February's ETF Statistics: Assets Grow Again

By Tom Lydon: By John Spence and Tom Lydon Investors nervous about falling gold prices have yanked more than $5 billion from the largest ETF tracking the precious metal so far this year.SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) is down about 6% the past month as futures have dropped below $1,600 an ounce.

Michael Johnston submits:A recent survey released by InvestmentNews highlighted the ten ETFs financial advisors researched the most, based on data provided by Morningstar. It’s tough to know exactly what to make of the list, but at the very least it gives some interesting insights into the minds of investors.

By CommodityHQ: By Jared Cummans

Lawrence Weinman submits: The Index Universe blog notes this about February ETF flows:

By Alberto Savrieno:Every once in a while, the stars and planets align. To those who notice it, it's an amazing thing. Well, the stars and planets are aligning once again for gold in a way that I do not think will happen again, at least not in my lifetime.The stars, as I see them, are the following:

Intuition was telling me something was going on these past few days (of 2012) in the gold market. Our investment team was watching gold and gold stocks take a tumble for no obvious reason. It wasn’t only us who felt this way: many analysts were caught off-guard. One comment from Barclays Research indicated that the week was unusually “brutal … with quite a few confused participants with some seemingly positive aspects of the market not having an impact.”

Intuition was telling me something was going on these past few days in the gold market. Our investment team was watching gold and gold stocks take a tumble for no obvious reason. It wasn’t only us who felt this way: many analysts were caught off-guard. One comment from Barclays Research indicated that the week was unusually “brutal … with quite a few confused participants with some seemingly positive aspects of the market not having an impact.”

Michael Johnston submits:After a sluggish start to the year, the ETF industry picked up the pace in March, as strong performances from global equity markets and a wave of fresh cash inflows sent industry asset levels soaring. According to data compiled by IndexUniverse.com, total ETF assets stood at nearly $821 billion at the end of March, and total inflows for the month exceeded $20 billion.