The Fed Is No Longer Dictating ETF Flows as Stock Market Fear Takes Over
Tools to bet on rising rates are losing favor.
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It's the end of an era.
Since 2008, the vast majority the flows in and out of certain exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been driven by what the Federal Reserve was doing or saying. One word spoken by Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke or his successor, Janet Yellen, would send billions in and out of the same ETFs in the same patterns. But this year is different as the Fed—and the fear of rising interest rates—have taken a back seat to a more natural cause: the fear of a collapse in the stock market.