A commodity and equity ETF shop crushed it last month, even as the industry had a really rough time overall.

John Parish Love USCF/font> President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on March and Q1 2020 ETF and open-end mutual fund flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. More specifically, this article focused on the 144 firms (down from 155 in February) with $1 billion and $10 billion each in fund AUM. 45 of those firms gained net inflows in Q1, and only 32 gained net inflows in March.

USCF took the lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $2.911 billion in net Q1 inflows, more than any other small fund firm. Other big Q1 inflows winners included: Polen Capital, $779 million; Innovator, $751 million; KraneShares, $672 million; and Jensen, $593 million.

USCF also led last quarter's pack proportionately, with estimated net Q1 inflows equivalent to 96.2 percent of its AUM at the end of March. Other big Q1 inflows winners included: Innovator, 28.1 percent; Trust for Credit Unions, 24.6 percent; Grayscale, 23.2 percent; and GQG, 21.4 percent.

In March alone, USCF led the pack with an estimated $2.099 billion in net inflows, up from $195 million in February. Other big March inflows winners included: Jensen, $647 million (up from $5 million in net outflows); Innovator, $468 million (up from $98 million; Polen Capital, $410 million (up from $173 million); and Morningstar, $301 million (up from $8 million in net outflows).

USCF also led last month proportionately, thanks to estimated net inflows equivalent to 69.4 percent of its AUM, up from 9.2 percent in February. Other big March inflows winners included: Innovator, 17.5 percent (up from 4.1 percent); Infinity Q, 14.1 percent (up from 3.7 percent); Trust for Credit Unions, 12.9 percent (up from 1.2 percent); and Morningstar, 9.5 percent (up from 0.2 percent in net outflows).

On the flip side, Q1 was a rough one for FMI, which suffered an estimated $1.619 billion in net outflows, more than any other small fund firm. Other big Q1 outflows sufferers included: Milleis, $1.508 billion; AIG, $1.417 billion; Angel Oak, $1.294 billion; and Robeco's Boston Partners, $778 million.

Proportionately, Tocqueville led the small fund outflows pack in Q1, with estimated net outflows equivalent to 94.6 percent of its AUM. Other big Q1 outflows sufferers included: Milleis, 53.7 percent; AlphaCentric, 35.5 percent; Semper, 31.4 percent; and Elements, 30.5 percent.

In March alone, Angel Oak led the small fund firm outflows pack, thanks to an estimated $1.468 billion in net outflows, down from $97 million in net February inflows. Other big March outflows sufferers included: AlphaCentric, $1.036 billion (down from $185 million in net inflows); FMI, $1.019 billion (up from $319 million); Milleis, $1.009 billion (up from $699 million); and Credit Suisse, $791 million (up from $394 million).

Proportionately among small fund firms, AlphaCentric had the roughest March, thanks to estimated net outflows equivalent to 56.5 percent of its AUM, down from four percent in net February inflows. Other big March outflows sufferers included: Semper, 42 percent (down from four percent in net inflows); Milleis, 35. 9 percent (down from 19.2 percent); Elements, 26.2 percent (up from 0.4 percent); and Angel Oak, 24.4 percent (down from 1.1 percent in net inflows.

As a group, the 144 small fund firms suffered an estimated $15.703 billion in net Q1 outflows, equivalent to 3.2 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 7.02 percent of net industry outflows.

In March alone, those 144 small fund firms (down from 155 in February) suffered an estimated $16.728 billion in net outflows, equivalent to about 3.42 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 5.14 percent of net industry outflows. That's up from $866 million in net February outflows.

Across the entire industry, the 770 fund firms (one more than in February) tracked by the M* team suffered a combined $223.83 billion in net Q1 outflows, equivalent to 1.31 percent of their combined AUM. 291 firms gained net Q1 inflows.

In March alone, the industry suffered an estimated $326.378 billion in net outflows, equivalent to 1.91 percent of its AUM and down from $25.459 billion in net February inflows. Active funds suffered an estimated $309.808 billion in net March outflows (down from $11.675 billion in February inflows), and even passive funds suffered an estimated $16.57 billion in net March outflows (down from $13.784 billion in February inflows). 

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