In 1999, the National Park Service moved Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, a beloved state landmark, 1,000 yards away from the encroaching ocean.

Humans are trying desperately to keep ahead of the rising waters. And a period of intensifying Atlantic storms that began a decade ago has repeatedly slammed the swelling seas into the coastline, speeding up erosion of the fragile and ever-shifting Outer Banks and putting lives and property at risk. As the average global temperature has climbed about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century, sea level has risen nearly a foot due to glaciers melting and warm water expanding. Nowhere is planetary warming more obvious than the coast. With ETF activity spread out across an increasingly broader base, however, the average daily volume of all the ETFs in the Guide continued to thin out, sliding about another 1 million units a day in 2010.If you visit a North Carolina beach this summer, chances are you'll witness firsthand the effects of global climate change brought on by greenhouse gas pollution. In 2009, 294 ETFs were included in the Guide. Based on that period in 2010, 342 ETFs made the cut (out of 920 available at the end of the year). At the end of November 2010, bond funds held $140.97 billion and hybrid funds held $312 million (see 'Across the board,' right).įutures’ ETF Guide includes all ETFs that traded more than 100,000 units a day, on average, the last quarter of the previous year. International market ETFs, which along with bond ETFs also recovered strongly in 2009, attracted an additional $56.66 billion in 2010. Domestic equity ETFs attracted a large part of those funds, increasing by $96.19 billion since November 2009. The ICI reports that ETF assets increased to $927.62 billion by November 2010, a rise of $189.70 billion or 25.7% over November 2009. And that growth was steady, powering higher throughout the year (see 'High-octane recovery,' below). Nearly all sectors surged by healthy rates, while the drop in average daily volume for the funds that are included in Futures’ 2011 ETF Guide leveled off. In 2010, asset growth not only continued, it did so broadly. In addition, although investors returned to all asset classes that year, bond ETFs more than doubled to $107 million while domestic equities grew by less than a third. Although funds were flowing, activity was slowing. Indeed, the average daily volume of the ETFs in Futures’ 2010 ETF Guide was nearly 2 million units less than the year before. While assets under management and the number of ETFs offered by the investment community rose in 2009, volumes fell. As the stock market rallied, dollars poured into ETFs and by the end of the year the industry boasted more than $700 billion in assets, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), a national association that represents U.S. In 2009, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry recovered from its first significant contraction since its birth in 1993.

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