A private fund freshly converted into a mutual fund led the pack in September among the smallest fund firms.

This article draws on Morningstar Direct data on September 2018 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows (excluding money market funds and funds of funds), specifically for firms with under $1 billion each in mutual fund AUM.

Argent Capital Management's mutual fund brought in an estimated $138 million in net inflows in September. Other big September winners included: AAAMCO's AMF Funds, $80 million (up from flat flows); Strategy Shares, $64 million (up from $14 million); Mondrian, $54 million (up from $1 million); and Mirae, $48 million (down from $54 million).

On a relative basis, setting aside apparent newcomers, Exchange Traded Concepts led the September pack among the smallest firms, thanks to estimated net inflows equivalent to 62.27 percent of its AUM, down from 94.12 percent in August. Other big September winners included: Defiance, 49.23 percent (down from 100 percent); Affinity, 37.47 percent (up from 1.05 percent); Waycross, 32.94 percent (up from 9.2 percent); and Impact Shares, 32.18 percent (down from 48.28 percent).

There were also two apparent newcomers (i.e. firms whose AUM was roughly equal to their monthly net inflows) in September: Argent and iM Global Partner.

On the flip side, September was a rough month for Princeton, which suffered an estimated $101 million in net outflows and up from $16 million in August. Other big September sufferers included: Oak Ridge, $49 million (up from $28 million); Toreador, $29 million (down from $33 million); Hussman, $26 million (up from $14 million); and Real Estate Management Services Group, $24 million (up from $2 million).

Proportionately, Princeton also led the smallest fund firms in suffering, with estimated September outflows equivalent to 102.86 percent of its AUM (i.e. its outflows were bigger than the AUM left afterwards), up from 7.83 percent in August. Other big September sufferers included: Real Estate Management Services Group, 33.34 percent (up from 1.7 percent)); Salt, 25 percent (down from negligible flows); Weatherstorm, 14.44 percent (up from 0.01 percent); and HedgeRow, 14.19 percent (down from 6.36 percent in net inflows).

As a group, the smallest fund firms brought in a combined $441 million in net inflows in September, equivalent to 0.47 percent of their combined AUM. That's down from $509 million in August.

Across the whole industry, long-term open-end mutual funds and ETFs brought in a combined $28.269 billion in estimated net inflows in September, equivalent to 0.15 percent of their combined AUM. That's up from $22.219 billion in August. 

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