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SaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for October 30, 2023 | SaltWire - Issuance of new exchange-traded funds in the U.S. marketplace is on track to hit a record high in 2023, as asset managers rush to launch actively managed funds in response to rising interest rates and market volatility.
"We are seeing that phenomenon become a bit turbocharged in 2023, as new products are rolled out in response to current market conditions – namely, rising rates and market volatility." Last month, ETF debuts set a monthly record of 69. So far in October, the total stands at 47, according to Morningstar Direct data. The final number for October will almost certainly be higher, analysts said.
While some argued that the market for passive ETFs that track an index may already be saturated, there's plenty of room for new actively managed ETFs. Aniket Ullal, head of ETF data and analytics at CFRA, tied the boom in active ETFs to an explosion of interest in defined outcome ETFs, products that use options to cushion downside risk in exchange for some kind of cap on the upside.Assets in active ETFs had reached $22 billion as of January 2023, from only about $183 million four years earlier, according to Morningstar data.
"The firms build one, and then modify it to have a different level of volatility or be based on a different index or some other slightly different terms," and then launch those variations, Pettit said.