Global and Smart-Beta ETFs Dominate Fund Flows in 2015

According to Bloomberg, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) took in about $238 billion in 2015, which nearly matched their record of $243 billion in 2014. Surprisingly, these gains come despite $32 billion in outflows from the S&P 500 Trust ( SPY A ) and billions more in outflows from emerging-market and gold ETFs. The biggest winners for the year, at least in terms of attracting capital, were international funds and smart-beta ETFs that attempted to beat passive vanilla indexes.