Approximately 2,000 asset managers and investment advisors are taking part in the Exchange ETF conference in Las Vegas. A small ETF crowd arrived on Saturday night and Dead & Co in the territory. Arrived to see. (What did you expect from the dead?) Aside from the entertainment of music, this is a gathering of asset managers such as BlackRock and Vanguard, along with investment advisors who buy ETFs. Advisors are looking for help in three areas: 1) Understanding recent market chaos, 2) Investment strategies using ETFs, and 3) How to grow and manage your business more efficiently. The third area, widely known as “practical management,” is an increasingly large part of the focus of these conferences. You will earn around 35% of the content focus at this meeting. That's because the wealth management business is growing rapidly despite its focus on smaller groups of wealthy investors who have benefited from growth in both real estate and stock markets. ETF flow in 2025: Bonds are strong. That is, many investors are said to be trending followers who buy what others are buying. The flow up to the ETF flow is interrupted until the year. The main trend is a continuing inflow into stocks, but there is a strong inflow into bonds, especially in ultra-short funds. Precious metal funds have seen a surprising light inflow given the recent gold highs. ETF Inflow YTD Stocks $135 billion bonds $92 B Bonds Ultrashort 40 b Precious Metals $8 b Source: Action for ETF Stocks, the biggest inflow (about half) remains ongoing trends over the years. Until recently, there has been a small influx into large cap growth funds like the Vanguard Growth Index ETF (VUG). One warning sign in this category: leaks over the past 30 days on Invesco QQQ Trust. More importantly, there is a significant inflow into bonds, and is at a level where there is almost a stock inflow. This makes sense on two levels. 1) recent market volatility has been driven by safe shelters for bonds, and 2) populations are getting older. “Investor demographics are another long-term driver of the shift to bond funds as they eliminate portfolio risk and place premiums on reliable sources of income as they approach retired investors and retirement.” Much of the recent bond flow has been in the Treasury Department of Evaluating those flows is a major focus of the conference. “We believe our advisors are trying to understand the bond market and how to place client portfolios within the market volatility,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at TMX Vettafi, which hosts the conference. There are several sessions focused on where asset managers like Bondbloxx and F/M see the best opportunities for bonds. ETF rapper private equity and private credits to ETF rappers It has proven tricky. The recent launch of the SPDR SSGA Apollo IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV) has been met with only a small demand from investors, but interest in the space remains high. “There's a lot of industry discussion going on about the delivery of SSGA and what else is going on from the industry,” Rosenbruce said. Bondbloxx previously launched a private credit Clo ETF (PCMM), which will be discussed on stage. Takeaways are where investors want private equity and access to private credit, but it's difficult to offer with an ETF rapper. “There's a significant liquidity discrepancy,” Rope & Gray's James Thomas told the panel at the meeting. “To get an illiquid asset class with an ETF rapper, you need to water what investors want, in this case, exposure to private assets,” Morningstar Johnson told me. “This is a category with already established leadership and tough competition in a semi-liquid space where specialist companies like Blackstone, Apollo and Cliffwater are making significant advances in BDCs and interval funds that are already untraded,” Johnson mentions the business development company. “These evergreen fund structures don't need to water things like ETFs “good.” Many of them come in wrappers that are generally useful for most investors. ” Conclusion: It remains to be seen whether ETFs will become the dominant space for trading private capital products. Proactively managed ETFs represent less than 10% of the assets of their nearly $11 trillion ETFs, but have exceeded their weight for some time. This year, almost 30% of the total amount of new cash entering the ETF has been shaken by the active model. Active ETF managers such as Cohen and Steers (we recently introduced actively managed real estate ETFs), TCW and T. Rowe Price present the best active ideas. One active trend worth mentioning: optional income and buffer products. Optional income products utilize the desire for funds that provide normal income. The largest ETF in the field, the JP Morgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI), sells call options covered by the S&P 500. Buffering products like FT Best Ladder Buffer ETF (BUFR) and Innovators provide up to limit exposure to the S&P 500 and provide buffers for some losses. These products have proven to be extremely popular among investors who want to stay in the market but want to opt for negative side protection. Leverage/opposite, single-stake bets are hot, but there are small but quite a few groups that enjoy making big bets on the market. Leverage and reverse ETFs have grown significantly over the past few years, increasing from about 2% to about 7% of managed ETF assets. The group previously got hot with leverage and bets against indexes such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100. Since then, many have turned their attention to single stock ETFs betting on high-volatility technology stocks such as Tesla, Coinbase Global, Strategy, Nvidia, and even Apple. Leverage/Reverse: Single-Share Bets High Temperature (YTD Flow) Single-Share Leverage/Reverse $6.5 billion Index Leverage/Reverse $607 million Source: ETF Action Most of these ETF owners only hold for a short period of time (often for a day or so). Single Stock ETF March Direction Daily TSLA Bull 2X (TSLL) – 33% Granite Share Daily (CONL) – 28% Direction Daily AAPL Bull 2X Stock (AAPU) – 20% Granite Share 1.25X Length 1.25X Long Tesla Daily ETF (TSL) – 20% ETF Share Class Used as a share class within mutual funds. ETF structures can improve capital gain management, making them tax efficient. With the Vanguard patent expired, around 50 other companies have filed to offer mutual fund ETF stock classes, awaiting SEC approval. “This is going to happen quickly,” Vedder Price's Joe Mannon told the panel at a meeting on Sunday. “We could see the SEC get to light speed,” agrees Morningstar Ben Johnson. “I think SEC approval is a matter of when, not when,” he told me. “Tucking ETF stocks into existing mutual funds has the potential to benefit all fund shareholders and is also a successful structure for everyone involved in non-US markets like Canada.”
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