September was a brutal month for equity markets around the globe, as anxiety over Europe and intensifying concerns about the growth prospects for many emerging markets hammered asset prices. The freefall in stock markets hit the bottom line of the ETF industry as well; despite another month of strong inflows, industry assets fell below the $1 trillion mark for the first time in several months. According to recent data from the National Stock Exchange, ETP assets finished the third quarter at about $973 billion, a decline of about 9% over the previous month. That slide came despite aggregate inflows into exchange-traded products of about $4.6 billion.Year-to-date inflows into ETFs totaled almost $79 billion through the first nine months, slightly ahead of the 2010 pace. [click to continue…]
In perhaps a sign of things to come, a newcomer to the ETF industry has popped up, offering a fund-of-fund ETFs designed to offer exposure to global equity markets. The One Fund (ONEF) currently consists of five ETFs, including four Vanguard products and one iShares ETF:
The reasons for the rise of the ETF industry are numerous: intraday liquidity, (potentially) superior tax efficiency, and enhanced transparency relative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds have all contributed to the billions of dollars of inflows that these funds have seen in recent years. But the real attraction for most ETF investors is the reduced [...]
Charles Schwab, one of the world’s best known and largest asset management firms, recently took another step towards finally breaking into the rapidly-expanding ETF industry. Earlier this month, Schwab filed paperwork with the SEC to launch nine ETFs. The proposed funds will have the benefit of the Schwab name (and the tremendous resources that come [...]
