ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 8/1/24; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETFs are eating the bond market by Robin Wigglesworth and Will Schmitt
“In capital markets you often need something big to shake things up, to move away from the old way of doing things. That’s what ETFs have done.”
Investors Embrace Bond Funds Before Rates Start to Fall by Jack Pitcher
“U.S.-listed fixed-income exchange-traded funds have taken in nearly $150 billion through late July, a record through this point in a year.”
BlackRock Leads Big Firms Racing to Put Private Assets Into ETFs by Vildana Hajric and Katie Greifeld
“If it can be done, I have the confidence in the ETF market.”
Managed Futures: What to Know About This Strategy for ETFs by Lan Anh Tran and Ryan Jackson
“Managed-futures ETFs have made strides more than a decade after the first one debuted.”
‘Dr. Doom’ Roubini Enters the ETF Business by Jeff Benjamin
“It’s a good sign for the ETF industry, which is now the main place for the smartest people to try their strategies.”
5 ETF Questions To Celebrate the Olympics by Todd Rosenbluth
“Home bias can be harmful to a portfolio.”
How Avantis Became One of the Fastest-Growing Fund Companies by Gabe Alpert
“Avantis was among the early adopters of actively managed ETFs, launching its first in 2019, the year an SEC rule change facilitated the easy creation of such funds.”
Morgan Stanley tells wealth advisors they can pitch bitcoin ETFs in a first for a big bank by Hugh Son
“Only clients with a net worth of at least $1.5 million, an aggressive risk tolerance and the desire to make speculative investments are suitable for bitcoin ETF solicitation.”
A deeper look at Grayscale’s spin-off ETF launches, crypto outlook by Ben Strack
“These Ethereum ETF products that came to market a little over a week ago are one of the most successful ETF launches in the history of the US market.”
(Note: Catch my in-depth conversation with Grayscale’s Managing Director John Hoffman on last week’s ETF Prime!)
ETF Tweet of the Week
BlackRock has clearly enjoyed its entrance into the crypto arena with the most successful launch in ETF history, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). They have since followed that up with another highly successful launch, the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). However, this is still the crypto space we’re talking about. Welcome to the arena, BlackRock…
There has been a spike in investment-related scams, including directing users toward crypto investment-related websites and/or social media platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram. We urge caution in dealing with individuals, websites or social media platforms using our brand and…
— BlackRock (@BlackRock) July 28, 2024
ETF Chart of the Week
Bond ETFs vacuumed-up record inflows of $39 billion in July. Approximately $160 billion has flowed into the category thus far in 2024. Last week, Charles Schwab announced the pending launch of their first active fixed income ETF. Schwab is simply the latest in a long line of issuers continuing to ramp-up their bond ETF offerings. What’s my point? The fixed income ETF category is absolutely on fire right now. 22 years after the launch of the first U.S.-listed bond ETF, the category continues to innovate and welcome in new entrants. If you only read one article this week, I highly encourage you to check out the long-form piece above titled “ETFs are eating the bond market” – which includes a brief anecdote on the birth of this mushrooming category:
“At the start of the century, Barclays Global Investors launched a weird little fund in Canada, a backwater of global finance. Today, its myriad offspring are rewiring swaths of the $130tn bond market.
BGI’s creation was an exchange-traded fund, which occupied a pretty exotic corner of the investment industry. ETFs had only been around for a decade and there were less than 90 in existence, with total assets of $70bn. But this was a niche product even for a niche industry: rather than some big stock market index, this ETF would track the Canadian bond market.
The iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF — launched on November 20, 2000 — was the first of its kind to invest in fixed income rather than equities. It represented a trial balloon for BGI, the asset management arm of the British bank.
Another two years had passed before BGI launched a smattering of bond ETFs in the US, to feeble interest. Some ETF believers were sceptical that the vehicles would ever prove successful in fixed income. They were wrong.”
Yes they were.
Source: Strategas’ Todd Sohn
Thinking Crypto Podcast
On the heels of spot ether ETFs’ successful debut, I joined Tony Edwards on the Thinking Crypto Podcast. We covered everything from initial flows into these new ETFs to continued demand for spot bitcoin ETFs to the prospects for solana ETFs. Enjoy!
