ETF Stats for February 2011: Exactly 1,000 ETFs

There were exactly 1,000 ETFs listed for trading at the end of February.  Adding in the 135 listed ETNs yields a total quantity of 1,135 exchange-traded products (ETPs).  Fourteen new products were introduced in February, consisting of thirteen ETFs and one ETN.  There were no delistings for the month, and the quantity of actively-managed ETFs held constant at 33.

Trading activity fell slightly during February with total dollar volume coming in at $1.22 trillion.  Average daily trading actually increased over the January rate, as the 3.1% decline in monthly dollar volume was more than offset by the 5% fewer trading days.

The number of ETFs in the Billion Dollar Club, those averaging more than one billion dollars in daily trading activity, dropped from ten to eight.  Those eight funds, less than 1% of the total ETPs, accounted for 55.8% of all ETP dollars traded.

Products averaging more than $100 million per day numbered 69, an increase of five over January.  Those 69 funds, just a little over 6% of the total ETPs, accounted for 88.5% of all ETP dollars traded.

Back in August 2009, I wrote about the ETF 92-8 Rule, an ETF trading variation of the widely acknowledged 80-20 Rule.  The ETF 92-8 Rule states that 92% of ETF trading activity is generated by just 8% of the funds.  The Rule is alive and well, and perhaps it might be understating things a bit.  For February, a more precise ratio (two numbers that add up to 100) would be 93-7, but I'm not ready to change the name of the rule just yet.

Assets under management were $1.06 trillion at the end of February, a +3.5% increase for the month and +4.7% year-to-date.

Data sources:  AUM from National Stock Exchange, daily prices and volume of individual ETPs from Norgate Premium Data, fund counts and all other information compiled by Invest With An Edge.

New products launched in February (in chronological order):

1. Teucrium Natural Gas Fund (NAGS) (Teucrium Natural Gas Fund Now Trading)
2. Global X FTSE Andean 40 ETF (AND) (Get A Head Start On Chile-Colombia-Peru Exchange Merger With New Global X ETF)
3. ProShares UltraShort TIPS (TPS) (Shorting Inflation Protection with TPS)
4. Global X FTSE ASEAN 40 ETF (ASEA) (New ETF Targets 5 of 10 ASEAN Countries)
5. First Trust NASDAQ CEA Smartphone Index Fund (FONE) (ETF FONE Home)
6. RBS Gold Trendpilot ETN (TBAR) (TBAR Captures Long-Term Gold Bar Trends)
7. Teucrium WTI Crude Oil Fund (CRUD) (Another Way To Buy 12 Months of Oil Contango)
8. SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF (EBND) (Two New SPDR Emerging Market ETFs)
9. SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV)
10. FactorShares 2X: S&P500 Bull/TBond Bear (FSE) (FactorShares Introduces Spread Trading In ETF Wrapper)
11. FactorShares 2X: TBond Bull/S&P500 Bear (FSA)
12. FactorShares 2X: S&P500 Bull/USD Bear (FSU)
13. FactorShares 2X: Oil Bull/S&P500 Bear (FOL)
14. FactorShares 2X: Gold Bull/S&P500 Bear (FSG)

Product closures/delistings in February:

none

Product changes in February:

1. Market Vectors Indonesia (IDX) split 3:1 effective 2/1/11.
2. Eight PowerShares DB commodity ETFs changed their underlying indexes from “Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index – Optimum Yield” indexes to “DBIQ Optimum Yield” indexes effective 2/2/11.
3. Deutsche Bank suspended further creations of the PowerShares DB Agriculture Double Long ETN (DAG) effectively making DAG a closed-end fund as of 2/15/11.
4. Russell Investments acquired U.S. One and became the manager of the One Fund ETF (ONEF) after shareholder approval in mid-February.
5. Five Direxion ETFs (FAZ, BGZ, MWN, DPK, and SOXS) underwent 1-for-5 reverse splits effective 2/24/11.
6. Three ProShares ETFs (TQQQ, URTY, and EMDD) split 2:1 and one (UPRO) split 3:1 effective 2/25/11.
7. 13 ProShares ETFs (EPV, MZZ, REW, SDD, SDK, SIJ, SJH, SJL, SKF, SMK, TWM, UCO, and ZSL) underwent 1-for-4 reverse splits effective 2/25/11.
8. Seven ProShares ETFs (CMD, JPX, QID, SCO, SKK, SSG, and TLL) underwent 1-for-5 reverse splits effective 2/25/11.
9. Vanguard changed names and underlying indexes on four of its ETFs effective 2/25/11.  The new names are Vanguard MSCI EAFE ETF (VEA), Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO), Vanguard MSCI Pacific ETF (VPL), and Vanguard MSCI Europe ETF (VGK).

Announced Product Changes for Coming Months:

1. Effective 3/3/11, Global X will rename two funds.  The new names are Global X FTSE Colombia 20 ETF (GXG) and Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF (GXF).
2. The Egyptian Stock Exchange is now expected to reopen March 7.  However, the reopening has been postponed multiple times.  After it reopens, Van Eck plans to allow new share creation for Market Vectors Egypt (EGPT) to resume.  The hefty premium for EGPT should collapse a day or two later.
3. Effective 3/9/11, the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) will reverse split 1-for-2.
4. PowerShares and the SPDR Trust settled their lawsuit over ticker symbols.  PowerShares will change the symbols for their small cap sector suite by the end of March:  XLYS changes to PSCD, XLPS to PSCC, XLES to PSCE, XLFS to PSCF, XLVS to PSCH, XLIS to PSCI, XLKS to PSCT, XLBS to PSCM, and XLUS to PSCU.

Previous monthly ETF statistics reports are available here.

Disclosure covering writer, editor, publisher, and affiliates: No positions in any of the securities mentioned. No positions in any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned.  No income, revenue, or other compensation (either directly or indirectly) received from, or on behalf of, any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned.