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2021 ETF Inflows Hit $900B
Dan Mika
20 min read

In This Article:

U.S.-listed ETFs took a net inflow of just under $99.4 billion in December, shattering the previous one-month record of $91.2 billion set in November 2020 and capping off a record-breaking year for the industry as it breached the $900 billion inflow mark for 2021.

That figure is well above the $507.4 billion generated in 2020, and nearly double the $476.1 billion that flowed into the industry in 2017.

According to ETF.com data provider FactSet, the U.S. ETF industry ended 2021 with $7.21 trillion in assets under management. The December figures are inclusive of the mid-December rebalances of the Nasdaq-100 and major indexes from S&P Dow Jones and CRSP that underlie popular broad-market ETFs issued by Vanguard, BlackRock and Invesco.

Those index rebalances caused nearly $38 billion in inflows on Dec. 16 alone, most of which were later withdrawn once the funds were realigned with the indexes they tracked.

Net Flows ($M)

2020 Net Flows ($M)

2021 Net Flows ($M)

Change ($M)

Change (%)

U.S. Equity

165,377.22

461,921.12

296,543.90

179.31%

International Equity

72,407.92

210,700.74

138,292.82

190.99%

U.S. Fixed Income

186,387.38

175,287.83

-11,099.55

-5.96%

International Fixed Income

25,515.58

34,402.36

8,886.78

34.83%

Commodities

40,016.74

-4,207.33

-44,224.07

-110.51%

Currency

562.29

1,760.53

1,198.24

213.10%

Leveraged

394.29

5,414.20

5,019.91

1273.15%

Inverse

13,510.84

5,571.92

-7,938.92

-58.76%

Asset Allocation

2,911.88

6,023.95

3,112.07

106.87%

Alternatives

359.55

3,140.46

2,780.91

773.44%

Total

507,443.68

900,015.77

392,572.09

77.36%

While U.S. equities easily led among the asset classes, almost every asset class saw at least a doubling in their ETF asset size. The only ETF classes with net outflows were more U.S. fixed income, commodities and leveraged funds, suggesting that those somewhat bearish strategies lost their sheen.

Broad Market Ends Dominant Year

With the S&P 500 gaining nearly 28% in the year and notching a near record of 70 all-time high closes, it’s no wonder broad equity ETFs ended December squarely on top of the inflows list.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) utterly dominated inflows for the month, with just shy of $20.9 billion in new assets flowing into the oldest ETF in the U.S. Far behind were the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), with $6 billion and just short of $4.5 billion, respectively.

On the fixed income side, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) added $2.1 billion in new assets as bond investors reacted to the Federal Reserve pivoting toward a tighter monetary policy in 2022 to wrangle inflation down. The iShares iBoxx USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) added just shy of $3.3 billion in assets.

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