ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 10/19/23; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETFs viewed as large opportunity by 74% of US asset managers, poll says by Will Schmitt
“ETFs are one of the most efficient distribution models that asset managers have at their disposal.”
Semi-Transparent ETFs Are Alive and Well by Todd Rosenbluth
“While more asset managers like Capital Group, Dimensional Funds, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are turning to fully transparent products, semi-transparent active funds have a niche.”
Vanguard’s Achilles Heel by David Dierking
“In Vanguard’s case, investors are looking for ultra-cheap index funds, not active factor funds.”
Investors Are Flocking to These Active Value ETFs by Katherine Lynch
“Active value ETFs have collected $8.5 billion so far in 2023, with many doubling in size.”
U.S. Treasury bond ETFs draw net inflows this year despite recent market rout by Suzanne Mcgee
“We may still use mutual funds for core holdings, but ETFs work better for precise targeting and time-sensitive trades.”
BlackRock offers first retirement-date ETFs for investors saving outside 401(k) plans by Christine Idzelis
“Anyone with $25 can now start saving for retirement.”
ETF Tweet of the Week
Last week began with a false tweet from a random crypto website claiming the SEC had approved the iShares Bitcoin ETF. Surprisingly, a large number of “X” accounts and media fell for this nonsense. There are four obvious reasons why this tweet was highly suspect:
1) The SEC doesn’t use the term “approve” in this context.
2) The SEC had just delayed a decision on this ETF at the end of September.
3) The prevailing thought, including by many accounts retweeting this “news”, is the SEC will allow a batch of spot bitcoin ETFs at the same time (so it wouldn’t make sense that only the iShares ETF was allowed).
4) The optics would be extremely poor if the SEC blessed the iShares Bitcoin ETF immediately following the decision not to appeal their loss in the Grayscale lawsuit.
I could keep going (including the source – why would Cointelegraph have this news??), but I think this entire episode just goes to show the pent-up demand for a spot bitcoin ETF. If curious, you can read Cointelegraph’s explanation on this clown show here.
ETF Chart of the Week
Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas notes that 28% of the roughly 400 new ETFs this year use derivatives – in particular, options. That is the highest percentage on record. The massive success of defined outcome ETFs and the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) has led to a wave of products that Balchunas calls “Boomer candy”. These ETFs seek to enhance income, limit volatility, or both – all of which can be appealing to pre-retirees or investors already in retirement. There are even ETFs seeking to generate monthly income by selling or writing call options on single company stock or single ETF exposures!
Source: Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas
