The first actively managed ETF came to market in 2008, but 100+ funds later, active management in ETFs has struggled to get much traction in the equity space. Out of more than $2 trillion in U.S.-listed ETF assets as of 2015, less than 1% was tied to actively managed funds. Income-generating investments, on the other hand, such as the PIMCO Total Return (BOND) that Bill Gross launched in 2012 and had $2.6 billion in assets under management in 2015 or master limited partnerships have shown more success.
With 562 ETFs traded on the U.S. markets, Active Management ETFs have total assets under management of $217.75B. The average expense ratio is 0.71%. Active Management ETFs can be found in the following asset classes:
- Equity
- Asset Allocation
- Fixed Income
- Commodities
- Alternatives
- Currency
The largest Active Management ETF is the ARK Innovation ETF ARKK with $23.13B in assets. In the last trailing year, the best-performing Active Management ETF was BLOK at 199.77%. The most recent ETF launched in the Active Management space was the TrueShares Structured Outcome ETF - May MAYZ on 05/03/21.