ICI Fund Flow Survey | Active Equity Bleeding

03/31/16 07:38AM EDT

Investment Company Institute Mutual Fund Data and ETF Money Flow:

The migration from active equity funds to passive ETFs was especially pronounced in the 5-day period ending March 23rd. All five active equity mutual fund categories experienced net redemptions, summing to a -$2.1 billion loss. Meanwhile, equity ETFs drew +$5.4 billion in subscriptions. This ongoing migration is one of the main reasons TROW, which is committed to active only strategies, should underperform going forward. We are hosting a call today at 11 AM to detail the TROW short case (invite here). The best grossing passive products year-to-date have been defensive in nature including the SPDR Gold Trust and the iShares Aggregate Bond and long dated 20 Year+ Treasury ETF. Conversely, net redemptions are being led by WisdomTree's two largest funds, the Hedged Japan (DXJ) and the Hedged Europe (HEDJ) product, as the newest rounds of QE in each geography is resulting in risk aversion and not risk taking (see our latest WETF note here).

ICI Fund Flow Survey | Active Equity Bleeding - ETF flow YTD

Fixed income had another week of big inflows. Total fixed income mutual funds and ETFs took in +$5.8 billion, slightly less than the previous week due in part to high yield subscriptions slacking down to +$420 million from +$1.5 billion in the previous week. We believe the recent inflows into high yield are a temporary phenomenon.


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In the most recent 5-day period ending March 23rd, total equity mutual funds put up net outflows of -$2.1 billion, trailing the year-to-date weekly average outflow of -$455 million and the 2015 average outflow of -$1.6 billion.

 

Fixed income mutual funds put up net inflows of +$4.7 billion, outpacing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$1.1 billion and the 2015 average outflow of -$475 million.

 

Equity ETFs had net subscriptions of +$5.4 billion, outpacing the year-to-date weekly average outflow of -$1.9 billion and the 2015 average inflow of +$2.8 billion. Fixed income ETFs had net inflows of +$1.2 billion, trailing the year-to-date weekly average inflow of +$2.2 billion but outpacing the 2015 average inflow of +$1.0 billion.

 

Mutual fund flow data is collected weekly from the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and represents a survey of 95% of the investment management industry's mutual fund assets. Mutual fund data largely reflects the actions of retail investors. Exchange traded fund (ETF) information is extracted from Bloomberg and is matched to the same weekly reporting schedule as the ICI mutual fund data. According to industry leader Blackrock (BLK), U.S. ETF participation is 60% institutional investors and 40% retail investors.



Most Recent 12 Week Flow in Millions by Mutual Fund Product: Chart data is the most recent 12 weeks from the ICI mutual fund survey and includes the weekly average for 2015 and the weekly year-to-date average for 2016:

 

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Cumulative Annual Flow in Millions by Mutual Fund Product: Chart data is the cumulative fund flow from the ICI mutual fund survey for each year starting with 2008.

 

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Most Recent 12 Week Flow within Equity and Fixed Income Exchange Traded Funds: Chart data is the most recent 12 weeks from Bloomberg's ETF database (matched to the Wednesday to Wednesday reporting format of the ICI), the weekly average for 2015, and the weekly year-to-date average for 2016. In the third table are the results of the weekly flows into and out of the major market and sector SPDRs:

 

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Sector and Asset Class Weekly ETF and Year-to-Date Results: In sector SPDR callouts, investors contributed +$160 million or +7% to the materials XLB ETF this week.

 

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Cumulative Annual Flow in Millions within Equity and Fixed Income Exchange Traded Funds: Chart data is the cumulative fund flow from Bloomberg's ETF database for each year starting with 2013.

 

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Net Results:

The net of total equity mutual fund and ETF flows against total bond mutual fund and ETF flows totaled a negative -$2.6 billion spread for the week (+$3.2 billion of total equity inflow net of the +$5.8 billion inflow to fixed income; positive numbers imply greater money flow to stocks; negative numbers imply greater money flow to bonds). The 52-week moving average is -$485 million (negative numbers imply more positive money flow to bonds for the week) with a 52-week high of +$20.2 billion (more positive money flow to equities) and a 52-week low of -$19.0 billion (negative numbers imply more positive money flow to bonds for the week.)

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Exposures:
The weekly data herein is important for the public asset managers with trends in mutual funds and ETFs impacting the companies with the following estimated revenue impact:

 

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Jonathan Casteleyn, CFA, CMT 

 

 

 

Joshua Steiner, CFA






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