A seven-year-old ETF shop in Gotham took the lead last month among midsize fund firms, even as the group's overall inflows plummeted, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on October 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and separate accounts, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 214 firms (up by three month-over-month from September 2025 and up by four year-over-year from October 2024) with between 10 and 99 long-term mutual funds or ETFs each.

Roundhill pulled ahead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.465 billion in net October 2025 inflows, up by $187 million M/M from September 2025 and up by $1.135 billion Y/Y from October 2024. Other big October 2025 inflows winners included:

Baird (including Strategas), $1.342 billion (up by $221 million M/M, down by $1.245 billion Y/Y);

Neos, $1.109 billion (down by $516 million M/M, up by $868 million Y/Y);

Tuttle, $888 million (up by $682 million M/M, up by $541 million Y/Y); and

Defiance, $813 million (up by $78 million M/M, up by $786 million Y/Y).

Yet Baird led midsize firms over the last year, thanks to an estimated $14.373 billion in net inflows for the trailing twelve months ending October 31, 2025. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Edward Jones' Bridge Builder, $14.138 billion; and Neos, $9.59 billion.

On the flip side, Pacer led the outflows pack for a fourth consecutive month, thanks to an estimated $1.039 billion in net October 2025 outflows, up by $212 million M/M from September 2025 and a $1.046-billion net flows drop Y/Y from October 2024. Other big October 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Brown Advisory, $646 million (up by $325 million M/M, a $679-million net flows drop Y/Y);

GQG, $632 million (up by $402 million M/M, a $1.4-billion net flows drop Y/Y);

Grayscale, $574 million (up by $565 million M/M, up by $382 million Y/Y); and

Graniteshares, $569 million (up by $541 million M/M, a $724-million net flows drop Y/Y).

Pacer also led the outflows pack over the last year, thanks to an estimated $8.277 billion in net TTM outflows as of October 31, 2025. Other big outflows sufferers included: Grayscale, $3.834 billion; and Valic, $3.736 billion.

As a group, mid-size fund firms brought in $864 million in October 2025 inflows (down by $7.6 billion M/M, down by $5.489 billion Y/Y). That accounts for 0.9 percent of overall industry inflows last month.

As of October 31, 2025, mid-size fund firms held $1.986 trillion in AUM, accounting for 5.6 percent of overall industry AUM (and up by $4 billion M/M and by $272 billion Y/Y). Those firms held 6,096 mutual funds and ETFs, accounting for 13.9 percent of overall industry funds (and up by 105 funds M/M and by 92 Y/Y).

For the year ended October 31, 2025, mid-size firms brought in $38.517 billion in net inflows. That accounts for 5.1 percent of overall industry inflows.

Across the whole industry, the 779 fund firms tracked by the M* team (up by 9 M/M, down by 18 Y/Y) brought in $91.967 billion in net October 2025 inflows. That's up by $5.14 billion M/M and up by $9.905 billion Y/Y.

The industry ended last month with $35.271 trillion in AUM, up by $579 billion M/M and up by $5.187 bilion Y/Y. The industry had 43,800 ETFs and mutual funds at the end of October 2025, up down by 2,828 M/M but up by 657 Y/Y.

As of October 31, 2025, the industry overall brought in $752.525 billion in net TTM inflows. 

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