Fund Flow Trends for 2017 in 7 Charts
We take a look at where fund investors put their money during the first three quarters of the year.
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With U.S. asset flow data for the first three quarters of 2017 in the bank, the trends are pretty clear: Investors love bond funds of just about all stripes, they’re choosing international stocks over U.S. stocks, and there’s no letup for the hemorrhaging of active funds. And then there’s Vanguard.
The following are seven charts and two tables (courtesy of Morningstar Direct) highlighting the dominant asset flow trends across the first nine months of 2017.
On the broad category level, bond funds continue to dominate fund flows. The biggest swing so far in 2017 has come with the surge of money into international stock funds.
Looking within the narrower Morningstar Categories, asset flow data shows investors shifting money into a wide cross-section of bond funds.
Outflows, meanwhile, show investor withdrawals from U.S. stock categories, despite the continued bull run for equities.
At the fund company level, the story continues to be the remarkable dominance of Vanguard and exchange-traded funds.
The overall year-to-date flow winners, show a bit more variety.
Among active funds, perhaps what’s most notable is that among the leader, is the level of flows are, on a relative basis, very small…
… when compared to passive inflows.
And looking among individual funds, bond funds dominate the leader board for inflows on the active side…
...while Vanguard and iShares eclipse all others among top passive inflows.
The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.
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