January 2018 marked the twenty-fourth consecutive month of net inflows into smart beta ETFs and ETPs (hereafter ETFs), reports ETF industry consultants ETFGI.

January 2018 marked the twenty-fourth consecutive month of net inflows into smart beta ETFs listed globally.

According to the firm’s monthly report detailing flows into smart beta ETFs listed globally, assets invested in smart beta ETFs rose by a record $37.8bn during January to bring total assets under management for the segment to a new high of $696bn.

The $37.8bn uptick consisted of net inflows of $9.4bn with strong market performance making up the balance.

According to ETFGI’s data, the $37.8bn growth represents the greatest absolute monthly increase in assets on record, with the previous record of $31.9bn having been set in March 2016.

Multi-factor smart beta ETFs gathered the lion’s share of net inflows with $4.5bn, followed by value factor ETFs with $1.3bn and momentum ETFs with $1.0bn.

Comparison of assets in market cap, smart beta, other and active equity products

Source: ETFGI.

The majority of the total net inflows can be attributed to the top 20 smart beta ETFs by net new assets, which collectively gathered $7.2bn in January 2018.

The iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM US) led the way with net inflows of $1.3bn. MTUM tracks the MSCI USA Momentum Index, consisting of a subset of stocks from the MSCI USA Index which have exhibited the greatest price momentum over the past twelve months. Constituents are weighted by a combination of their market cap and their momentum scores in order to enhance exposure to the momentum factor.

The fund has AUM of $7.7bn and an expense ratio of 0.15%.

Top 20 smart beta ETFs by net new assets

Source: ETFGI.