Using data from Morningstar we’ve compiled a list of the twenty mutual funds receiving the largest net cash inflows in 2017:

  1. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index
  2. Vanguard 500 Index
  3. Vanguard Total International Stock Index
  4. Vanguard Developed Markets Index
  5. Vanguard Total Bond Market Index
  6. Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index
  7. Oakmark International
  8. Prudential Total Return Bond
  9. American Funds Balanced
  10. Fidelity U.S. Bond Index
  11. Strategic Advisors Core Income
  12. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Bond
  13. Dodge & Cox Income
  14. Vanguard European Stock Index
  15. Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Bond
  16. Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index
  17. Vanguard Value Index
  18. Fidelity 500 Index
  19. Fidelity Total Bond
  20. Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index

Notice a trend?  Of the $256 billion net cash 80% went to index funds.  For context if that was the revenue of one company it would land at #2 on the Fortune 500 behind only Walmart.

Scary stuff!  It reeks of performance chasing as the FAANGs and their outsized prices skew the cap-weighted indexes artificially higher than underlying fundamentals justify.

An extra gold star for anyone who correctly guesses which funds will suffer the largest net outflows when the pendulum swings back the other way.