This Great Graphic was tweeted by Visual.ly. It was created by Kurtosys, based on data from EPFR and Deutsche Bank. It shows fund flows, including ETFs, over the past decade, as a percentage of total assets. The top half of the chart are equity funds and the bottom half focuses on fixed income funds. To be sure, investment flows into funds are not the only source of capital movement It does not capture direct equity or bond investment by institutional investors, for example. Nor does it capture inter-bank activity or direct investment. In addition, there is the whole issue of hedging that is not addressed either. Nevertheless, we find this to be a provocative display of the data and helpful in thinking through some investment ideas.
