‘BUZZ’ Adds To Solid Weekly ETF Inflows
The ETF picked up $280 million of fresh cash this week, while overall U.S.-listed ETF inflows totaled $12.5 billion.
Growth stocks were pummeled this week, but the blood bath in individual names didn’t show up in ETF flows. On net, investors added to their ETF holdings, focusing their buying power on broad market stock and bond funds.
U.S. equity ETFs, international equity ETFs and U.S. fixed income ETFs picked up $3.3 billion, $5.9 billion and $3.8 billion in weekly inflows, respectively, powering overall U.S.-listed ETFs inflows to $12.5 billion.
Year-to-date inflows now stand at $164.9 billion, compared with $86.9 billion at this same time a year ago.
‘BUZZ’-iest ETF Of The Week
Even though plain vanilla ETFs were the biggest flows winner of the week, investors still had an appetite for risk. They scooped up the newly minted VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF (BUZZ), which is backed by Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy.
In its first session, the fund traded 18.2 million shares and collected more than $280 million of fresh cash.
According to issuer VanEck, BUZZ tracks “the performance of the 75 large cap U.S. stocks which exhibit the highest degree of positive investor sentiment and bullish perception based on content aggregated from online sources including social media, news articles, blog posts and other alternative datasets.”
BUZZ is cashing in on the current investor zeitgeist, where hordes of retail investors seek to profit by sharing stock tips on message boards and other social media. The ETF’s current top holdings include Ford, DraftKings, Twitter, Facebook and American Airlines.
Notably missing from the portfolio is GameStop, the retail video game store that became the darling of the WallStreetBets subreddit and captured national headlines for a few weeks earlier this year.
(Use our stock finder tool to find an ETF’s allocation to a certain stock.)
‘QQQ’ Sheds Assets
In addition to BUZZ, other ETFs to see inflows this week included the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) and the iShares Core Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG).
International equity ETFs remain the most in-demand segment among ETF investors this year.
Meanwhile, on the outflows side of the ledger, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) had the largest redemptions of the week—unsurprising considering the battering that technology and biotechnology stocks took during the period.
For a full list of this week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | 1,254.11 | 79,162.05 | 1.58% |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | 1,205.56 | 68,679.55 | 1.76% |
| IEMG | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF | 1,048.53 | 78,473.10 | 1.34% |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund | 1,045.13 | 36,346.57 | 2.88% |
| TLT | iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF | 993.04 | 14,838.80 | 6.69% |
| LQD | iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF | 962.87 | 45,851.43 | 2.10% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 896.00 | 213,812.28 | 0.42% |
| JNK | SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF | 890.21 | 10,416.88 | 8.55% |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 770.18 | 194,965.31 | 0.40% |
| VSS | Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF | 746.92 | 7,003.28 | 10.67% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | -3,543.08 | 145,619.93 | -2.43% |
| GLD | SPDR Gold Trust | -1,210.65 | 59,329.74 | -2.04% |
| AGG | iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF | -1,034.16 | 84,583.35 | -1.22% |
| TIP | iShares TIPS Bond ETF | -919.17 | 26,108.14 | -3.52% |
| IYR | iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF | -625.39 | 4,603.49 | -13.59% |
| USMV | iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF | -524.47 | 27,830.42 | -1.88% |
| IAU | iShares Gold Trust | -517.02 | 28,139.64 | -1.84% |
| SLV | iShares Silver Trust | -456.49 | 15,965.79 | -2.86% |
| UVXY | ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF | -411.73 | 2,061.85 | -19.97% |
| SCHO | Schwab Short-Term U.S. Treasury ETF | -387.63 | 7,570.79 | -5.12% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 3,314.13 | 3,272,726.33 | 0.10% |
| International Equity | 5,885.58 | 1,163,073.11 | 0.51% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 3,786.08 | 974,544.15 | 0.39% |
| International Fixed Income | 49.78 | 128,489.23 | 0.04% |
| Commodities | -1,797.58 | 133,432.45 | -1.35% |
| Currency | -34.34 | 1,970.52 | -1.74% |
| Leveraged | 1,131.69 | 49,884.93 | 2.27% |
| Inverse | -107.82 | 12,110.51 | -0.89% |
| Asset Allocation | 52.99 | 14,067.13 | 0.38% |
| Alternatives | 174.84 | 6,513.34 | 2.68% |
| Total: | 12,455.34 | 5,756,811.70 | 0.22% |
Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 61,989.12 | 3,272,726.33 | 1.89% |
| International Equity | 67,838.13 | 1,163,073.11 | 5.83% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 24,218.59 | 974,544.15 | 2.49% |
| International Fixed Income | 7,624.83 | 128,489.23 | 5.93% |
| Commodities | -2,778.30 | 133,432.45 | -2.08% |
| Currency | 68.22 | 1,970.52 | 3.46% |
| Leveraged | 2,111.52 | 49,884.93 | 4.23% |
| Inverse | 1,869.16 | 12,110.51 | 15.43% |
| Asset Allocation | 664.44 | 14,067.13 | 4.72% |
| Alternatives | 1,292.17 | 6,513.34 | 19.84% |
| Total: | 164,897.86 | 5,756,811.70 | 2.86% |
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.
