FYI: Exchange-traded funds have been in the investing mainstream for years. In 2017, they became the default.
ETFs saw record growth over the course of last year, with both institutions and retail investors piling into the investment vehicle. ETFs hold baskets of securities like mutual funds but trade intraday like stocks. Among other attributes, advocates tout the transparency of the structure, as well as the greater tax efficiency, and in 2017 investors seemed more willing than ever to listen. There are now ETFs tracking essentially every sector, region and asset class, and basically every category of fund saw growth in the year.
According to data from State Street Global Advisors, inflows for exchange-traded funds topped $464 billion in 2017. Not only does that shatter old records—in 2016, the previous record year, there were inflows of $288 billion—but it is a stark demonstration of how investors are favoring ETFs over other investment vehicles. Mutual funds, for example, only saw $91 billion in inflows over that same period, according to Credit Suisse, whose data covered 2017 through November.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/etfs-shattered-their-growth-records-in-2017-2017-12-11/print
