Active Exchange Sales Financing Gaining Traction
Active exchange sales financing has become increasingly popular and shows signs of growing assets. With new options rolling out, let’s explore what’s recently popped up on the market and what analysts are noticing. Right now, there are over 120 active ETFs receiving ratings.
Active ETFs have existed for nearly two decades, but they really began to flourish following a crucial regulatory update in 2019. The SEC Rule 6C-11, often referred to as the “ETF Rules,” made it easier for new ETFs to get approved and allowed for custom baskets. In the first half of 2025, 295 active ETFs were launched, excluding those intended purely as trading vehicles.
Interestingly, more than two-thirds of these were stock funds.
During the first half of 2025, major active management firms kept expanding their ETF offerings. For instance, JP Morgan and T. Rowe Price have substantial lineups, with the latter launching a new product alongside its renowned manager David Giroux. In total, over 100 ETFs categorized as buffer ETFs were introduced, aimed at the defined results set by Morningstar. Companies like First Trust, Innovator, and Calamos led the charge, each launching a minimum of 15 structured products. These strategies provide investors with market benefits while protecting against losses to a certain extent, referred to as buffers. For example, an ETF with a 12% buffer can safeguard investors to that limit; if the market declines beyond that point, they would absorb the losses that exceed this threshold.
The number of new strategies introduced in the first half of 2025 was relatively modest. JP Morgan continued its streak with the JPMorgan Active High High JPHY. T. Rowe Price joined with the Capital Appreciation Premium Income TCAL, featuring a covered call overlay, while Brown Advisory rolled out two new strategies this year following a launch last year. One of their ETFs, the Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth BAWFX, has already attracted nearly $500 million. The Capital Group has also been active, rolling out several products, including a small/mid-cap ETF that has surpassed $300 million. Charles Schwab launched the Schwab Core Bond ETF SCCR, and Harbor Capital Advisors introduced four active ETFs focusing on small to mid-cap stocks.
The active ETF market continued to gain traction through the first half of 2025, amassing $183 billion in assets. The top 20 ETFs accounted for over 35% of these assets. Some of the largest players, including JP Morgan, saw significant inflows, with two of their stock ETFs ranking in the top five. Additionally, BlackRock’s Factor Rotating Products have garnered attention, with their U.S. Stock Element Rotating ETF DYNF and U.S. Stock Theme Rotating ETF performing well. Notably, nearly $4 billion flowed into the AldeMax MSTR ETF MSTY, which seeks to minimize exposure to particular strategic investments.
Active ETFs, particularly large blends, ultra-short bonds, derivative India, and high-value categories, managed to gather at least $10 billion each in assets during this period. Together, these categories represent roughly half of all active ETF flows.
Firms like JPMorgan, Dimensional, Capital Group (parent of American Funds), iShares, and American Century (which manages Avantis) have collectively secured over $10 billion in assets, accounting for about 50% of the active ETF inflow in 2025.
However, it’s worth noting that not everything has been positive. Three strategies from ARK Invest saw a net outflow of around $1 billion during the same time. In fact, there were 40 active ETFs either consolidated or liquidated in the first half of 2025, and the trend may continue as only about half of all active ETFs have assets exceeding $100 million.
