ETFs have now surpassed last year's record flows of $1.5T with 3.5mo to spare. 20yrs ago when I began covering the industry (marked by arrow) a good year was $100b, now they do more than that every month, an $8.5b/day pace. A feat of both a benefit-rich technology and inflation.

"ETFs should come with a drink ticket and a players card at this point.. There's been so many leveraged ETF closures this year that Spirit Halloween is going to open up temporary locations in the vacant tickers." - @SGHWealthMgmt w/ a colorful rant against hot sauce on ETF IQ yesterday w/ @scarletfu

ETFs pulled in a record $1.5 trillion last year. What used to be gatekept by Wall Street institutions is now in the hands of everyday investors. On Nov 3rd, I’m hosting the ETF Investor Forum in NYC. 700+ investors, fund managers, RIAs, and allocators in a single room, including: Dan Ives | @DivesTech Eric Balchunas | @EricBalchunas Robbie Mitchnick | @robbiemitchnick Matt Cole | @ColeMacro Ankur Nagpal | @ankurnagpal Gavin Filmore | @tidalfg Plus many more. We’re packing a ton of programming into one day. We'll be talking everything from Bitcoin to critical metals to robotics. Grab your ticket here:

ETFs Ran Seven Straight Green Sessions, and 88% of It Landed After the Move For Aug 17-25: 🟠 BTC ETFs: +$2.38B, price +25.69% 🔵 ETH ETFs: +$899.0M, price +32.43% Seven sessions took in +$3.28B, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs positive every day. That ranks in the 91.7th percentile of rolling seven-session windows since Jan 2024. But flow followed price, not the reverse. Only +$392.9M arrived on Aug 17-18. After the Aug 19 Treasury buyback headline, ETFs took in +$2.88B, or 88% of the total. That same period accounted for 86% of the price move. Aug 19 also cleared $2.99B of liquidations, the 8th-largest day on record, with $2.6B coming from bearish bets. Open interest stayed elevated after the squeeze, sitting at the 95.6th percentile of the past 90 days over Aug 17-23. Funding averaged just the 60th percentile, so leverage stayed high without longs getting particularly expensive.

ETFs grew into a $15 trillion category not because ETFs are special, but because putting every liquid asset behind one brokerage account collapsed thirty years of paperwork. Wallets do the same thing on rails that don't close at 5pm. Will Peck on @TokenizedPod with @sytaylor.

ETFs succeeded because they combined the diversification benefits of mutual funds w/ the intraday liquidity, transparency, & low tx costs of publicly traded stocks. Tokenized ETFs extend these benefits further by enabling global 24/7 accessibility & integration w/ DeFi.

Semiconductor ETFs are making history. Assets under management (AUM) in the semiconductor ETF, $SMH, are up to $70 billion, near its highest level since July. At the same time, AUM in the semiconductor ETF, $SOXX, are up to $46 billion, near its highest on record. This comes as $SMH's AUM has grown more than +500% since the start of 2024, while $SOXX's AUM has grown +360%. By comparison, AUM in the tech software ETF, $IGV, has risen +91% over the same period, to $13.5 billion. As a result, the two semiconductor ETFs now hold ~$116 billion in assets combined. The semiconductor trade is incredibly hot.