New York (HedgeCo.net) – It finally happened. The assets under management in exchange traded funds has exceeded the assets under management in hedge funds. According to a report from ETFGI, a London based research firm, AUM in ETFs are estimated at $2.971 trillion and AUM in hedge funds is estimated at $2.969 trillion according to Hedge Fund Research.

The ETF industry was launched 25 years ago and the first U.S. based ETF was launched in 1993, which makes the AUM feat impressive. However, it must be pointed out that hedge funds invest in ETFs and are helping to propel the growth in ETFs.
HedgeCoVest featured a story on the growth in ETFs back in April and at that time we estimated how much of the AUM in ETFs is also represented in hedge funds.

Looking at the models on the HedgeCoVest platform as a proxy for the hedge fund industry, approximately 5-10% of the assets from hedge funds are invested in ETFs. While the percentage may seem low, and it may be due to a small sample size, if you look at it from amount of assets, it is a considerable sum. If there is approximately $3 trillion in hedge fund assets and if the 5-10% amount is a good proxy, you are talking about $150 billion to $300 billion that is invested in ETFs by hedge funds.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest