If you're unfamiliar with Equity Mates then you need to get on board. They've turned a passion for investing and asking questions about the markets into a podcast and live show with ausbiz and I was lucky enough to get on board for episode 86. In this episiode we take a look at the FY21 year in review after the latest release of data from the ASX. We also dive into some questions on the differences between active and passive ETFs, ESG ETFs and a bit more. Check it out below. Also, we mentioned in the show that we hadn't crunched the numbers on what the FUM growth was this year compared to previous years. It's quite a bit more. I said 71% in the show from June 2020 to June 2021 (I should have said 73%) and looking at previous years it's double those historical averages. FUM in those years (as of June each year) was: June 2017: 29,264,748,101 June 2018: 38,871,646,956 June 2019: 50,589,913,939 June 2020: 65,633,023,173 June 2021113,517,898,212 This means year on year (y/y ) growth is as follows: This is actually the 2nd episode of Equity Mates that we've been on. Earlier this year we discussed ETF resources and data with the guys. Check that out below. They're on Spotify, Apple and other good podcasting providers and if you're interested in other shows they do each afternoon on ausbiz, make sure to join that and follow along: www.ausbiz.com.au Happy Investing!

Hi folks! What a week it was for media appearances on ETFTracker. This week saw us do 2x ausbiz appearances and work with the awesome folks at Livewire Markets on an ETF article they wrote. The focus for all was the year that was FY20/21. We wrote about this here: https://www.etftracker.com.au/post/fy20-21-year-in-review But now you get to see it in a few more formats. First up we have the ausbiz market update on Monday 12th July - https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/etf-investors-setting-new-records?videoId=12189 Livewire’s article from the awesome Ally Selby came out on Tuesday. Here's the link and an example of how to get into the app - https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/6-winning-etfs-tipped-to-take-off Finally, the folks at Equity Mates were kind enough to ask me back for a market update and deep dive into some ETF conversions and ESG. https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/what-fy21-looked-like-in-etfs-equity-mates?videoId=12371 Various themes from all of the above include the outstanding growth we continue to see as more investors pile into the ETF markets, the active and passive space and some new active managed ETFs that were previously closed-ended funds and what to expect as we head towards the 2nd half of 2021. Anyway, that's probably enough from us for a few weeks - we'll go back to making Instagram, YouTube and TikTok videos (all whilst watching hte markets). Thanks for following along and happy investing!

Livewire Markets article by Ally Selby deep diving into the financial year 2021 in ETFs. We were honoured to contribute our data and charts for this article as well as talk about ETFs that we find quite interesting going into the 2nd half of 2021. ​ The article is available to Livewire subscribers but you can sign up for free: https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/6-winning-etfs-tipped-to-take-off

Second time back chatting with Bryce and Ren for the Equity Mates community via ausbiz. In this episode we talked about the closed ended funds converting to ETFs, a bit more about ESG and some more details about the latest FY21 metrics. Video on ausbiz is here: https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/what-fy21-looked-like-in-etfs-equity-mates?videoId=12371 ​ Also available on Equity Mates YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEUUkXBFnE4&ab_channel=EquityMates

Thanks to new Covid19 restrictions coming into place in Sydney, we had to record this one away from the studios. Markets now at $113.5 billion in FUM with the ASX data (Chi-X results will be out later). The June 2021 data means that we can do a year in review and that's what we go through in this episode. More details in the market update: https://www.etftracker.com.au/post/fy20-21-year-in-review ​ Video Link: https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/etf-investors-setting-new-records?videoId=12189

Another month another report but this time it's June 2021 and that meanst means we can now take a look back to see what happened in the Australian ETF market for the last financial year. There are a number of key events that were quite interesting including: FUM growth to over $113 billion Top Inflows were led by global equity ETFs Continued rise of ESG investing Performance was led by leveraged ETFs Let's explore each of these a little bit more. FUM growth to over $113 billion $65.6 billion on ASX/Chi-X as at 1 July 2020 and now at $113.5 billion as of June 2021, 73% year on year growth. FUM growth - January 2017 to June 2021 Breaking this down we see that Global Equity ETFs (ex Asia and Emerging Market) had the most FUM as of June 2021 with $53 billion followed by Australian Equity ETFs at nearly $31 billion. FUM by ETF Category - January 2017 to June 2021 Net Inflows grew by $35 billion over the last 12 months The biggest area of growth was in Global Equity ETFs by a wide margin. Over $22bn of net inflows went to them compared with $4.8bn to Aussie Equities. Net Inflows from July 2020 to June 2021 Top inflows to ETFs were driven by a few interesting ones such as MGOC and HYGG which were closed ended funds that converted to ETFs Inflows by ETF They didn’t necessarily grow organically after they were listed on the exchange. If you take those out the biggest and most popular ETFs were the core type ETFs of VAS and IOZ for the local ASX exposure and NDQ for US exposure. ESG related ETFs made a splash as well with $1.7 billion coming through for them and total FUM now at over $4.2 billion. ETHI leads the way there but new listings like ERTH and IESG add to the impressive list of performers like CLNE and IMPQ. FUM for ESG themed ETFS - Jan 2017 to June 2021 Performance Performance in June 2021 was positive with the overall market seeing +2.5% growth. The cumulative trends are shown below with the metric showing the ETF categories monthly performance for June 2021. We can see most were in the green, led by Australian Property at +5.3% and Global Equities at +3.7%. 1-month price returns (latest and trend) - January 2017 to June 2021 This was led by the leveraged play on the Nasdaq, LNAS at +15.6%. This was followed by CLDD the cloud computing play at +14.0% and FANG at +13.9% and ERTH, the climate focused ETF at +11.9%. ETF 1-month returns - June 2021 In terms of performance (measured by cumulative 1-month total price returns – this takes into account dividends being reinvested), the best ETFs were mainly the leveraged ones GGUS: +81.5% LNAS: +68.5% OOO: +64.3% ACDC: +63.6% GEAR: +55.4% FANG: +53.2% IJR: +44.8% MVB: +43.1% VVLU: +42.7% BNKS: +41.8% Additionally, we look at 1-month versus 1-year returns by ETF, ETF Category and Theme. 1-month vs 1-year total price returns by ETF - June 2021 1-month vs 1-year total price returns by ETF Category - June 2021 1-month vs 1-year total price returns by Theme - June 2021 More information is available in the app here: https://www.etftracker.com.au/the-app

As we mentioned last month, we were working on an update to the ETFtracker app after having this currernt version out for over 12 months. Despite comign out a little bit later than we expected to release it, we're finally here and we'll begin by taking a look at a list of the updates. If you want to jump straight to the app you can go to the Apps section on this site or scroll down to the end of this article. So what's been updated? Overall look and feel Firstly, we have updated the overall look and feel of the app to this new app including the overall aesthetic and design. The last app took up a lot of space in terms of how we layed out the menus and sub-menus as well as filters on the page. With the filters at the top of the page in that app, there was a limit to how much could be added to them so it meant that if new interesting ways to filter the data became available, something would have to be removed from the top row. The same can be said for the menus with the main menu down the side taking up space and having sub-menus at the top of the page as well. In this new version we make use of the app we take advantage of menu popouts which, for navigation, are on the left and for filters, are on the right. This way of doing things means that as new features are added to the app we don't have to do a hard redesign to try to find a place to fit things on the page. All of this leads to being able to give more space to the charts we show on a page. Old - Main menus and multiple sub-menus New - Hidden menus and popouts Old - Filters at top of page and limited space New - Filters also popout now and there's more screen real estate to display or add to this Old - Size of other items like main menus and KPIs on the sides and filters and sub-menus at the top means less screen real estate for charts New - more screen real estate available with compressed menus and filters New way to switch view and the addition of ETF themes Additionally, we made it easier to view the data by ETF or other groupings (ETF category and Themes). Each metric can be filtered this way using the sub-menu option on the left hand side. New side panel enabling a switching of views The themes view is new and is something we created when trying to do our own analysis of what was going on for particular groupings of ETFs. The ASX already provides their own categories but there were some things it did not necessarily capture. For example, if we wanted to look at technology focused ETFs or ESG themeed ETFs, these were not available. Since we created our own groupings of these for our own analysis (and for various articles we'd written) it was a feature that was begging to be added to the app. The different theme groups are as follows: Agriculture Biotechnology Commodities Consumer Staples Country Currency Dividend/Yield ESG Factor Financials Fixed Income Healthcare Indices Infrastructure Inverse Market Multi-Asset Multi-Sector Property Technology Telecommunications These may change over time as some, like multi-sector include quite a few ETFs in them. Organised metrics The last app showcased quite a few different metrics that come from the ASX/Chi-X each month but these were not organised in a defined way. Performance metrics were shown at the start since many people ask about those first but the layout was not adapted into different categories. This is unlike when you do any sort of securities analysis and want to look at the size of an ETF or its tradability via how much liquidity it has versus its % spread. The new app now takes these into account and has organised the data into the following areas Performance Size Transactions Tradabiltiy Quality/Yield Costs Some of these new menu sections have a few metrics and options to them whereas others have only 1 option but these can be added to in future. Adding ETF descriptions In the previous app, we showcased the data in an interactive way but if a user was interested in the ETF, they' have to go elsewhere to read about it. Whilst we don't have all the info for the ETF, at least now users can get a quick description of what the ETF does. This is delivered when users hover over any bar chart that showcases ETFs. Hover over reveals ETF descriptions Drill-through capabilities In addition to the hover overs, you can also view individual ETFs on their own by right clicking on an ETF you see labelled in a bar chart or on a scatter plot. When you do this you will get the following list and selecting drill through shows that there is a page called Individual. Clicking on this takes the user to an individual ETF analysis page where they can view different metrics all on a single page for that ETF and navigation at the top left takes the user back to the previous page they were on. This drill-through capability only works on pages where ETFs are shown, not categories or themes. Compressed chart layouts This app still has a lot of data and options to it but before we split things out into single pages for metrics that should likely have been grouped. This included having a separate page for 1-month, 1-year, 3-year and 5-year total returns and more. Now for these metrics we group them together and removed the need for showcasing a monthly time-series which featured the changing nature of 1, 3 or 5-year returns which was not that useful. Now, the scatter chart display has been kept from the previous app along with the bar chart ranks. Link to the app The new app is available here: https://www.etftracker.com.au/the-app Check it out and let us know what you think. Moving forward / Product roadmap ETFtracker is a labour of love product, so any work that is done on this is done so in our own spare time away from our paid for projects. That said, where we do find time we'll be working on the following updates: Integrating holdings analysis - we already have the various holdings analysis apps (see the Apps menu dropdown) and will be looking to bring at least some of this information over to the main ETFtracker app Updated Data Stories - we had this as a part of the old app but it got to the point where the stories were becoming less and less dynamic. We're searching for new ways to make compelling data stories and may even create these in their own separate application. Time will tell. Calculators - one requested item has been to add some simple portfolio calculators to the app and some scenario analysis tools that allow users to check what performance returns could hypothetically have been. Well, its on the list for future features. And More to be announced later If you have ideas for things you'd like to see please shoot us a message. Happy investing folks!

Spreading the good data word on ETFs means finding more valuable ways to share these insights. We recently explored the Clubhouse app which saw an explosion in popularity late last year and early this year. With the advent of Android users now being able to join we were able to sign up ourselves. There's a lot of great investing insights (and other non-finance clubs) to check out and one that we liked so much we joined in was The ASX Hustle. If you're on Clubhouse already then come find us and join or hit me up if you need an invite to the app (I may know of some spares). Clubhouse is great but there's limited ability to share more than conversations. So The ASX Hustle crew created a Discord server called The Market Hustle with a whole bunch of different rooms to share insights. There's an ETF area (see below) and rooms on equities, specific stocks and sectors and even crypto. If you'd like to join then do so here: https://discord.gg/UvzffA6e Finally, we're also on TikTok and have a few videos so far but hopefully we can share some interesting data insights and charts with other FinTokkers.

Back in the ausbiz studios for this one and looking at the May 2021 data from the ASX. Performance was in the green (positive) for all categories for the first time in a long time (July 2019). FUM now at $110 billion. More details in the market update: https://www.etftracker.com.au/post/market-update-flash-note-may-2021 ​ Video Link: https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/all-categories-in-the-green-this-may?videoId=11066

New data out from the ASX today and is now available in the ETFtracker app. Below are some highlights - check out more in the app https://www.etftracker.com.au/the-app Performance +1.3% Best ETFs GDX: +15% MNRS: +11.3% ETPMAG: +8.8% PMGOLD: +8.7% GOLD: +8.5% QAU: +7.6% First non-commodity ETF to crack top spots was NDIA (ETF Securities), IIND (BetaShares) and CNET (VanEck) Inflows +1.5bn Best net inflows VAS: $177m IVV: $126m VGS: $86m HYGG: $84m FUM +109.5bn – 72% growth y/y

Here’s a new update to the holdings analyser we have for BetaShares ETFs including the expansion to 3 menu choices. Link to the app is here (only works on Desktop): https://www.etftracker.com.au/betashares-holdings In it, there is still the dashboard which shows a vsariety of charts ranging from which ETFs have the most amount of money in them (by notional value) to the countries and sectors where these ETFs are exposed. We also added in the BetaShares categories where we you can see the rank of which categories of ETFs have the most value (again by notional value). In addition to these we have also added an ability to see ETF similarities and users of the app can search these in 2 ways. To navigate you use the tabs on the left-hand side of the page. The first of thesew allows you to search ETF Holdings. The user can either find the ticker of the holding or search for holdings by name. For example, here is an example of looking for the big 4 Australian banks (CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ). And here's an animation of it in action (to have multiple selections hold the CTRL button and click on the selections). In the next option you can search by ETF ticker or ETF name. The table in the middle shows you’re holdings as rows and ETFs as columns with the value being the weight that this holding makes up in that ETF. For example, here is an example of looking for the big 4 Australian banks (CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ). And again, an animationof this in action Happy investing!

Shares for Beginners Podcast The title of this article comes from the title of a recent interview we did with Phil Muscatello who has a variety of podcasts dedicated to trading and investments. He was kind enough to ask me to have a chat about data within the ETF markets for the Australian focused "Shares for Beginners". You can check it out here: https://www.sharesforbeginners.com/blog/monfort And it's also available on major podcasts such as: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Tka4cybhgIhcsMu6r2KFw?si=XJ-GASJqSwOe4COch34APA Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mark-monfort-making-spreadsheets-beautiful-again/id1451778025?i=1000523013018 Acast: https://play.acast.com/s/shares-for-beginners/markmonfort-makingspreadsheetsbeautifulagain He also has the "Stocks for Beginners" podcast which focuses on US markets and his latest episode features my good friend Kenn Polcari regaling great stories from his time working the trading flor of the New York Stock Exchange. There's so much great information out there that investors can get their hands on such as that which is being shared on the regular by ETF issuers in the news and on their own websites. There's also an abundance of great datasets and apps out there of which we have listed a few in the Resources section of this site (check it out in the menu above). Here's a couple of additional bits of info to the stuff from the show: NAV and iNav - Investopedia do a great write up on this (here) and we mentioned in the show NAV being an end of day calculation. We should have clarified that there's also indicative NAV (iNAV) which can be viewed on the daily. The share price trading at a premium or discount to NAV/iNAV still stands. Bid/Ask Spread - another great definition from the Investopedia team (here). Whether you're a sophisticated investor or just getting started, it's important to understand market dynamics. Spreads are an important part in the review of an ETF so using this as part of your analysis can be of great benefit too. An announcement It's been over a year since ETFtracker came to life in a public format. First, as a small set of data visualisation tests and a mini application in late 2019/early 2020 and then as a more fully featured app in mid 2020. The website launch in December 2020 allowed us to communicate (with charts and data) further ETF insights with our growign audience. Over that time we've received some great ideas, feedback and encouragement as we continue to share with the ETF and wider investing community. With that said, it's also time to reveal that we are going through an app facelift. The current version of the ETFtracker was our launch vehicle to make ETF data easier to consume and in a way, "make spreadsheets great again". It serves a variety of purposes and the facelift builds further upon the legacy the original app started. The next phase will have the following features: Firstly, the app design is getting a redo. In the previous version we threw so many options at users on the same page with menu after sub-menu after sub-sub-menu. This meant screen real-estate was compromised to enable the umpteen different options of viewing the data. We'll still have a lot of features in the new app but menu design is being redone and we're providing more space to show off the best features of the app, the charts! Next, the menu options are being given a proper home. We found that the menu options weren't really categorised in a way that helps investors better understand ETFs. It was fine if you're well versed in the space but for those just getting started, we did ourselves no favours by not having any grouping or sense to the menu options. In the new version there will be group into categories that, we think, make a lot more sense. Adding a new ways to view the data is what is coming out as well. We had always provided a way to view things either via ETF Category or ETF itself and whilst we would talk about different thematics, we never provided an ability for users to access these. In the update, all pages will be viewable by either ETF, ETF Category or Thematic. If we have time, we'll add some other requested features but the above sums up the majority of the work. Below are some screenshots of the initial new design. The final product may differ slightly but the essence of the change intentions will be there. We anticipate a relaunch in June so stay tuned.