One of the defining characteristics of the U.S. stock market appreciation in 2024 has been the outsized influence of a few mega-cap stocks on index returns. This trend was reflected in the ETF launches in the US in October 2024.
Some of the new ETFs enable investors to double down on this mega-cap technology trend. For example, BlackRock launched the iShares Nasdaq Top 30 Stocks ETF(QTOP), which provides indexed exposure to the top 30 stocks by market capitalization in the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index. ETFs that provide leveraged or inverse exposure to single stocks also grew with 8 new launches, including those that provide leveraged exposure to Taiwan Semiconductors, Netflix and Broadcom.
This has grown the single stock ETF universe to 60 products and $14.7 billion in assets as of the end of October 2024. Other ETFs that allow investors to double down on mega-cap and tech names include the iShares Top 20 U.S. Stocks ETF (TOPT) and Trader 2X Long Triple Q Quarterly ETF (QQQP).
Conversely, there were also ETFs listed in October 2024 that allowed ETFs to hedge against the risk of a very top-heavy market. There were 11 new listings of buffer ETFs that enable investors to trade off some market upside in exchange for downside protection.
In addition, Defiance launched the Defiance Large Cap ex-Mag 7 ETF (XMAG), and BlackRock launched the iShares Nasdaq-100 ex Top 30 ETF (QNXT). There were also launches of small and mid-cap ETFs, which will benefit if market breadth continues to improve. The new listings include the SEI Select Small Cap ETF (SEIS) and Rockefeller U.S. Small-Mid Cap ETF (RSMC).
The complete list of October ETF launches in the U.S. is provided below: