{"id":306460,"date":"2025-11-20T15:34:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/etfs-are-more-active-than-you-think\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:34:53","slug":"etfs-are-more-active-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=306460","title":{"rendered":"ETFs Are More Active Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It\u2019s easy to think of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as passive investment vehicles \u2014 baskets you can buy, hold, and forget about. But as we\u2019ll show, ETFs today can also be a lot more active than many people realize.<\/p>\n

A big shift to indexing and ETFs (but they are not the same thing)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s now been more than 30 years since the first U.S. ETF (SPY in 1993) was launched. Over that time, index funds (including ETFs) have grown strongly. Most databases now show assets in index funds have surpassed assets in active mutual funds.<\/p>\n

Chart 1: Passive pass active fund assets<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n\"Passive<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Interestingly, over the same time, data shows that ETFs have consistently gained assets, while mutual funds have seen consistent outflows.<\/p>\n

Chart 2: ETFs gaining assets while mutual funds losing assets<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n\"ETFs<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Importantly, these two charts do not show the same thing. Notably:<\/p>\n