Daily ETF Watch: Launches Top 2014 Total

A few weeks into the fourth quarter, it looks like 2015 is going to blow 2014 out of the water in terms of new ETF launches. The year-to-date number of new funds in 2015 already exceeds the total number of launches in 2014, and there’s still another 2 1/2 months to go before the end of the year.

So far, 231 funds have launched as of Oct. 14. In 2014, by this time, 167 funds had launched year-to-date. That’s quite a difference, but what’s more striking is that the total number of launches for all of 2014 stands at 202 ETFs.

Some of the more notable launches include the February rollout of the now-$1.3 billion SPDR DoubleLine Total Return Tactical ETF (TOTL), managed by Jeffrey Gundlach, and the debut of the $646 million iShares Exponential Technologies ETF (XT | D-57), which was championed by Ric Edelman.

And approximately 45 of the year-to-date launches are currency-hedged foreign equity ETFs, roughly three times the number of such funds that launched during all of last year.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].