ETFs In The First Half of 2020

Some fun facts about fund flow to ETFs in the half-year ended in June 2020.
Here are some interesting tidbits on ETF flows in H12020:
More ETFs closed than opened – for the first time ever
Data compiled by Toroso Investments shows that while 218 ETF’s were opened in 2020, 231 downed shutters. It was always the other way round, with more opening than closing down.
According to Dan Weiskopf, a portfolio manager at Toroso, declining fees and competition from too many similar funds were the underlying causes for more funds shutting down. (Investing.com)
Gold ETFs are raking it in
Global net inflows into gold ETFs in the first half of 2020 reached a record of $ 39.5 billion, the World Gold Council said.
According to Juan Carlos Artigas, Head of Research, World Gold Council, investment demand for gold surged on safe-haven buying from investors. This was primarily due to the economic turmoil of COVID-19.
So are sustainable-investing funds
Figures from research provider ETF Flows show that inflows into investment products with an ESG focus, a.k.a sustainable investments, surged to more than $ 15 billion in the first half of this year.
Said veteran Dave Nadig on investors’ new-found love for ESG: “The dam has broken. This is the year it came out of the backroom and became a reality.”
2019 was “an inflection point,” said Armando Senra, head of iShares Americas to MarketWatch. “There had been a lot of interest, but not necessarily flows.”
Investment giant BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) said Tuesday that ESG focused ETFs in iShares had scooped up $11 billion in 2020 so far, more than twice the amount of $5 billion raised in the full year of 2019.
Vanguard pulls ahead of Blackrock
According to Bloomberg, Vanguard Group ETFs hauled in $ 89 billion in the first half, leaving BlackRock, with an estimated $ 38 billion of inflows, far behind. In the corresponding period in 2019, BlackRock had led by $ 1.9 billion.
At the northern neighbor, it’s time to rewrite the record books
Canadian exchange-traded funds were deluged with C$22.4 billion of inflows in the first of 2020, more than double the amount in the first half of 2019.
“It’s the largest amount of new ETF money in a half-year calendar period in the past decade, making it “one for the history books,” said Daniel Straus, vice president of ETFs and financial products research at National Bank of Canada.
Related Story: “ETFs’ Finest Hour” – Dave Nadig
Image Credit: Marco Verch/Flickr

Latest Alternative Investment News

Digital Assets: Michael Saylor Unmoved By Crypto Weakness; “We Think It’s The Future Of Money”
Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), who is permanently bullish on bitcoin, reiterated his positive outlook for the leading crypto in an interview on Thursday. Note that MicroStrategy currently…

Digital Assets: Traditional Markets Could Suffer Contagion From (Un)Stablecoins (SEC Chair Gensler)
The crypto world was dealt a body blow by the collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin earlier this month. The Terra meltdown is now being referred as crypto’s “Lehman moment.”…

Venture Capital: Big-Ticket Funding Rounds In Fintechs
Fast-growing, Southeast Asia-focused payments infrastructure platform Xendit closed on a US$300 million Series D funding co-led by Coatue and Insight Partners with additional investment from Accel, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins,…

FinTech: Sam Bankman-Fried Led FTX.US Makes Inroads Into Stock Trading
FTX Stocks is an equity trading platform offered through the FTX US trading application. FTX US announced Thursday a private beta phase trading on the platform for US customers selected…