Investors fled stock mutual funds last month and sought safe haven in bond funds, Reuters reports.

Specifically, investors redeemed net $17.6 billion from stock mutual funds, according to Strategic Insight, making it the sixth consecutive month of net withdrawals totaling some $97 billion over that period. Instead, investors dropped a net $20.8 billion into bond funds, the majority ($18.9 billion) into taxable bond funds, making it the largest monthly flow into the asset class since May.

"After the ups and downs of recent months, investors seem to be suffering from volatility fatigue," said Avi Nachmany, research director with New York-based Strategic Insight.

According to the consulting shop, investors also yanked a net $2 billion from foreign stock funds and $21 billion from money market funds, and deposited $19 billion into exchange-traded funds.

Strategic Insight also reported that alternative funds pulled in assets during October. Commodities mutual funds, managed futures mutual funds, and long/short mutual funds all saw positive net flows during the month (and global tactical allocation funds also saw modest net inflows).

Bloomberg also covered Strategic Insight's report. 

Edited by: Hung Tran


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