ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Weekly ETF Reads
Quant Firm Applies to Issue ETF Share Classes in Mutual Funds by Wendy Li, John Mahon, & Shaina Maldonado
“While the ETF Rule applies broadly to both passively managed and actively managed ETFs, the rule does not apply to certain particular categories of ETFs, including, among others, ETFs structured as share classes of a multi-class fund.”
The Legendary, Wildly Profitable QQQ Fund Makes No Money for Its Owner by Katherine Greifeld
“I think they’re doing as good of a job as anyone could from trying to diversify away from the Qs.”
Grayscale is on the cusp of winning Bitcoin’s biggest prize—but Wall Street’s big dogs could snatch it away by Jeff John Roberts
“That could be weighing on the SEC—Do we really want to give it to these guys? A BlackRock or Fidelity is a safer bet.”
Thematic ETFs Struggle to Capture Financial Advisors’ Attention by Jeff Benjamin
“I look at them as hot sauce to an overall portfolio that represents the meal.”
4 Ways ETFs Capture Company Cash Flows by Zachary Evens
“ETF investors avoid the perils of betting on a select few management teams, and by extension a select few stocks.”
US spot bitcoin ETF not impossible — just ask the rest of the world by Ben Strack
“A US spot bitcoin ETF could attract $55 billion in net flows in its first five years on the market.”
ETF Tweet of the Week
In the latest chapter of the ongoing crypto ETF saga, Bloomberg reported the SEC is now poised to allow the first ether futures ETFs. The Wall Street Journal then reported the SEC is likely to allow multiple of these ETFs to launch at the same time. These “leaks” from the SEC come less than three weeks after Volatility Shares first filed for the product, which set off a frenzy of applications from other issuers (there are now 16 ether futures-related ETF filings!). This also comes less than three months after the SEC rebuffed a similar (albeit smaller) wave of ether futures ETF filings. There has clearly been some sort of shift in the agency’s sentiment towards crypto, which could bode well for spot bitcoin ETF approval.
Following the SEC’s apparent change of heart, Roundhill’s filing was updated to show their ether strategy ETF will be offered for a meager 19 basis points. 19 basis points! The fee competition in this space will be absolutely brutal (you can read my thoughts on that and more in this nice piece from DLNews’ Adam McCarthy).
ETF Chart of the Week
While not an ETF-specific chart, the below is certainly relevant to industry flows. The 10-year treasury yield hit its highest level since 2008 last week. There have been countless predictions of “peak” interest rates since early last year. They have all been wrong and uncertainty around the future direction of rates is reflected in the $72 billion flowing into U.S. treasury ETFs this year. $24 billion has gone into long-term treasury ETFs (“rate top callers” – ouch), $12 billion into intermediate-term treasury ETFs (“fence straddlers” – not great), and $32 billion into ultra-short, short-term, and floating rate treasury ETFs (“5%+ yields with minimal duration risk? Sign me up!” – yay). If you’re curious, the remaining treasury ETF flows have gone into defined maturity and variable rate products.
