About 47 percent of the smallest fund firms brought in net inflows in the first seven months of the year.

Craig Thomas Callahan ICON Advisers, Inc. CEO, Founder

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on July 2020 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. More specifically, this article focuses on the 501 firms (down from 502 in June) with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund and ETF AUM. 222 of those firms gained net inflows in July (up from 216 in June), and 233 gained net year-to-date inflows by the end of July.

ICON Funds took the micro firm lead last month, thanks to an estimated $202 million in net July inflows, up from $14 million in net June outflows. Other big July inflows winners included: Toroso Ivnestments, $103 million (up from $37 million); Exchange Traded Concepts (ETC), $99 million (up from $59 million); ICM Series Trust, $96 million (up from $2 million); and Inspire, $79 million (up from $14 million in net outflows).

First Republic and Kayne Anderson were both apparent newcomers to the business in July.

So far in 2020, ETC leads the pack, thanks to an estimated $604 million in net YTD inflows as of July 31. Other big YTD inflows winners included: Toroso, $583 million; Spyglass Capital Management, $485 million; Axonic, $480 million; and Liberty Street, $429 million.

On the flip side, July was a rough month for Vivaldi, which suffered an estimated $82 million in net outflows, more than any other micro fund firm and down from $9 million in June. Other big July outflows sufferers included: LS, $54 million (up from $44 million); Liberty Street, $50 million (down from $47 million in net inflows); Poplar Forest Capital, $38 million (up from $14 million); and Chartwell Investment Partners, $35 million (up from $15 million).

So far this year, Schroder leads the micro firm outflows pack, thanks to estimated $704 million in net outflows by the end of July. Other big YTD outflows sufferers include: Chiron, $678 million; CRM, $471 million; Highland, $324 million; and 361, $256 million.

As a group, the 501 fund firms with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund and ETF AUM brought in an estimated $828 million in net July inflows, equivalent to 0.87 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 2 percent of net industry inflows. That's up from $179 million in net outflows, equivalent to 0.19 percent of AUM, back in June.

Year-to-date, as of the end of July, the micro fund firms brought in an estimated $276 million in net inflows, equivalent to 0.29 percent of their combined AUM.

Across the entire industry, the 757 fund firms (down from 758 in June) tracked by the M* team brought in an estimated $41.339 billion in net July inflows, equivalent to 0.2 percent of their combined AUM (down from $69.822 billion and 0.35 percent in June). Active funds brought in an estimated $12.052 billion in net July inflows (down from $28.617 billion in June), while passive funds brought in an estimated $29.831 billion (down from $41.295 billion). YTD, the industry has suffered an estimated $63.657 billion in net outflows, equivalent to 0.31 percent of industry AUM. 

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