ETF Investors Piled Into SOXL, Dumped IWM Last Week

Senior ETF Analyst

Aug 12, 2024

Reviewed by: etf.com Staff

Edited by: Ron Day

A week that started with a dive in the S&P 500 of as much as 4.3% ended with a strong recovery, leaving the index flat over the five trading sessions through Friday, August 9.

Even during the worst of the sell-off on Monday, exchange-traded fund investors didn’t flinch as they continued to put money to work in ETFs.

The result is the same for the week as a whole: inflows totaled $4.4 billion, with solid flows into U.S. equity and fixed income ETFs. On the other hand, international equity ETFs saw outflows of $3.1 billion.

Year-to-date inflows for all ETFs in aggregate now stand at $532 billion, while U.S.-listed assets under management total $9.41 trillion.

SOXL vs IWM

For ETF investors, last week’s sell-off in tech was a buying opportunity. The Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares (SOXL) picked up $1.7 billion of fresh inflows, while the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) had inflows of $1.4 billion.

The inflows into SOXL—a risky, leveraged ETF tied to one of the hottest parts of the stock market—stood in contrast to the strong $1.6 billion worth of inflows for the SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL), an ultra-safe ETF that invests in Treasury bills.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger was the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM). After rotating from large stocks into small stocks earlier this month, investors backtracked on the IWM bet when faced with last week’s volatility.

IWM’s $3.7 billion of outflows were the most of any ETF last week. It was followed by outflows of $2 billion for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and $1.5 billion for the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM).

For a full list of last week’s top inflows and outflows, see the tables below:

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change<
VOO	Vanguard 500 Index Fund	2,994.77	475,332.18	0.63
SOXL	Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares	1,688.16	10,461.82	16.14
BIL	SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF	1,582.59	34,456.88	4.59
QQQ	Invesco QQQ Trust	1,438.25	271,085.32	0.53
SCHR	Schwab Intermediate-Term U.S. Treasury ETF	1,179.50	9,680.32	12.18
VTI	Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	1,005.97	403,884.08	0.25
IVV	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	951.99	489,255.80	0.19
IJH	iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF	845.17	85,100.76	0.99
XLK	Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund	825.62	64,650.30	1.28
VTIP	Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities ETF	778.11	11,710.38	6.64

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

Ticker	Name	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	AUM % Change
IWM	iShares Russell 2000 ETF	-3,668.78	63,981.36	-5.73
SPY	SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	-2,019.87	537,779.41	-0.38
EEM	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF	-1,528.07	17,081.74	-8.95
HYG	iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF	-1,493.46	15,246.77	-9.80
BKLN	Invesco Senior Loan ETF	-975.10	7,199.74	-13.54
XLC	Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund	-892.60	17,389.42	-5.13
IAU	iShares Gold Trust	-878.62	28,706.82	-3.06
SRLN	SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF	-757.63	6,039.84	-12.54
XLV	Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund	-743.67	40,009.78	-1.86
SPMO	Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF	-630.53	1,262.29	-49.95

ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
Alternatives	-105.30	8,053.54	-1.31%
Asset Allocation	60.34	18,757.12	0.32%
Commodities	-639.30	144,769.65	-0.44%
Currency	-305.27	63,278.56	-0.48%
International Equity	-3,102.86	1,470,037.63	-0.21%
International Fixed Income	119.98	207,853.97	0.06%
Inverse	353.75	13,359.91	2.65%
Leveraged	2,377.01	94,075.31	2.53%
U.S. Equity	2,216.12	5,719,711.50	0.04%
U.S. Fixed Income	3,398.89	1,487,523.02	0.23%
Total:	4,373.37	9,227,420.22	0.05%

Asset Classes (Year-to-Date)

	Net Flows ($, mm)	AUM ($, mm)	% of AUM
Alternatives	1,397.41	8,177.03	17.09%
Asset Allocation	1,026.60	18,924.87	5.42%
Commodities	-2,282.16	145,222.89	-1.57%
Currency	17,582.17	71,502.03	24.59%
International Equity	56,120.37	1,509,706.89	3.72%
International Fixed Income	35,247.62	206,592.95	17.06%
Inverse	258.06	12,874.18	2.00%
Leveraged	1,992.76	100,038.72	1.99%
U.S. Equity	298,340.45	5,867,258.92	5.08%
U.S. Fixed Income	122,318.64	1,472,974.63	8.30%
Total:	532,001.92	9,413,273.11	5.65%

Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Ticker	Name	Average Volume (30 Day)	1 Week Average Volume	% of Average
NETL	NETLease Corporate Real Estate ETF	14,379	225,689.00	1,569.60%%
LGRO	Level Four Large Cap Growth Active ETF	5,512	82,641.00	1,499.18%%
FISR	SPDR SSGA Fixed Income Sector Rotation ETF	196,814	2,719,965.00	1,382.00%%
TFJL	Innovator 20+ Year Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF - Quarterly	26,991	343,608.00	1,273.03%%
PJP	Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF	13,127	166,124.00	1,265.48%%
GSPY	Gotham Enhanced 500 ETF	23,422	278,705.00	1,189.94%%
IBND	SPDR Bloomberg International Corporate Bond ETF	32,105	347,615.00	1,082.74%%
CPLS	AB Core Plus Bond ETF	10,342	111,394.00	1,077.06%%
YDEC	FT Vest International Equity Moderate Buffer ETF - December	30,540	284,659.00	932.07%%
FEUS	FlexShares ESG & Climate US Large Cap Core Index Fund	2,120	17,210.00	811.90%%

Top 10 Weekly Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and <1,000 Shares Traded

Ticker	Name	Weekly Performance	Weekly Volume	AUM ($, mm)
FBTC	Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund	14.01%	42,248,723	10,562.45
HODL	VanEck Bitcoin Trust	13.95%	2,090,696	651.56
IBIT	iShares Bitcoin Trust	13.93%	213,410,293	20,744.90
IBIT	iShares Bitcoin Trust	13.93%	213,410,293	20,744.90
BTCW	WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund	13.93%	3,497,712	208.51
BRRR	Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund	13.93%	1,658,380	529.78
EZBC	Franklin Bitcoin ETF	13.93%	1,693,570	384.22
ARKB	ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF	13.93%	13,558,069	2,745.25
BITB	Bitwise Bitcoin ETF	13.93%	16,413,883	2,273.61
DXJ	WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund	13.65%	13,420,821	4,016.04

Top 10 YTD Performers

Ticker	Name	YTD Performance	Weekly Performance	AUM ($, mm)
NVDY	YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF	75.94%	-0.46%	881.94
GBTC	Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF	53.63%	13.53%	13,888.59
ARKC	ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF	34.48%	10.41%	2.20
BITO	ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF	34.09%	13.53%	1,806.63
DEFI	Hashdex Bitcoin ETF	34.07%		8.81
ARKA	ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF	33.47%	13.46%	13.76
BITC	Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF	32.73%		11.05
MAXI	Simplify Bitcoin Strategy PLUS Income ETF	30.22%	9.72%	19.68
SMH	VanEck Semiconductor ETF	28.62%	5.41%	21,017.92
SHLD	Global X Defense Tech ETF	26.81%	4.20%	396.22

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.

Sumit Roy

| Contact: [email protected]

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.

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