U.S. Large-Caps’ Net Cash Inflows Top Bonds

Net cash inflows in U.S.-listed ETFs surged to $55.8 billion in the third quarter, far exceeding the average quarterly inflows of $33.8 billion seen over the last three years, according to the ETF research team at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. With $133.4 billion for the first three quarters of the year, ETF net cash inflows are “on pace for the biggest year on record,” says Morgan Stanley. This would beat the $174.6 billion that poured into U.S.-listed ETFs in 2008.

Investors made a big switch to risk as ETFs following U.S. large-cap indices received $11.0 billion, the largest net cash inflows for the quarter, compared with $8.1 billion for fixed income ETFs. This was a big change from the previous quarter when fixed income ETFs received about $19 billion. ETFs tracking high-yield corporate bonds topped the fixed-income segment with inflows of $4.4 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.

With 20 new ETFs launched in the third quarter, and another 11 in October, the number of ETFs stands at the extremely cool total of 1,234. Total assets in the U.S. ETF market, as of Oct. 25, were $1.3 trillion, a 21% increase since the beginning of the year.

The top three funds in terms of net cash inflows were the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), with net inflows of $7.4 billion, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), with $4.1 billion, and the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), with $3.9 billion, according to Morgan Stanley. Currency ETFs experienced the largest net cash outflows for the quarter, at $71 million. For the first nine months of the year, currency ETFs have seen outflows of $2.0 million. Most of the outflows came from ETFs bullish on the U.S. dollar, while most of the inflows went into funds bullish on the euro vs. the dollar.

Blackrock continues to be the market leader with 280 U.S.-listed ETFs and $528.4 billion in assets. This accounts for a 41.7% share of the market, says Morgan Stanley, down from 48% at the end of 2008. State Street Global Advisors, with $235.8 billion in 116 ETFs holds 18.6% of the market, down from 27% at the end of 2008. Vanguard had $231.6 billion in 65 ETFs, giving it a market share of 18.3%, up from 8% at the end of 2008. Through the first three quarters of the year, Vanguard has had net cash inflows of $41.2 billion, the most of any provider, says Morgan.

Homebuilder ETFs Surging; Silver Could See Rally

Reading List – a sample of what’s going on in ETF Land:

Homebuilder ETFs Surging This Year

Homebuilder ETFs have surged this year and could get a boost from reports on the U.S. housing market this week. The iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB) is the best-performing sector ETF year-to-date, surging 50% as of Friday, according to ETF Trends. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) is up 36%.

Demand for Gold ETFs Rises as Metal’s Price Declines

Even though the price of gold is down 12% from its $1,900 peak a year ago, demand for gold bullion ETFs has continues unabated.

Sunny Days Ahead for Silver ETF

Hoarding of physical silver should give the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) a boost. In addition, commodity guru Jim Rodgers says silver is a better play than gold.

SuperDividend ETF’s Assets Hit $100 Million

The Global X SuperDividend ETF (SDIV), a high income equity ETF, has acquired $100 million in assets since launching little more than a year ago. A big reason is the fund’s 12-month dividend yield of 7.92%, one of the highest among US-listed dividend ETFs.

You Can Do Better Than Your Pension Fund

Seeking Alpha contributor creates an ETF portfolio that can easily outperform the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS), a pension fund recently told by a court to change its strategy.

High Yield ETFs Take a Tumble

High-yield corporate bond ETFs tumbled today.

“This looks to be an exit trade from this asset class,” said Chris Hempstead, director of ETF execution services at WallachBeth Capital in a note, rather than a move to receive delivery of actual bonds.

Specifically, Hempstead’s desk has been very active in SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), which dropped 1.3% to $38.19; iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG), which fell 1.4% to $87.59; PowerShares Fundamental High Yield Corporate Bond Portfolio (PHB), down 0.4% to $18.46, and SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term High Yield Bond ETF (SJNK), down 0.6% to $29.70.

After a redemption of about $725 million in the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF last week, allegedly for delivery of actual bonds, Hempstead says the pace of selling in high yield ETFs needs to be closely monitored.

So far this year, each of these funds has seen a significant increase in assets, for a total of more than $6 billion year-to-date. With the iBoxx fund holding $14.8 billion in assets under management, the SPDR high yield ETF holding $11.2 billion, the PowerShares ETF at $943 million and $119 million in the SPDR short-term high yield, all the funds have about doubled their assets since January 2011, says Hempstead.

“We are watching closely to see how well the Street can absorb a short-term exit strategy from these funds,” said Hempstead in a note. “How would the fixed income world respond to a heavy and swift sell-off in an ETF product space that has seen a steady inflow of assets for almost 18 months?”

He adds the products have started trading at a discount to their respective NAV, which is not uncommon, but they have a tendency to trade at a premium for longer periods than at a discount.

Currency Hedge ETFs Win Big at Global ETF Awards

Deutsche Bank’s family of Currency Hedge ETFs won the award for the Most Innovative ETF in the Americas for 2011 at the 8th Annual Global ETF Awards. The awards are given to industry participants for outstanding achievements in the marketplace. In Europe Deutsche Bank tied with the Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF for the top prize, while the Motilal Oswal Most Shares NASDAQ-100 ETF was named most innovative in the Asia-Pacific region.

The five ETFs under the Currency Hedge banner:
db-X MSCI Brazil Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBBR)
db-X MSCI Canada Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBCN)
db-X MSCI EAFE Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBEF)
db-X MSCI Emerging Markets Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBEM)
db-X MSCI Japan Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBJP)

The Most Innovative Exchange Traded Product (ETP) in the Americas went to the iPath S&P 500 Dynamic VIX ETN (XVZ), while the db Physical Gold SGD Hedged ETC won in Europe.

Held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York last Thursday, the Global ETF Awards provide a window on how the global ETF industry views itself. Unlike the Capital Link awards, where a small committee of analysts and industry insiders choose the winners, the Global Awards is voted on by the entire ETF industry. Here 520 organizations from around the world voted on who they think are the industry’s leaders and innovators. The awards and ceremony were created and run by the operators of exchangetradedfunds.com.

The evening began with a new prize, the Nate Most Award. Named after the man who invented the SPDR, the first ETF, it’s awarded to the individual who has made the greatest contribution to the ETF Market.

“We honored to be able to celebrate Nate’s place as the father of the ETF and to honor achievements in the ETF industry,” said Arlene C. Reyes, chief operating officer of exchangetradedfunds.com.

The first winner of this new prize was James Rose, senior managing director of State Street Global Advisors, for his commitment to the industry and for setting a standard of excellence. In addition to running State Street’s ETF business he serves as the first chairman of the Investment Company Institute’s Exchange-Traded Funds Committee.

“Nate Most created a product that created an industry and a great product for investors,” said Ross upon receiving the award.

Here is the list of other winners:

Most Innovative ETF Index Provider
The Americas – Dow Jones Indexes
Europe – STOXX
Asia-Pacific – MSCI

Most Widely Utilized ETF Research (Statistical)
Deutsche Bank won in all three regions.

Most Widely Utilized ETF Research (Analytical)
The Americas – Bloomberg
Europe – Deutsche Bank
Asia-Pacific – Deutsche Bank

Best ETF Market Maker
The Americas – Knight
Europe – Flow Traders
Asia-Pacific – Flow Traders

Most Recognized ETF Brand
The Americas – SPDRs
Europe – (Tie) db x-trackers and iShares
Asia-Pacific – China 50 ETF

Best Service Provider
The Americas – BNY Mellon
Europe – (Tie) Northern Trust and State Street Fund Services (Ireland)
Asia-Pacific – SSgA

Most Informative Website
The Americas – SPDRS.com
Europe – etf.db.com
Asia-Pacific – hkex.com.hk

Most Informative Website – Media
The Americas – IndexUniverse.com

WisdomTree Wins Capital Link’s Top ETF Award

It’s award season again in ETF Land.

Capital Link held its 11th annual Closed-End Funds and Global ETFs Forum yesterday at its traditional home New York’s Metropolitan Club. During the conference Capital Link delivers awards to both the closed-end fund and ETF industries. However, I’m just listing the ETF awards. The awards are based on nominations by a committee of analysts and industry specialists who actively follow the products. Capital Link isn’t part of the nominating committee nor can members of the committee be candidates for the awards.

Capital Link’s award for Most Innovative ETF in 2011 went to the WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy Fund (WDTI).

iShares won two awards: Best Shareholder Relations for best financial disclosure and proactive shareholder communications and Best Investor Relations ETF Website for most informative and user friendly financial Website.

The Most Innovative Index went to the Russell-Axioma IS Large Cap Low Volatility Index (LVOL).

Jan Van Eck, the president of Market Vectors ETFs, won the award for biggest contribution to the ETF sector in 2011. No explanation of the contribution was given, but audience members suggested it was for killing the Holdrs products.

In the category of awards to ETF analysts, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney won for best research team in both the ETF and closed-end fund industries. The team consists of Michael Jabara, David Perlman and Stephen Minar. Mariana Bush of Wells Fargo Advisors won the award for the analyst who made the biggest contribution to the ETF sector last year. She also tied for contribution to the closed-end fund sector with Jon Maier of Bank of America Securities – Merrill Lynch.

State Street Undercuts Vanguard Expense Ratios

ETF reading list for today:

SSgA Undercuts Vanguard On Sector ETFs – State Street Global Advisors goes after Vanguard’s status as the low-cost provider by slicing the expense ratios on its nine “select sector” funds.
Each State Street fund is now 0.01% cheaper than the Vanguard fund tracking the same sector.

U.S. News and World Report finally discovers ETFs.

Stock, Treasury ETFs Send Mixed Messages on Economy. Even as the stock market rallies, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) has gained about 3% over the past week.

Small ETFs Struggle as 18 Funds Hold Half of Industry’s Assets

If you’re looking for a reason why many of the ETFs launched last year failed to raise the $30 million in assets necessary to turn a profit and stay open take a look at the $10 Billion Club.

While there are more than $1 trillion in assets in the entire U.S. ETF industry, the majority are confined to about 100 funds, “leaving the other 1,300 ETFs in the dust,” says ETF Database.

Yesterday, I said many investors remain risk-adverse in today’s volatile market, leaving them squeamish about buying into hypertargeted ETPs. They prefer to stick with big, liquid funds tracking well-known indexes both because they understand what the index tracks and because they can get out quickly in an emergency. Other reasons why small, niche funds are having a hard time gathering assets is because institutional investors and investment advisors are restricted to buying products with minumum requirements for assets under management, average daily volume and age of the fund.

This leaves just 18 ETFs holding nearly half the assets of the entire ETF industry, according to ETF Database, which calls the group the $10 billion club because they all have more than that under management.

It’s no surprise who tops the list:

SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)
Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (EFA)
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (EEM)
iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (IVV)
PowerShares QQQ (QQQ)

The big surprises to my eyese were the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund (LDQ) and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG).

FT Says ETFs Are Reaching Saturation Point

The U.S. ETF market may be getting saturated, says the Financial Times, as the appetite for new funds wanes. Last year, a record 302 exchange traded products were launched, a little less than the 389 funds that made up the entire market in 2007. At the end of 2011, there were 1,369 ETPs with more than $1 trillion in assets under management.

However, of the 190 ETFs launched in the first six months of 2011, 79% failed to reach the profitability mark of $30 million in assets under management, according to XTF, an ETF-focused research house. This was up from 62% in 2010 and less than half in 2009.  Fewer assets in the funds means less liquidity and wider bid-ask spreads.

Mel Herman, the head of XTF, says, said: “Most popular indices already have an ETF tracking them, so issuers are launching more and more niche products.”

I’ve been saying this for two year. A big difference between mutual funds and ETFs is that you don’t see many ETFs tracking the same index while each mutual fund sponsor can have their own set of index funds that track the S&P 500, the MSCI or any other popular index. The reason is twofold. Many mutual fund companies run 401(k) plans. So, they need to offer a wide range of options in the plan. Since plan participants are usually trapped and unable to buy funds outside the plan sponsor, these copy-cat index funds can build up significant assets. Also, many mutual funds are sold by investment advisors who receive a commission, or load, from the fund company. Thus, competing funds tracking the same index can build up assets as advisors direct investors which fund to go into.

Typically, the first ETF to track an index claims that market segment for itself. By the time a second fund launches, the first ETF has made a reputation and gathered a large amount of assets, making it much more liquid than any newcomer. For instance the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), which launched in 1993, has net assets of $95.4 billion, while the iShares S&P 500 Index Fund, which launched seven years later, has only $26.2 billion.

This syndrome where the first ETF grabs all the assets and attention is called “first-mover advantage.” Since ETFs don’t have the captured audience of 401(k) plans or loads to pay to advisors, no one is there to push smaller funds, hence there are few funds tracking the same index or asset.  This means ETF sponsors need to find new indexes to track. But after a while, the indexes get so specialized they only attract a small audience. In addition, in volatile times, investors are less willing to risk investing in an offbeat concept. They want proven indexes that track broad markets. So, until investors are willing to take on more risk, unless an ETF concept is compelling, new funds will continue to struggle for assets.

Cartoon About Creation and Redemption.

I found this neat video “The ‘Aha’ Moment – Understanding ETF Liquidity” on the iShares blog. This colorful little cartoon attempts to explain the creation/redemption process of ETFs with the analogy of flower bouquets.

The flowers are the shares of the individual stocks and the bouquets are the ETF shares. Overall, it’s not bad, but when it actually gets to the creation/redemption process the “Aha” moment left me a little confused, with a little bit too much on the flowers and not enough translation on what this means to stock shares.

Basically, an ETF share (bouquets) is like a share of the index it follows. It represents the value of all the underlying stocks (flowers) in the index. However, when the demand rises for ETF shares, they need to create more ETF shares. It sorta glides over the most important part. If the investor wants 500 shares of an ETF (500 bouquets) with 100 stocks (flowers) in the index, then the authorized participant needs to go the market himself to get, in this case, 50,000 flowers, 500 of each of the 100 individual stock (flowers) in the index. He can get them either from the market maker, the AP’s inventory, or others in the market. The AP takes this basket of securities (flowers) and trades them with the ETF (bouquet) maker, who in turn gives him 500 shares of the fund (bouquets), each holding 100 stocks (flowers). Because the 50,000 flowers are equal 500 bouquets it’s an even trade.

Was the video perfectly clear to you?

Dividend and Volatility Top ETF Trends in 2011

Morningstar’s Samuel Lee gives a nice review of the year in ETFs, saying it’s been a “banner year” with more than 300 new ETFs for a total of just under 1,400. Also, the $100 billion in assets flowing into ETFs over the 12 months far surpassed the mutual fund industry’s inflows, finally giving some credence to the claim by ETF providers that ETFs will soon begin to eat mutual funds’ lunch.

The big trends this year were ETFs focused on providing yield through dividends or good returns with minimal volatility. Lee’s top two ETFs for the year are the iShares High Dividend Equity Fund (HDV) and the PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility (SPLV), which each pulled in more than $800 million in assets under management. He also praised iShares for its suite of low-volatility ETFs, especially for their low fees.

iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Index Fund (USMV), exp. ratio 0.15%
iShares MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility Index Fund (EFAV), 0.20%.
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Minimum Volatility Index Fund (EEMV), 0.25%.
iShares MSCI All Country World Minimum Volatility Index Fund (ACWV), 0.35%.

Lee calls the UBS E-TRACS 2x Wells Fargo Business Development Company ETN (BDCL) the worst new fund with an expense ratio of 0.85% and the possibility of 0.4% more in accrued financing charges. Yet, the big problem is that the note doesn’t take advantage of the ETN structure’s ability to avoid incurring taxes on the huge yield it offers.

Another big trend this year was ETFs that tracked factors such as momentum or volatility. New companies that produced these include Russell, QuantShares and FactorShares. I’ll look at these more closely later.