ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 8/20/26; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
Wall Street Wants to Turn Every NHL Team Into an ETF by Sumit Roy
“The line between investing and gambling has been blurring for years.”
Leveraged ETF Craze Turns Its Sights to Other Funds by Emile Hallez
“We take these filings as a compliment, since firms only file 2x versions of funds that are clearly resonating with investors.”
These ‘Innovative’ ETFs Have Been Disastrous for Investors by Bryan Armour
“The median single-stock ETF has lost 38% while having paid over $6 billion in management fees on them over the past four years ended July 2026.”
Buffer ETFs Have Paid Off, But Investors Should Know Their Limits by Jeffrey Ptak
“Even if buffer ETFs worked as designed and investors used them successfully, they still involve real trade-offs that are worth keeping in mind.”
Low-cost ETFs drive record $1T in inflows despite active fund buzz by Steve Randall
“While much of the industry conversation has shifted toward active and income strategies, low-cost core ETFs remain the foundation of how many advisors build portfolios.”
The Next ETF Battleground Isn’t Just Fees. It’s Strategy by Nicholas Phillips
“The first major wave of ETF growth was about access. The next was about cost. Increasingly, the industry’s next chapter may be about outcomes.”
Texas Stock Exchange gets first primary listings from Y’all Street neighbor by Sasha Richie
“Exchange-traded product listings, like Texas Capital’s ETFs and a forthcoming energy ETF from Dallas-based Westwood Holdings Group to be listed on TXSE, are the first step.”
Higher Fees, Better Returns: The Case for Equal-Weighted ETFs by Paul R. La Monica
“The equal-weighted strategy may be worth those higher expenses if you believe that the broadening will continue.”
Franklin Plans to Push Tokenized Assets Into Traditional Funds by Vildana Hajric and Olga Kharif
“The firm plans to use its tokenized money-market fund inside ETFs and mutual funds, either as a holding or as collateral.”
Ondo executive says tokenization is following the same path as early ETFs by Kyle Baird
“The parallels between what’s happened with ETFs over the last 33 years are very similar to how I see this market developing right now.”
ETF Post of the Week
There was another major acquisition in ETF land last week, with T. Rowe Price announcing that it had entered into an agreement to acquire F/m Investments, a nearly $20 billion asset manager with more than $10 billion in ETF assets. This follows the prior week’s announcement that Goldman Sachs would acquire $30+ billion ETF issuer NEOS Investments.
As I mentioned following that Goldman Sachs announcement, an uptick in ETF mergers and acquisitions was one of my predictions for 2026. I’m going to go ahead and chalk that prediction up as accurate.
In a nutshell, I see these acquisitions as a marriage of distribution and differentiation. The acquiring firms have the distribution but are looking for differentiated products. The firms being acquired have differentiated products but lack distribution at scale. I expect that combination to drive more industry M&A in the months ahead.
Same mission. Same approach. Greater scale.
— F/m Investments (@fminvestllc) August 20, 2026
F/m Investments has entered into an agreement to join T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ-GS: TROW).
F/m started in 2019 on one premise: fixed income should be precise, transparent, and easy to use. That doesn't change. What changes is the scale… pic.twitter.com/JWj8hkTQ6O
ETF Chart of the Week
I’ve included several charts this year on the record-setting pace of ETF flows, but this one shows a recent acceleration that boggles the mind. In fact, since the data on this chart was compiled, year-to-date inflows have further mushroomed to nearly $1.4 trillion.
There are a lot of factors driving these inflows, including a buoyant stock market environment. But I liked how Tom Campbell, Head of Americas ETF Distribution at Goldman Sachs, frames it as both the old and the new driving the industry forward:
“The velocity of product innovation is playing a key role in these record-setting flows. Last year, more than 1,100 new ETFs entered the market and now we’re on track to break that record by the end of 2026. We expect there will be more than 6,000 listed ETFs in the US. That surpasses the number of single stocks in the US market.
Keep in mind that a lot of the inflow is also for funds that have been in the market for some time. Increased trading volumes, intra-day liquidity, along with the ETF wrapper’s long-valued transparency and tax efficiency continue to make both prior and new launches attractive to investors.”
And keep in mind that the fourth quarter is typically the strongest period for ETF inflows.
Source: Goldman Sachs
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Mike Akins, Founding Partner of ETF Action, and Paul Baiocchi, Head of Fund Sales and Strategy at SS&C ALPS Advisors. Mike discussed Goldman Sachs’ acquisition of NEOS Investments, NHL futures ETF filings, crypto, and why ETF education is becoming increasingly important. Paul Baiocchi spotlighted the ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF (IDOG) and the ALPS/Smith Core Plus Bond ETF (SMTH), sharing his outlook on international equities and the current fixed income environment.
