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.
“While the statistics from XTF detail US asset flows, we are seeing similar strong and growing interest globally in a wide array of index-based ETFs,” Ken O’Keeffe, managing director & global head of ETPs, FTSE Russell, said in a note. “Notably, we’re seeing growing interest in ETFs across asset classes. This year, in the US we have seen significant inflows in to ETFs tracking both equity and fixed income indexes. We have also seen growing interest in ETFs based on smart beta indexes.”
For example, the most popular ETF plays of the year include the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV), which saw $14.0 billion in net inflows; the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: IEMG), which added $9.6 billion; and the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEArca: IEFA), which attracted $7.9 billion.
Furthermore, the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: LQD) was among the top ten most popular ETF plays of 2017, bringing in $5.6 billion in net inflows.
For more information on asset flows, visit our ETF performance reports category.