According to London-based ETFGI, the global ETF industry, which also includes exchange-traded notes, counted 6,240 ETFs/ETNs with assets of $3.07 trillion, from 277 providers listed on 64 exchanges in 51 countries.
Different Drivers In US
Fund inflows for 2016 through March 18 so far have amounted to $2.2 billion, with iShares topping the issuers list. The firm's funds have collectively pulled in $3 billion. Meanwhile, State Street Global Advisors has seen the most outflows, losing a total of $1.7 billion. State Street also had the fund with the most inflows, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD | A-100). Inflows at this time last year approached $59 billion, so 2016 is shaping up to be a laggard.
Outflows
Much of SSgA's outflows are due to the $181 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-97), which has had the most outflows of any ETF, at $4.3 billion. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF | A-93), however, has also seen heavy outflows, losing $1.8 billion.
Perhaps one of the more striking aspects of the outflows table, however, is the presence of both the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity ETF (DXJ | B-66) and the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity ETF (HEDJ | B-47), two of the most talked-about funds of the last few years. Both have underperformed unhedged, cap-weighted counterparts by significant margins since December 2015.
| Ticker | Fund | Net |
| -4,347.11 | ||
| -2,607.15 | ||
| -2,172.54 | ||
| -1,926.63 | ||
| -1,803.11 | ||
| -1,727.31 | ||
| -1,579.15 | ||
| -1,576.60 | ||
| -1,327.41 | ||
| -1,299.41 | ||
| Source: FactSet Research Systems | ||
Inflows
Moving to the inflows table, one thing stands out as more than a bit anomalous. The $43 billion Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO | A-98), which tracks the exact same index as SPY, has pulled in some $2.6 billion in assets, claiming the No. 5 spot on the top 10 inflows list.
Part of those flows could be from investors looking to take advantage of Vanguard's lower fees: VOO has an expense ratio of 0.05% basis points compared to the 0.09% charged by SPY.
The other funds in the inflows top 10 are indicative of a flight to safety in the first few months of this year. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD | A-100) took in $6 billion year-to-date, the most of any fund, and its performance has been on a tear, up 18% since the start of the year.
A good chunk of iShares' fixed-income suite also landed in the top 10, claiming half of the spots, with the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG | A-98) pulling in $2.9 billion, and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT | A-83) pulling in $2.8 trillion. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD | A-77), the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF | A-55) and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG | B-68) all saw between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion in inflows.