A fund that launched in November dominated inflows last month among the smallest fund firms.

Matthew "Matt" Tuttle Tuttle Capital Management LLC CEO, Chief Investment Officer

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2022 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and SMAs, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 516 firms (down month-over-month from 517 in December 2021 but up year-over-year from 479 in January 2021) with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Micro fund firms had $93 billion in total long-term fund AUM as of January 31, 2022, accounting for 0.35 percent of overall industry long-term fund AUM. That compares with $94 billion and 0.33 percent on December 31, 2021, and with $90 billion and 0.38 percent on January 31, 2021.

300 of those micro fund firms brought in net inflows last month, up from 246 in December 2021 and up from 261 in January 2021.

Tuttle Capital Management's SARK ETF led the pack last month, thanks to an estimated $182 million in net January 2022 inflows. Other big January 2022 inflows winners included: North Square, $137 million (up M/M and Y/Y from negligible net inflows in December and January 2021); Highland, $104 million (up M/M from $81 million, up Y/Y from $4 million in net outflows); ClearShares, $101 million (up M/M from $5 million in net outflows, up Y/Y from flat flows); and Vivaldi, $82 million (up M/M from $64 million, up Y/Y from $8 million).

January 2022 featured a number of apparent mutual fund industry newcomers, including: Amberwave Partners, Rareview Capital, Strategic, Subversive Capital, and the UPAR Ultra Rivers Parity ETF.

On the flip side, Sunbridge Capital Partners led the micro outflows pack again last month, thanks to an estimaed $60 million in net January 2022 outflows, down M/M from $160 million in December 2021. Other big January 2022 outflows sufferers included: Altegris, $40 million (down M/M from $46 million, down Y/Y from $5 million in January 2021 inflwos); Berkshire $36 million (up M/M from $5 million, down Y/Y from $22 million in net inflows); Bernzott Capital Advisors, $35 million (up M/M and Y/Y from $3 million); and Oakhurst, $32 million (up M/M from $4 million, down Y/Y from $10 million in net inflows).

As a group, micro fund firms brought in an estimated $1.624 billion in net January 2022 inflows, equivalent to 1.74 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 18.17 percent of overall industry long-term inflows. That compares with $760 million, 0.81 percent of AUM, and 0.87 percent of industry flows in December 2021, and with $900 million, 0.38 percent of AUM, and 0.94 percent of industry flows in January 2021.

Across the entire industry, the 797 firms tracked by the M* team (down M/M from 799 but up Y/Y from 753) brought in an estimated $8.936 billion in net January 2022 inflows, equivalent to 0.03 percent of overall long-term fund AUM of $26.709 trillion on January 31, 2022. That's down M/M from $87.633 billions in December 2021 inflows, equivalent to 0.31 percent of $28.084 trillion in AUM and down Y/Y from $95.454 billion in January 2021 inflows, equivalent to 0.4 percent of $23.732 trillion in AUM.

Passive funds brought in $22.087 billion in net long-term fund inflows in January 2022, down M/M from $95.932 billion and down Y/Y from $54.591 billion. Active funds suffered $13.138 billion in net long-term fund outflows in January 2022, up M/M from $8.299 billion but down Y/Y from $40.836 billion in net inflows.

Editor's Note: A prior version of this story left out the size range of the fund firms that it covers. To confirm, this article focuses on firms with under $1 billion each in long-term mutual fund and ETF AUM. 

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