2020 ETF Inflows Now Second Largest Ever
ETFs have picked up $333 billion of new assets this year, the second-largest annual haul ever.
Another week of losses in U.S. stock markets didn't stem the flow of funds into ETFs. A mammoth $36.5 billion entered U.S.-listed ETFs during the week ending Thursday, Sept. 17, according to the latest data from FactSet. That's the largest weekly inflow since late last year and may have been fueled by tax-related heartbeat trades (notice all the Vanguard ETFs on this week's top inflows list)—or maybe not—we'll know for sure next week.
In either case, inflows are inflows, and this week's spoils pushed year-to-date inflows up to $332.5 billion, well ahead of the $197 billion seen at this time a year ago.
In fact, 2020's ETF inflows have now surpassed 2019's total inflows of $326 billion, which was the second-largest annual haul ever. Now only $144 billion stands between 2020 and 2017's record $476.1 billion haul. There are more than three months to close that gap, ample time to make this year one for the record books.
Fixed Income Leads Equities
U.S. equity ETFs had the bulk of the inflows this week, but on a year-to-date basis, U.S. fixed income ETFs still lead, with creations of $141 billion versus $104 billion. A big chunk of this year's U.S. equity ETF inflows have gone into the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)—$12.2 billion—though the fund registered outflows of nearly $2 billion in the past week as tech stocks continued to pull back from their all-time highs.
For equity ETFs, only the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) have gathered more assets than QQQ this year, $23.5 billion and $17.7 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, for fixed income, the iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD), the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT), the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) and the iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) led the way, each with inflows of more than $10 billion for the year.
Finally, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) has been far and away the most popular commodity fund of the year, and the second most popular of all ETFs, with inflows of $19.6 billion for 2020. GLD's total assets under management stand at $78.6 billion currently.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 ETF | 4,139.31 | 217,163.60 | 1.91% |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 2,395.16 | 302,870.07 | 0.79% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 2,383.45 | 164,524.88 | 1.45% |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 1,752.90 | 162,920.25 | 1.08% |
| SCHG | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF | 1,528.91 | 13,571.29 | 11.27% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | 1,429.03 | 30,214.88 | 4.73% |
| VUG | Vanguard Growth ETF | 1,415.04 | 61,480.85 | 2.30% |
| VXF | Vanguard Extended Market ETF | 1,411.00 | 11,407.45 | 12.37% |
| VO | Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF | 1,352.24 | 36,068.79 | 3.75% |
| VXUS | Vanguard Total International Stock ETF | 1,100.94 | 26,673.35 | 4.13% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | -1,989.27 | 128,843.11 | -1.54% |
| FXN | First Trust Energy AlphaDEX Fund | -380.40 | 140.38 | -270.98% |
| GLD | SPDR Gold Trust | -350.73 | 78,638.39 | -0.45% |
| XLU | Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund | -260.00 | 11,731.06 | -2.22% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -244.57 | 30,199.88 | -0.81% |
| POCT | Innovator S&P 500 Power Buffer ETF - October | -211.58 | 210.58 | -100.48% |
| VLUE | iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF | -205.13 | 6,965.46 | -2.95% |
| IWF | iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF | -160.89 | 57,844.08 | -0.28% |
| EWJ | iShares MSCI Japan ETF | -160.64 | 9,977.60 | -1.61% |
| EFAV | iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF | -158.28 | 10,801.16 | -1.47% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 26,876.59 | 2,688,383.74 | 1.00% |
| International Equity | 3,169.49 | 884,743.93 | 0.36% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 4,850.40 | 923,916.34 | 0.52% |
| International Fixed Income | 1,723.77 | 109,974.79 | 1.57% |
| Commodities | -494.81 | 152,280.47 | -0.32% |
| Currency | 1.32 | 1,925.41 | 0.07% |
| Leveraged | 220.09 | 38,293.63 | 0.57% |
| Inverse | -56.93 | 14,285.42 | -0.40% |
| Asset Allocation | 125.90 | 11,071.62 | 1.14% |
| Alternatives | 100.12 | 5,116.40 | 1.96% |
| Total: | 36,515.95 | 4,829,991.76 | 0.76% |
Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 103,862.14 | 2,688,383.74 | 3.86% |
| International Equity | 12,182.68 | 884,743.93 | 1.38% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 141,239.47 | 923,916.34 | 15.29% |
| International Fixed Income | 13,220.57 | 109,974.79 | 12.02% |
| Commodities | 44,349.10 | 152,280.47 | 29.12% |
| Currency | 590.97 | 1,925.41 | 30.69% |
| Leveraged | 2,973.02 | 38,293.63 | 7.76% |
| Inverse | 13,377.99 | 14,285.42 | 93.65% |
| Asset Allocation | 1,023.38 | 11,071.62 | 9.24% |
| Alternatives | -280.92 | 5,116.40 | -5.49% |
| Total: | 332,538.40 | 4,829,991.76 | 6.88% |
Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | Weekly Performance | Weekly Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| IBBJ | Defiance NASDAQ Junior Biotechnology ETF | 10.08% | 36,863 | 2.68 |
| PTH | Invesco DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF | 8.87% | 91,874 | 497.72 |
| BTEC | Principal Healthcare Innovators Index ETF | 8.66% | 23,504 | 95.98 |
| FUE | Elements MLCX Biofuels Index-Total Return ETN | 8.47% | 2,650 | 0.35 |
| LIT | Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF | 8.16% | 1,112,219 | 764.93 |
| BBP | Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF | 7.97% | 5,490 | 26.67 |
| XBI | SPDR S&P Biotech ETF | 7.90% | 16,028,691 | 6,296.92 |
| IDNA | iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF | 7.87% | 113,901 | 147.61 |
| ARKG | ARK Genomic Revolution ETF | 7.63% | 2,288,606 | 2,168.05 |
| ARKK | ARK Innovation ETF | 7.59% | 7,281,429 | 8,566.94 |
Top 10 YTD Performers
| Ticker | Name | YTD Performance | Weekly Performance | AUM ($, mm) |
| XVZ | iPath S&P 500 Dynamic VIX ETN | 107.68% | 1.56% | 9.76 |
| VIXM | ProShares VIX Mid-Term Futures ETF | 87.55% | 1.31% | 99.42 |
| VXZ | iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN | 86.76% | 0.97% | 30.46 |
| ARKG | ARK Genomic Revolution ETF | 85.71% | 7.63% | 2,168.05 |
| TAN | Invesco Solar ETF | 83.96% | 7.13% | 1,345.20 |
| ARKK | ARK Innovation ETF | 83.10% | 7.59% | 8,566.94 |
| ARKW | ARK Next Generation Internet ETF | 82.39% | 5.77% | 2,356.08 |
| QCLN | First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund | 70.80% | 7.38% | 557.07 |
| ONLN | ProShares Online Retail ETF | 69.85% | 1.79% | 297.54 |
| PBW | Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF | 69.47% | 6.28% | 671.95 |
Disclaimer: All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
