October Marks the Best Ever Month for ETF Flows

October ETF Flows Highlights

• US exchange-traded funds attracted $166 billion in net new assets, the most of any month on record.
• Vanguard had its best ever month for ETF inflows, pulling in over $50 billion in new money.
• More money has flowed out of the trading-leveraged equity Morningstar Category than any other category so far this year, despite its record number of ETF launches.

US ETFs collected $166 billion of fresh inflows in October, the most of any month on record. US stock ETFs pulled in over one-third of that, the most of any category group, followed by taxable-bond ETFs, then international-stock ETFs. Large-blend ETFs had their best month so far in 2025 and captured the lion’s share of flows into US stock ETFs, pulling in $43 billion in October.

VOO: Haunting the Competition

Nearly half the flows into large-blend ETFs went to Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO. VOO is far and away the most popular ETF of 2025, with $103 billion in flows year to date. IShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV is the next most popular with about $36 billion of inflows year to date. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF VTI sits in third and helped propel Vanguard to the number-one spot for year-to-date flows over the first 10 months of 2025.

Vanguard has raked in $309 billion so far this year, which passed its 2024 inflow mark of $306 billion. October marked its best month ever on record for ETF flows, and it’s poised to beat 2021’s record of $328 billion of flows if momentum doesn’t slow. IShares isn’t too far behind, with $259 billion of flows year to date. Together, iShares and Vanguard accounted for more than half all ETF inflows so far this year.

Just Concentrate: Flows Haven’t Slowed Into Tech Stocks

The US stock market may be more concentrated than it’s been in several decades, but that hasn’t stopped investors from piling into the largest names. Investors allocated more money to technology-sector ETFs in October than in any prior month, which garnered $8 billion in new assets. Like the category name suggests, these ETFs invest mainly in technology stocks, but overall, their top holdings don’t look much different from the broader market.

ETFs in the technology category commonly stow Nvidia NVDA, Microsoft MSFT, and Apple AAPL in their top three holdings as of October 2025. When compiling all market values of ETFs’ holdings in the category, their overall weights are eerily similar to the overall weights of ETFs in the large-growth Morningstar Category. Not to mention the top three names by market capitalization in the US stock market are NVDA, MSFT, and AAPL. Investors are exposed to these three mega-cap stocks across different categories, so a careful analysis of a fund’s holdings can prevent unwanted overlap.

State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF SPYM had a big month, which included a name and ticker change as well as breaking its record for monthly flows. SPYM was previously SPLG, and it tracks the S&P 500, just like its sibling ETF SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY. However, SPYM charges a lower fee than SPY, and it has some advantages. It can reinvest dividends, and it is able to earn additional revenue by lending securities. SPY cannot do either because of its trust structure. That helps SPYM earn back some of its annual fee, which is the lowest among S&P 500 trackers at 0.02%.

Gold: Digital or Analog?

The declining price of bitcoin didn’t stop investors from piling more money into the cryptocurrency in October. IShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF, saw solid inflows of $4 billion in October. The cryptocurrency is sometimes called “digital gold,” but it didn’t perform as well as the actual metal, which ended the month higher than it started after a jump and subsequent drop in value. State Street’s SPDR Gold Shares GLD made the top 10 list for ETFs with the most inflows in October, and iShares Gold Trust IAU has pulled in more fresh money in 2025 than any previous year, so far.

Trading Down

The trading-leveraged equity Morningstar Category has seen the most outflows of any category, despite the number of trading-tool ETFs more than doubling over the first three quarters of 2025. The category has seen over $17 billion fly from its coffers year to date. Fund companies are pushing these risky investments on investors, especially the single-stock variants. It’s comforting to know most investors aren’t taking the bait.

The table below shows October returns for a sample of Morningstar analyst-rated ETFs that represent major sections of the stock and bond markets. Large-cap US stocks represented by IVV outperformed their smaller mid- and small-cap peers: iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF IJH and iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF IJR.

Emerging-market stocks, represented by iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF IEMG, had a solid month. It outperformed iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF IEFA—representing overseas developed markets—over the month and year to date.

Here’s a link to September’s flow trends.