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Fixed-income exchange-traded funds have made big strides in asset gathering over the past five years, rising from $53.7 billion in 2008 to $229.1 billion by March of 2013, according to Lipper.
At the top of the heap sit high-yield funds with $32.5 billion in assets under management, followed by intermediate investment grade debt funds ($31.6 billion), inflation-protected bond funds ($28.3 billion), corporate debt funds BBB-rated ($26.8 billion) and rounding out the top five, flexible income funds ($15.1 billion).
Earlier this month, Charles Schwab & Co. ETF experts addressed trends in fixed-income ETFs as well as a broad discussion on the way the asset waves are flowing overall on Schwab's platform in their Every Third Friday webinar.
The question that hangs over many investors is the Federal Reserve's intentions regarding quantitative easing. According to recently released minutes from the Fed, Fed members think the central bank should continue buying $85 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities a month, at least through midyear to lower long-term interest rates.
Schwab's ETF business has benefitted from investors' jitters, especially when it comes to bank loans and floating rate products. "We've seen several trends in client segments that stand out to us," says Jackie Chin, managing director of the ETF platform at Charles Schwab.
"With retail traders, fixed-income ETF flows were negative overall. We saw...