The report promotes transparency and helps new and experienced investors research, compare and better understand the expanding universe of listed investment products available on ASX.

The ASX exchange-traded fund (ETF) market in particular has grown rapidly with the number of ETFs almost doubling in the past five years, rising from 215 in January 2021 to 451 in May 2026.

As product choice expands, access to clear and comparable information available in the ASX Investment Products Report has become increasingly important for investors and market participants.

The report is published monthly and is typically available by the seventh business day of the following month, free of charge on the ASX website.

The report is distributed to 5,000 subscribers, with its readership continuing to grow.
 

How the report is compiled

The ASX Investment Products Report is produced using three primary sources of information: external data providers, product issuers and proprietary ASX trading and settlement data.

By bringing these sources together, the report delivers consistent and comparable information across time. This makes it a reliable reference point for observing trends, tracking new product developments and analysing shifts in investor behaviour across the ASX listed investment market.
 

Summary pages: a market-wide perspective

The Investment Product Summary pages provide a high-level view of the listed investment product landscape. They present end-of-month statistics along with month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons, allowing readers to quickly identify broader trends.

Rather than focusing on individual products, these pages highlight overall market developments. Each edition includes a table of recent admissions, which can help investors spot emerging themes and areas of issuer focus.

In the past 12 months, these have included the energy transition, income focused strategies, commodities exposure, global defence, alternative assets and crypto related investments.

Clusters of new listings often signal where issuers expect demand to grow, where competition is increasing and where professional managers see future sources of 'alpha' (market-beating returns).
 

Spotlight pages: product level detail

While the Summary pages provide breadth, the Spotlight section in the report delivers depth. These pages offer a bottom-up view of the market, examining individual product issuers and product specific metrics.

For ETFs, this includes information such as fund flows. For Listed Investment Vehicles, it includes data such as premiums or discounts to net tangible assets.

The Spotlight section also functions as a comprehensive directory of almost 600 listed investment products presented row by row, enabling investors to efficiently navigate the market and compare products on a like-for-like basis.
 

Why readers value the report

A strength of the report is its ability to organise a complex market into a logical and accessible structure.

ETFs, the largest investment product category on ASX, are grouped by asset class such as equities, property, fixed income, commodities and crypto assets. 

ETFs are also categorised by management style, including active, index and complex strategies, as well as by investment focus, such as emerging markets, small and mid-cap companies and long short approaches.

This structure enables investors to identify comparable products quickly and assess which strategies align with their investment objectives.

For example, an investor seeking exposure to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) theme has multiple ways to play that thesis using ASX-listed investment products. 

By grouping products into clear and comparable categories, the ASX Investment Products Report helps investors navigate complexity and target investment opportunities aligned to the risk-profile of the investor. 
 

Key metrics that support deeper analysis

The Spotlight section highlights several widely used metrics that assist in evaluating investment products:

• Management Expense Ratio (MER) 
  MER represents the annual cost of a fund to the investor and is expressed as a percentage per annum. For example, a MER of 0.40% equates to A$40 per year for every A$10,000 invested. As fees directly reduce returns and compound over time, understanding cost is important to long-term decision making.
• Funds Under Management (FUM)
  FUM reflects the total value invested in a fund in dollars. It is often viewed as an indicator of scale, liquidity and investor confidence.
• Fund flows
  Inflows and outflows measure the net creation or redemption of ETF units over a given period. Positive flows indicate that new units are being issued to meet demand and are sometimes interpreted as indicators of investor interest. Unlike FUM, flows are not influenced by market price movements, making them a more direct measure of investor interest. Sustained outflows combined with persistently low FUM may indicate declining demand and in some cases a higher risk of product closure.
• Historical returns
  Historical performance shows how a fund has performed across different market conditions. While past performance does not determine future results, it provides context. Investors can evaluate how a fund behaved during periods of volatility, how closely it tracked its benchmark and how it compared with similar strategies.

Conclusion

No single measure provides a complete picture of ASX investment products - costs, scale, flows, structure and performance all contribute. When assessed together, these indicators may provide a clearer view of product suitability and long-term sustainability. Tracking them over time may help identify shifts in investor preferences, emerging themes and broader market direction.

As the range of listed investment products continues to expand, the ASX Investment Products Report continues to remain a central, transparent source of data to help you make better-informed, evidence-based investing decisions.

More information on the ASX Investment Products Report and current and past editions of that report are available here.