# ETF Data Watch Flier - September 2026 (First Trust)

> First Trust’s paper “ETF Data Watch Flier - September 2026”, summarized by ETFIQ with its own data beside it. Summary by ETFIQ.

Data as of Oct 21, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.

Published Sep 8, 2026 by First Trust. Summary by ETFIQ as of Oct 21, 2026.

## ETF Data Watch Flier - September 2026

First Trust's September 2026 flows monitor counts $179.6 billion of net new money into US-listed ETFs during August, lifting their assets to $16.1 trillion.

First Trust · Issuer · Read the full paper at First Trust ↗

### What it says

Figures as stated by First Trust, Sep 8, 2026

- First Trust says equity ETFs took in $102.2 billion in August, with active equity funds supplying $32.2 billion and passive equity funds $70.0 billion. (First Trust, p. 1)

- First Trust puts August fixed income ETF inflows at $57.5 billion, and active bond ETFs made up 24.1% of fixed income ETF assets. (First Trust, p. 1)

- First Trust reports sector ETFs lost $6.4 billion on net in August, with information technology funds shedding $6.2 billion. (First Trust, p. 2)

- First Trust shows value ETFs gathering $71.9 billion over the trailing 12 months, the largest factor inflow, while quality ETFs lost $9.6 billion. (First Trust, p. 2)

- First Trust says commodities ETFs drew $10.3 billion in August, with precious metals funds taking $8.9 billion of it. (First Trust, p. 1)

### The ETFIQ take

ETFIQ data to Oct 20, 2026 · the 746 of 4,807 ETFs ETFIQ covers with a daily figure, Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026

First Trust reports net inflows of $179.6 billion into US-listed ETFs in August 2026. From Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, the ETFs ETFIQ can count had a net flow of +$127.9bn, with +$90.1bn for stock ETFs and +$35.7bn for bond ETFs.

+$127.9bn net flow, Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, summed over the 746 of 4,807 ETFs ETFIQ covers with a daily figure , Oct 20, 2026. ETFIQ

+$461.8bn net flow, Jan 2, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, summed over the 713 of 4,807 ETFs ETFIQ covers with a daily figure , Oct 20, 2026. ETFIQ

+$90.1bn net flow into stock ETFs, Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, over the 322 of 1,739 with a daily figure , Oct 20, 2026. ETFIQ

+$35.7bn net flow into bond ETFs, Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, over the 204 of 833 with a daily figure , Oct 20, 2026. ETFIQ

Paper: US-listed ETFs, August 2026 and trailing 12 months. ETFIQ: the 746 of 4,807 ETFs ETFIQ covers with a daily figure, Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026. Net flow is the change in shares outstanding times the day’s NAV, summed over the days in the window, for the funds with a daily figure. The two sets and windows differ; the figures are stated, not reconciled. Method Data

### Related ETFs

The largest ETFs ETFIQ covers, by net assets

- VOO Vanguard S&P 500 ETF: +16.5%

- IVV iShares Core S&P 500 ETF: +16.5%

- SPY SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust: +16.4%

- VTI Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF: +15.9%

- QQQ Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1: +19.2%

- VUG Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF: +11.2%

Figure: total return, 1 year, to Oct 21, 2026, from each fund’s page. All 4,807 ETFs in the screener →

### Related papers

Investment Company Institute · Industry body · Oct 20, 2026 · ETFIQ take

#### Release: Estimated ETF Net Issuance

In an October 2026 release, the Investment Company Institute estimated net ETF issuance of $53.26 billion for the week to October 14, 2026.

Flows Bonds Read the paper ↗

J.P. Morgan Asset Management · Issuer · Oct 15, 2026 · ETFIQ take

#### Guide to ETFs

J.P. Morgan Asset Management's October 2026 Guide to ETFs counts 5,677 U.S. ETFs holding $16.3 Tn, with data through September 30, 2026.

Flows Bonds Read the paper ↗

Investment Company Institute · Industry body · Sep 30, 2026 · ETFIQ take

#### Release: Active and Index Investing, August 2026

The Investment Company Institute's September 2026 release shows index mutual funds and ETFs at $22.40 trillion in August, ahead of $18.87 trillion in active funds.

Flows Read the paper ↗

All 16 papers on flows →

### Questions people ask

What does the First Trust paper conclude? First Trust's September 2026 flows monitor counts $179.6 billion of net new money into US-listed ETFs during August, lifting their assets to $16.1 trillion. The paper’s own words are at the link above. What does ETFIQ’s data show on the same question? From Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 20, 2026, the ETFs ETFIQ can count had a net flow of +$127.9bn, with +$90.1bn for stock ETFs and +$35.7bn for bond ETFs. ETFIQ states both figures and does not reconcile them. What is an ETF’s net flow? The change in its shares outstanding times its net asset value, summed over the days of a window: money in less money out. Where can I read “ETF Data Watch Flier - September 2026”? On First Trust’s own site. ETFIQ summarizes the paper and does not host it.

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Source: ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.
Cite: ETFIQ, ETF Data Watch Flier - September 2026 (First Trust), summary and ETFIQ take, as of Oct 21, 2026. https://etfiq.com/research/library/first-trust-etf-data-watch-flier-september-2026/
Licence: https://etfiq.com/license/ Figures ETFIQ computes are free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.
HTML: https://etfiq.com/research/library/first-trust-etf-data-watch-flier-september-2026/