Australian exchange-traded fund investors should be optimistic as 2020 tapers off and a new year approaches after the listed vehicles passed their biggest trial by fire during the COVID market turmoil.

ETFs all over the world oversaw some of their highest historical outflows this year, but their performance overall held up despite this, says Blair Hannon, BlackRock relationship manager and iShares investment specialist.

In 2021, the trends he expects to see:

• record inflows for US equity and fixed income ETFs
• the rising popularity of hedged ETFs amid ongoing currency volatility
• increasing uptake of ETFs by younger investors
• greater institutional use of the listed vehicles locally, following the long-running trend in the US and Europe. 

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