ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 2/1/24; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
‘Hot Sauce’ ETFs Will Thrive Even Without Jim Cramer Funds by Jonathan Levin
“The future of weird and exciting investments still looks mighty promising.”
Announcing the Nominations for the 2024 etf.com Awards by ETF.com
“These funds, issuers, providers, and esteemed ETF professionals were selected from a record pool of 1,400 nominations.”
15 Funds That Have Destroyed the Most Wealth Over the Past Decade by Amy Arnott
“The wealth destroyers are a motley crew of more-specialized fund categories.”
MSIM seeks permission from SEC to offer ETF shares of mutual funds by Kathie O’Donnell
“Applicants continue to see demand for ETFs to help investors meet their distinct financial goals.”
The ETF industry continues to evolve by John Hancock
“2024 is shaping up to be another significant year for the ETF industry.”
Regulatory nod for US spot bitcoin ETF options may take months – sources by Suzanne McGee & Hannah Lang
“In the case of the first ETF tied to a physical commodity, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, it took more than three years for the CFTC to approve the options.”
Bitcoin ETF Price War Is Trickling Down to Crypto Custodians by Olga Kharif & Yueqi Yang
“Multiple custodian relationships could make it easier for issuers to potentially pressure custodians on fees down the road to improve profitability.”
After bitcoin ETF approval, analysts remain divided on ETH ETF timetable by Katherine Ross
“The decision to approve or deny the ETFs is political.”
BondBloxx launches triple B rated corporate bond ETFs by Brian Ponte
“The ETFs represent BondBloxx’s foray into the investment-grade corporate bond universe.”
(Note: Be sure to catch my conversation with BondBloxx Co-Founder Joanna Gallegos on Tuesday’s ETF Prime!)
ETF Tweet of the Week
As always, a little ETF education goes a long way (click tweet to read entire thread). Use limit orders on those ETF trades!
🧵: Three Reasons Why You Should Be Using Limit Orders Instead of Market Orders
— Jess Bost, CFP® (@lady__bost) January 30, 2024
ETF Chart of the Week
This excellent visual, courtesy of FactSet’s Elisabeth Kashner, shows 2023 ETF flows by expense ratio. The industry’s average asset-weighted expense ratio is now down to 17.2bps(!) per year. Why? Primarily, because investors are seeking out the lowest cost ETFs. Kashner:
“ETF investors continued to flock to the cheapest products. The most popular funds – ETFs tracking the S&P 500, the total US stock market, and the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond index – cost just 0.03% per year.”
Toss in an ongoing fee war among the lowest cost ETF issuers – who are fighting over those flocking investors – and you have a recipe for continued downward fee pressure.
Source: FactSet’s Elisabeth Kashner
