ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 9/17/26; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETFs in 2026: there’s more innovation, but also higher expenses, more complexity, and more risk by Bob Pisani
“For the ETF industry, this is the best of times, and it’s the worst of times.”
What’s Really Happening With Active ETFs, and Which Ones Are Resonating With Investors by Daniel Sotiroff
“There’s a clear story playing out among active ETFs.”
Novel ETFs: New Strategies Push Boundaries by Roxanna Islam
“Many industry comments received on novel ETFs supported continued ETF innovation, but differed on how much the existing framework should change.”
ETFs Are Getting Wackier. Investors Must Stay Sane. by Jason Zweig
“I used to joke that 95% of investing success consists of knowing what not to do. It’s rapidly approaching 99%, and it’s no longer a joke.”
Slicing the ETF Market 9 Different Ways by Phil Mackintosh
“For much of the ETF market, the giant passive index trackers do have outsized share. But at the edges, the divergences are sharp.”
Dimensional’s David Booth Discusses the State of ETFs, Investing and More by John Manganaro
“It’s undeniable that ETFs have some big advantages, starting with the tax efficiency.”
Bond Veteran Bassman Escalates Clash With $14 Billion ETF Issuer by Justina Lee
“It’s the latest twist in a rocky period for Simplify.”
Bells ring in big week for Texas Stock Exchange, including new companies, first listings by Sasha Richie
“On Thursday, at Dallas-based Westwood Holdings Group’s headquarters, the investment and asset management firm and TXSE rung the opening bell to celebrate the first ETF to launch on TXSE.”
(Note: Westwood CEO Brian Casey joined me on last week’s ETF Prime to discuss the decision-making behind launching its new ETF on the TXSE. You can watch that conversation below.)
The Revolution Behind Tokenized ETFs: Transparency, Accessibility, and Modernization by Rocío Martínez
“Momentum is building, as many of the world’s largest asset managers and market infrastructure providers are actively investing in tokenized fund initiatives.”
ETF Post of the Week
It’s not even October, and ETF inflows have already surpassed last year’s record haul of $1.5 trillion. Given that the fourth quarter has historically been the strongest period for inflows, $2 trillion looks like a layup at this point. Quite simply, ETFs are eating the asset management world. To put that $2 trillion into perspective, it’s roughly equal to the industry’s total assets 10 years ago. And as Eric points out, a good year for inflows was $100 billion just 20 years ago.
ETFs have now surpassed last year's record flows of $1.5T with 3.5mo to spare. 20yrs ago when I began covering the industry (marked by arrow) a good year was $100b, now they do more than that every month, an $8.5b/day pace. A feat of both a benefit-rich technology and inflation. pic.twitter.com/WLnRdDhjfZ
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 18, 2026
ETF Chart of the Week
Morningstar is out with its latest ETF report, The State of US ETFs 2026 – and it’s well worth a look. With ETF inflows surpassing last year’s annual record, I thought the chart below was the perfect companion to Eric’s post. From the report:
“Since State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust’s birth, both mutual funds and ETFs have seen net inflows, but mutual funds have been hemorrhaging money since 2019, while ETF inflows have gone stratospheric.
Stratospheric is as good a description as any.
Source: Morningstar
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Research at VettaFi, and Brian Casey, CEO of Westwood Holdings Group. Todd took a look across the ETF landscape, covering record-setting inflows, the categories attracting the most investor interest, the recent uptick in industry mergers and acquisitions, and more. Brian discussed the Westwood Salient Enhanced Power & Infrastructure ETF (PWRX), the first ETF to launch on the newly established Texas Stock Exchange.
Bloomberg’s ETF IQ
I had the pleasure of joining Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas and Scarlet Fu this past Monday to discuss flows into the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, the lack of investor interest in the year’s top-performing ETF (BWET), and the uptick in ETF industry M&A. Enjoy!
