028 exchange traded products, or ETFs and exchange traded notes, from 106 fund sponsors and 129 index providers listed on four exchanges with total assets of a little over $2.9 trillion.
The lion’s share of net inflows, or $123 billion, found their way into equity ETFs while $49 billion was funneled into fixed-income funds. Additionally, investors put $24 billion into smart beta or enhanced index-based ETFs.