Bruce Bond and his team have taken the flows lead among the smallest fund firms.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2019 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows (excluding money-market funds and funds of funds). Specifically, this article focuses on the 525 firms (three fewer than in December) with less than $1 billion each in mutual fund and ETF AUM. 262 of those firms gained net inflows in January up from 171 in December.

Innovator's ETFs brought in an estimated $168 million in net January inflows, more than any other sub-$1-billion-AUM fund firm and up from $52 million in December. Other big January inflows winners included: AssetMark's GuidePath, $138 million (up from $1 million); ETF Managers Trust, $128 million (up from $9 million); GraniteShares, $124 million (up from $2 million); and Infinity Q, $77 million (up from $76 million).

Proportionately, setting aside apparent newcomers, Secure Investment Management (in its second month on M*'s charts) led the pack with estimated net January inflows equivalent to 98.96 percent of its AUM. Other big January inflows winners included: KBI, 80.26 percent (up from 0.02 percent in net outflows in December); Gadsden, 55.71 percent (up from 42.73 percent); GuidePath, 48.3 percent (up from 0.6 percent); and CMG, 30.57 percent (up from 0.45 percent).

January's apparent newcomer fund firms included: Acclivity (from AFAM's Innealta), Aware, Nicholas Investment Partners, and Syntax.

On the flip side, January was a rough month for InsightShares, which suffered an estimated $51 million in net outflows last month, more than any other sub-$1-billion-AUM fund firm and up from negligible flows in December. Other big January outflows sufferers included: Leuthold, $37 million (up from $31 million); Trust for Credit Unions, $33 million (up from $25 million); GaveKal, $32 million (down from $69 million); and BTS, $30 million (up from $20 million).

InsightShares also led the January outflows pack proportionately, suffering estimated net outflows equivalent to 1,387.08 percent of its month-end AUM (i.e. its January outflows were nearly 14 times the AUM it had left at the end of the month), up from 0.68 percent in December. Other big January outflows sufferers included: Steinberg (Steinberg's fund liquidated), 540.09 percent (up from 9.77 percent); Highmore, 63.41 percent (up from 17.74 percent); STAAR Investment Trust, 54.99 percent (up from 35.95 percent); and QUANTX, 50 percent (down from 101.84 percent).

As a group, the 525 fund firms with less than $1 billion each in fund AUM brought in $1.012 billion in estimated net inflows in January, equivalent to 1.09 percent of their combined AUM. That's up from $2.268 billion in net outflows in December.

Across the entire industry, long-term mutual funds and ETFs brought in a combined $38.941 billion in estimated net inflows in January, equivalent to 0.22 percent of their combined AUM and up from $82.641 billion in net outflows in December. Passive funds brought in $27.216 billion in net inflows, and active funds brought in $11.725 billion in net inflows. 

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