8 Hottest-Selling ETFs of 2024

Daniel Sotiroff: ETFs have been on an absolute tear this year. As a group, they took in more than $680 billion through the end of September. The most popular ones this year, as measured by inflows, are also some of the largest on the market. And some all-stars landed at the top. So, great job! A lot of you are investing in ETFs that we at Morningstar have loved for a long time.

8 Hottest-Selling ETFs of 2024

• Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO
• iShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV
• Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF VTI
• Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ
• iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF AGG
• SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF SPLG
• Invesco Nasdaq-100 ETF QQQM
• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF BND

What’s interesting is that there are a lot of commonalities among this year’s most sought-after. Three of this year’s top 10 all do the same thing. They track the S&P 500 for next to nothing, and they all have a Gold Morningstar Medalist Rating. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, ticker VOO, came in first by a pretty wide margin. Investors put more than $71 billion into this ETF over the first nine months of 2024. So far, that figure is crushing the old annual inflow record of $50 billion, and there are still three months to go in the year.

The number-two slot belonged to iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, ticker IVV. It brought in almost $44 billion over the first three quarters. And further down the list at number seven was SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, ticker SPLG, which had gathered a little more than $14 billion.

One of the most common questions about this trio is: Which one do I buy? The truth is that it doesn’t really matter. They all track the S&P 500, charge the same minuscule fee, and have great teams behind them—and they have the same rating. So, pick one. They’re all great.

Another mainstream index underpins the next most popular ETFs. Invesco QQQ Trust, ticker QQQ, brought in $18.5 billion, while its little brother Invesco Nasdaq-100 ETF, ticker QQQM, brought in another $11 billion. They’re similar in that they both track the Nasdaq-100 Index, but there are some differences in how they’re structured.

Those particular differences don’t really matter for today. What’s more important is that they both try to replicate the Nasdaq-100 index. And they’re both rated Neutral because that index is somewhat arbitrary; there’s no reason to limit an ETF to 100 stocks that trade on a specific exchange. They have performed exceptionally well recently because of their heavy stakes in major technology stocks. The problem is that it doesn’t really represent the US market. And we all know past performance isn’t guaranteed to continue. If you’re looking for better options, start with the S&P 500 ETFs mentioned before. The fees are much lower, and their portfolios are more diversified.

The next most popular ETFs in 2024 target the bond market. IShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF, ticker AGG, took in more than $16 billion and wound up at number six on our list. Close behind was Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF, ticker BND, at number eight with more than $11 billion. Both track the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index, which simply tries to represent the US investment-grade bond market.

Think of these as the bond market equivalents of the S&P 500 ETFs I was talking about earlier. AGG and BND have Gold Medalist Ratings and identical ultralow fees. They’re less risky than stocks, so they make a great complement to a stock ETF to help fine-tune your portfolio’s risk.

A final honorable mention for today is Gold-rated Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, ticker VTI. It captured more than $22 billion over the first nine months of the year and landed at the number-three spot. As its name implies it tracks the entire US stock market, and it has a much broader portfolio than the S&P 500 ETFs I mentioned a few minutes ago.

I don‘t think many of these ETFs are much of a surprise. The inflows are eye-popping, but low-cost diversified index ETFs are continuing to be among investors’ favorites in 2024.

Watch 3 ETFs Quietly Outperforming the Market for more from Daniel Sotiroff.