| |
 |
| Investors Pour $17 Billion Into ETFs In May |
| - June 04, 2009 12:00 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes enjoyed $17 billion in net investor inflows in May, according to new data released from the National Stock Exchange. That brings total net inflows for U.S.-listed ETFs in 2009 to $30 billion. Industry assets rose from $540 billion to $594 billion, as the inflows were complemented by rising markets. The split is $588 billion for ETFs, and $6 billion for ETNs. Inflows By Asset Class: Long-Only ETFs Inflows were seen in all major asset classes in May, led by long international equity ETFs with $7.7 billion in net inflows. Year-to-date, commodity and fixed-income ETFs lead the flows tables, with $18.7 billion and $17.9 billion in inflows, respectively. U.S. equity ETFs have actually suffered $35 billion in new outflows so far this year.
Inflows By Asset Class: Leveraged/Inverse ETFs Leveraged and inverse ETFs allow investors to make aggressive bets on the direction of the markets, and watching flows into these funds gives a good window on how investors are positioning themselves for the short term. In May, fund flows into leveraged and inverse ETFs were decidedly bearish, with traders pulling $900 million out of leveraged long ETFs and investing $395 million into inverse and inverse-leveraged ETFs. YTD, the flows are nearly balanced, with $2.5 billion in leveraged long inflows and $2.4 billion in inflows for inverse ETFs. Looking by asset class, the numbers for May are stark. Investors poured $3.5 billion into inverse U.S. equity ETFs, while pulling $766 million out of leveraged long U.S. equity funds. Traders also soured on commodities in May, pulling money out of leveraged long commodity ETFs and putting some to work in inverse commodity funds.
Top Ten ETF Fund Flows: May 2009 The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSE Arca: EWZ) saw the largest net inflows of any ETF in May, with $1.5 billion in new money flowing into the high-performing fund. That was followed by the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE Arca: EEM) at $1.1 billion, and the Direxion Financials Bear 3x ETF (NYSE Arca: FAZ) and iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (NYSE Arca: FXI), both at $1 billion. Other top-ten-inflow ETFs worthy of note are the iShares Barclays TIPS ETF (NYSE Arca: TIP), which brought in $905 million and is now the seventh-largest ETF in the world; and the US Natural Gas ETF (NYSE Arca: UNG), which brought in $812 million and has attracted $1.7 billion YTD. Someone, clearly, is betting on a recovery in natural gas.
Outflows were light in May, with no fund experiencing more than $1 billion in outflows. The U.S. Oil Fund (NYSE Arca: USO) led all names, with $767 million in net outflows, following by the Dow Diamonds (NYSE Arca: DIA) at $639 million and the ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (NYSE Arca: SSO) at $481 million.
All told, 686 of the 829 ETFs had flat or positive flows in May. Top Ten ETF Fund Flows: YTD Through May 2009 On a year-to-date basis, the SPDR Equity Gold ETF leads all funds, with $11.8 billion in net inflows, followed by the Direxion Financial Bear 3x (NYSE Arca: FAZ) at $4.6 billion, the iShares iBoxx Corporate Bond ETF (NYSE Arca: LQD) at $4.5 billion and the iShares Barclays TIPS ETF at $4.0 billion. It's worth noting that three of the top 10 ETFs for YTD fund flows are either leveraged or inverse financials ETFs, indicating the huge and diverse interest in the financials sector. Are investors making smart bets? Maybe not. Note that FAZ pulled in $4.6 billion in inflows YTD, but closed May with just $1.6 billion in assets. I guess that is what happens when a fund loses 87% of its value in five months.
On the reverse side, the top ten ETFs for YTD outflows are dominated by many of the largest ETFs in the world. The leader by far is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE Arca: SPY), which remains the largest ETF in the world despite witnessing $29.9 billion in net outflows so far this year.
All told, 583 of the 829 ETFs have had positive or flat YTD fund flows. Company Fund Flows: May 2009 On a companywide basis, iShares led all ETF and ETN providers with $8.4 billion in net inflows in May. Next up was Vanguard at $4.4 billion, followed by Direxion at $1.5 billion and ProShares at $1.3 billion. On the flip side, four providers saw net outflows in May, though none were traditional ETF providers. Merrill Lynch HOLDRS had the largest outflows, at $284 million, followed by the Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ETF outfits.
Company Fund Flows: YTD Through May 2009 On a year-to-date basis, the fund flows table looks a bit different. iShares still leads the way, with $12.9 billion in assets, but ProShares sneaks into the No. 2 slot with $10.7 billion. Vanguard comes in a close third with $9.8 billion, followed by Direxion at $7.6 billion. Invesco PowerShares rounds out the top five with $2.6 billion in net inflows. On the outflows side, State Street Global Investors takes the lead spot thanks to massive outflows from SPY, offset by the nice inflows into GLD. Net-net, SSgA has seen $19.1 billion in outflows YTD.
IndexUniverse.com ETF League Table: May 2009 The IndexUniverse.com ETF League Table continues to be dominated by the big two: iShares and SSgA. With $290 billion in assets, iShares currently enjoys a 48.8% market share, twice that of SSgA's 23.9% share. Vanguard comes in a solid third with a 9.8% market share, followed by PowerShares at 5.2% and ProShares at 4.4%. The only other companies to net a 1% or greater share are Van Eck (1.4%) and Bank of New York (1.1%).
Permalink | © Copyright 2009 Index Publications LLC. All rights reserved
More on this topic
(What's this?)
Top 50 ETFs to Buy and Sell Out of the Entire Universe of ETFs
(Shocked Investor, 9/21/09)
The Next Five Years In ETFs
(Random Roger's Big Picture, 9/11/09)
Hedging Home Value With ETFs: How to Buy & Sell a Home on the NYSE
(Investment U, 4/16/09)
Leveraged ETFs Performance Since Inception
(Shocked Investor, 4/22/09)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||