U.S. exchange-traded fund and exchange-traded note assets topped $700 billion for the first time in September, according to new data from the National Stock Exchange. Assets jumped 4.8 percent over August levels to close the month at $705 billion, driven by strong inflows into fixed income, commodity and global equity ETFs.

On an individual fund basis, the SPDR Gold (NYSEArca: GLD) and iShares Barclays TIPS (NYSEArca: TIP) ETFs led all-comers in September, pulling in $2.0 billion and $847 million in net inflows, respectively, as investors aggressively positioned their portfolios against the perceived threat of inflation.

Inflows By Asset Class: Fixed Income Dominates

Fixed-income ETFs attracted the lion’s share of net inflows for the month, pulling in more than $4 billion in new assets. International equities also did well, attracting $2.6 billion in assets, while commodity funds pulled in $2.1 billion.

Investors pulled money out of U.S. equities, however, with net outflows of $1.1 billion; they also yanked $800 million out of leveraged long U.S. equity funds as well. Year-to-date, investors have pulled more than $30 billion out of long and leveraged long U.S. equity ETFs, while pouring an equal amount of money into fixed-income ETFs.

Inflows By Asset Class: Leveraged/Inverse ETFs

Investors in “geared” ETFs continue to be bearish, pulling money out of leveraged long ETFs while adding to their positions in the short market.

In September, traders pulled $623 million out of leveraged long ETFs, while investing $1.7 billion into inverse and inverse-leveraged ETFs. Year-to-date, investors have yanked $5.7 billion from leveraged long ETFs while putting nearly $19 billion to work on the short side.

All of the outflows on the leveraged long side are in the U.S. equity space. In fact, investors have added to their positions in other leveraged long asset classes both in September and YTD, but those flows have been overwhelmed by the huge move of assets out of leveraged U.S. equity products.

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