ETF Inflows & Outflows
Performance Leaders & Laggards
Source: ETF Action; flows and performance data as of 10/29/26; performance data excludes leveraged and inverse products
Weekly ETF Reads
ETFs use ‘perps’ to offer bets on private companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI by Steve Johnson
“I believe perpetual futures can be the next big innovation in financial markets.”
Are the Days Numbered for This Tax-Saving ETF Strategy? by Daniel Sotiroff
“ETFs are very good at deferring taxes owed on capital gains, but they’re more restricted when avoiding or deferring taxes owed on dividends or interest.”
Charles Schwab Eyes ETF Expansion. What’s in The Pipeline. by Andrew Welsch
“In addition to bonds, Schwab is eyeing opportunities to add to its income fund lineup.”
State Street Adds Mutual Fund Share for S&P 500 ETF SPYM by Nicholas Peters-Golden
“The fund has reached some $170 billion in overall assets.”
New AI Bond ETFs Offer a Different Way to Bet on the Boom by Quinn Waller
“At least five issuers have recently filed for ETFs focused on AI-related borrowing.”
The Extra-Strength Funds That Are Too Much of a Good Thing by Jason Zweig
“As index funds tracking the broad stock market have boomed in recent decades, so have index ETFs that track only a single segment.”
Franklin Templeton ETFs Turn Stock Dividends Into Bitcoin by DJ Shaw
“Every regular and special dividend from the stocks in each index gets reinvested into bitcoin.”
(Note: Todd Mathias, Head of U.S. ETF Product Strategy and Development at Franklin Templeton, will join me on next week’s ETF Prime to discuss these new bitcoin DRIP ETFs.)
ETF Post of the Week
As we head down the home stretch of 2026, I thought it was a good time to take stock of the performance of several major ETFs. While I tend to focus on a variety of industry-related stories in this blog, at the end of the day, ETFs are ultimately about helping investors meet their financial goals. It’s been a strong year across many major asset classes, with the exception of bonds and crypto, which aren’t fully depicted below.
These last two months of the year should be interesting as investors weigh the results of the midterm elections, the Iran conflict and oil prices, sticky inflation, the Fed’s path on interest rates, and whether the continued AI buildout will deliver the desired results.
Here’s a snapshot of key ETF performance across asset classes in October and year-to-date. October was a month of extremes. Growth was down 5.5%, while Value rallied 5% to new all-time highs. Energy and Staples were up 10%+ while Tech and Comm. Svcs fell 8%+. https://t.co/4VJnnWSZw9
— Bespoke (@bespokeinvest) October 30, 2026
ETF Chart of the Week
Speaking of crypto performance, one of the year’s worst-performing assets has been ethereum. It’s down 25% year-to-date and 55% from its August 2025 high. Since the second half of September, ether has declined nearly 20%, and ETF investors are taking notice. Glassnode shows that spot ether ETFs have seen 23 consecutive days of outflows, a record since the products launched in July 2024.
Source: glassnode
ETF Prime Podcast
Last week’s ETF Prime featured Todd Sohn, Chief ETF Strategist at Baird Strategas, and Simeon Hyman, Global Investment Strategist at ProShares. Todd offered his perspective on several recent ETF developments, from sports futures contracts and prediction markets to crypto. He also discussed where untapped opportunities remain in the ETF space, shared his ETF story of 2026, and highlighted the trends he’ll be watching in the months ahead. Simeon explained how autocallables work and spotlighted the firm’s recently launched suite of autocallable ETFs.
