Global assets in exchange-traded funds will hit the $2 trillion mark some time in 2011 in spite of the current global financial crisis.
In the latest ETF Industry Highlights, Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research at Barclays Global Investors, predicted that global ETF assets would reach the $1 trillion mark in 2009, up from $642.95 billion as of Oct. 31. That is a decrease of about 16% from the end of Sept., when assets stood at $764.08 billion.
Fuhr said that the growth will be driven in part by investor interest in fixed-income and commodity offerings and the use of ETFs as a risk hedge within portfolios. She said that the use of ETFs for shorting has been the highest ever in 2008--the average number of shares short during 2008 has been 1.74 billion compared to 1.24 billion in 2007 and 837 million in 2006.
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