Fund flows are an important source of information to monitor since they reflect the general investor preference for a specific asset class given current and expected economic conditions, market risk and other factors. They may also highlight non-sustainable market positioning. In the following we illustrate the relationship between risk and investor preference for assets by using the ICI data which tracks about 98% of inflows and outflows in US mutual funds. The below chart dynamically plot what were the inflow/outflows in US mutual funds as a function of the VIX level. When selecting period of high volatility (such as 2008) with the slider the negative relationship between risk and appetite for equities becomes obvious.
