An Analysis of the Growth in the Fixed Income ETF Market

Since the financial crisis, demand for fixed income ETFs has increased dramatically. An analysis of this market shows that most of the growth has occurred in ETFs covering U.S. Corporate Bonds, Global Bonds and Emerging Market Bonds. This rapid growth suggests that institutional investors have begun to use fixed income ETFs to achieve both strategic and tactical asset allocation goals. Changes in fixed income ETF volume are positively related to changes in the VIX, which suggests that investors are using fixed income ETFs to tactically shift into fixed income when the stock market becomes more volatile.