Investors poured nearly $30 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the past week, bringing total net creations so far in 2017 to $466 billion.
The massive, record asset-gathering pace now sits just inches away from what could be a new milestone for the ETF market: $500 billion in net inflows in one calendar year. With two weeks to go in December, hitting $500 billion seems very likely.
For perspective, consider that 2016 also saw record-breaking asset gathering in the U.S. ETF space, with net creations reaching $287.5 billion last year. We are on pace to almost double that haul in 2017. What’s more, combined with performance, the asset inflows grew the ETF market to $3.4 trillion in total assets—that’s almost $1 trillion bigger than where the market sat a short year ago.
The bulk of the demand continues to center on some of the cheapest, most traded and most popular ETFs by the largest ETF providers: iShares, Vanguard and State Street. In the past week specifically, the driving asset class was U.S. equities, which saw some $25 billion in net inflows, and dominated the top creations list. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) alone saw a massive $10 billion in net inflows in a week.
Value Returns
Perhaps most notable among the top funds in the week was the demand for value ETFs—a factor that has lagged other factors this year and has underperformed the S&P 500.
Still, the iShares S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE), the iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (IJJ) and the iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF (IJS) attracted a combined $4.8 billion in assets in a week. These ETFs are up anywhere from 10 to 14% year-to-date.
Small-Cap Biggest Net Losers
On the redemptions side, no fund was as unpopular as the largest U.S. small-cap ETF, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM). The fund faced more than $2.1 billion in net outflows in a week.
So far in 2017, small-caps have had a rocky year, marked by underperformance relative to larger-cap names.
Bitcoin’s Impact On ETFs
On the performance side, it’s worth noting that the bitcoin craze has impacted ETFs. Outside of a short volatility strategy, the two best-performing ETFs year-to-date are the only two that currently offer any exposure to bitcoins: the ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW) and the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). They are each up more than 87% this year. ARKW has 8.8% of its portfolio in bitcoins, and ARKK has 8.2%—both achieved via allocations to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 9,991.95 | 271,464.54 | 3.82% |
| IVE | iShares S&P 500 Value ETF | 2,251.94 | 17,442.75 | 14.82% |
| IJJ | iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF | 1,404.16 | 7,250.47 | 24.02% |
| IJS | iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF | 1,196.33 | 6,431.17 | 22.85% |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 1,030.35 | 92,200.07 | 1.13% |
| VUG | Vanguard Growth ETF | 979.36 | 32,270.28 | 3.13% |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | 928.52 | 22,208.26 | 4.36% |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 ETF | 856.06 | 142,884.63 | 0.60% |
| SHV | iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF | 606.36 | 7,828.08 | 8.40% |
| HDV | iShares Core High Dividend ETF | 581.39 | 7,314.90 | 8.63% |
Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)
| Ticker | Name | Net Flows ($,mm) | AUM ($, mm) | AUM % Change |
| IWM | iShares Russell 2000 ETF | -2,179.23 | 44,703.37 | -4.65% |
| HYG | iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF | -671.98 | 18,615.69 | -3.48% |
| SMH | VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF | -405.76 | 1,017.85 | -28.50% |
| ITOT | iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF | -364.96 | 12,480.68 | -2.84% |
| HEDJ | WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund | -322.30 | 7,977.90 | -3.88% |
| IYR | iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF | -277.67 | 4,104.80 | -6.34% |
| SVXY | ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF | -201.64 | 1,052.20 | -16.08% |
| VWO | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | -183.11 | 64,682.39 | -0.28% |
| IWO | iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF | -165.56 | 9,338.34 | -1.74% |
| TQQQ | ProShares UltraPro QQQ | -150.07 | 2,408.70 | -5.86% |
ETF Weekly Flows By Asset Class
| Net Flows ($, mm) | AUM ($, mm) | % of AUM | |
| U.S. Equity | 25,323.88 | 1,921,545.99 | 1.32% |
| International Equity | 1,889.07 | 783,138.19 | 0.24% |
| U.S. Fixed Income | 1,419.15 | 523,085.68 | 0.27% |
| International Fixed Income | 285.93 | 57,690.00 | 0.50% |
| Commodities | 234.09 | 64,325.48 | 0.36% |
| Currency | -39.65 | 1,242.88 | -3.19% |
| Leveraged | 152.07 | 33,349.49 | 0.46% |
| Inverse | -300.21 | 16,202.13 | -1.85% |
| Asset Allocation | 36.65 | 8,926.57 | 0.41% |
| Alternatives | 133.30 | 4,253.14 | 3.13% |
| Total: | 29,134.28 | 3,413,759.54 | 0.85% |
Top 10 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM
| Ticker | Name | Average Volume (30 Day) |
1 Week Average Volume |
% of Average |
| NFRA | FlexShares STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index Fund | 34,197 | 131,350 | 384.10% |
| TPYP | Tortoise North American Pipeline Fund | 45,747 | 163,054 | 356.42% |
| PUI | PowerShares DWA Utilities Momentum Portfolio | 10,621 | 35,595 | 335.14% |
| EFV | iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF | 449,228 | 1,552,694 | 345.64% |
| PXE | PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio | 14,284 | 46,946 | 328.66% |
| TDIV | First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index Fund | 74,191 | 234,239 | 315.72% |
| ONEO | SPDR Russell 1000 Momentum Focus | 8,948 | 23,545 | 263.12% |
| HYGH | iShares Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond ETF | 13,041 | 28,272 | 216.79% |
| IWY | iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF | 164,873 | 354,775 | 215.18% |
| ACWV | iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol Global ETF | 181,086 | 416,178 | 229.82% |
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.
