IVV, VOO on Pace to Take SPY's ETF Crown Within a Year

VOO has generated $76 billion in net inflows this year, the most of any ETF in history.

TwitterTwitterTwitter
sumit
|
Senior ETF Analyst
|
Reviewed by: James Rubin
,
Edited by: Kiran Aditham

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is on track to be dethroned as the world’s largest ETF within months, assuming rival ETFs continue to gobble up a record amount of new assets.

Currently, SPY has $588 billion in assets under management, putting it modestly ahead of the $544 billion iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the $539 billion Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO).

Since the start of 2024, inflows for VOO have totaled $76 billion, the largest inflows in a calendar year for any ETF in history.

The $40 billion to $50 billion gap between SPY and its competitors could be closed in less than a year if IVV and VOO can maintain a similar level of growth as they’ve seen recently.

etf.com

Since the start of 2024, inflows for VOO have totaled $76 billion, the largest inflows in a calendar year for any ETF in history. Year-to-date inflows for IVV haven’t been too shabby either, totaling $51 billion. 

Over the past one year, inflows for the two ETFs have been $86 billion and $66 billion, respectively.

Depends on SPY 

But closing the gap with SPY doesn’t just depend on IVV and VOO continuing to vacuum up assets. Those inflows must be sufficiently greater than any inflows for SPY.

Fortunately for IVV and VOO, so far in 2024, SPY has actually registered net outflows of $9.6 billion. It’s done better over the past one year, with net inflows of $44 billion.

Nevertheless, the trajectory seems clear: it’s just a matter of time before SPY is eclipsed as the world’s largest exchange-traded fund.

IVV and VOO offer nearly identical exposure to SPY, with expense ratios that are one-third of the current No.1 ETF, 0.03% versus 0.09%. 

They are beloved by long-term investors, most of which add money into the ETFs day after day, year after year, regardless of market gyrations. The same can’t be said of SPY, which has registered net outflows in five of the last seven years.

SPY’s Not Going Anywhere  

Even if SPY falls down the ETF leaderboard, its place in ETF history is secured, and so is its place as the world's most liquid ETF. It trades 50 million shares per day, 10 times more than its rivals. It also has a much deeper and more liquid options market. 

These are advantages that probably won’t disappear anytime soon, if ever, even after IVV and VOO become the larger ETFs. 

Number one in assets or not, SPY is here to stay.    

 

Sumit Roy is the senior ETF analyst for etf.com, where he has worked for 13 years. He creates a variety of content for the platform, including news articles, analysis pieces, videos and podcasts.

Before joining etf.com, Sumit was the managing editor and commodities analyst for Hard Assets Investor. In those roles, he was responsible for most of the operations of HAI, a website dedicated to education about commodities investing.

Though he still closely follows the commodities beat, Sumit covers a much broader assortment of topics for etf.com, with a particular focus on stock and bond exchange-traded funds.

He is the host of etf.com’s Talk ETFs, a popular video series that features weekly interviews with thought leaders in the ETF industry. Sumit is also co-host of Exchange Traded Fridays, etf.com’s weekly podcast series.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys climbing the city’s steep hills, playing chess and snowboarding in Lake Tahoe.

Loading