In 1989, Index Participation Shares were introduced as one of the early examples of exchange-traded funds, emerging from the index investing phenomenon of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1990, the world's first bond Exchange-traded Fund (ETF) was introduced in Canada. This innovative financial product allowed investors to access a diversified portfolio of bonds through a single security.

In January 1993, amidst gas prices around a dollar per gallon, the first Exchange-traded Fund (ETF) was launched in the United States, setting the stage for the significant role ETFs would later play in the financial sector.

In April 1995, State Street introduced the MidCap SPDR (MDY B), the second Exchange-traded Fund (ETF) to be launched. It aims to mirror the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and has gained popularity among investors.

In May 1995, State Street Global Advisors introduced the S&P 400 MidCap SPDRs, expanding the range of ETF offerings in the market.

In March 1996, iShares launched International ETFs, expanding the range of Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs) available to investors. This move provided opportunities for investors to diversify their portfolios globally.

In December 1998, Sector SPDRs were introduced, marking the beginning of ETFs targeting specific sectors of the U.S. economy by dividing the S&P 500.

In March of 1999, the Invesco QQQ fund was launched, mimicking the Nasdaq-100 Index and holding assets of about $257 billion in April 2024.

In 2000, Barclays Global Investors launched some of the first bond ETFs, marking the introduction of fixed-income ETFs to investors.

In May of 2000, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF began trading, with over $442 billion in AUM and a one-month average trading volume of 7 million shares per day.

In August 2001, the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, the largest foreign equity ETF, was launched with about $52.4 billion in assets as of April 2024.

In the summer of 2002, iShares introduced its first four bond ETFs - IEF, LQD, SHY, and TLT. These exchange-traded products have gained tremendous popularity despite not being released earlier.

In July 2002, Bond ETFs were introduced, providing investors with access to a diversified portfolio of bonds through the ETF structure.

In December 2003, the Bloomberg Barclays TIPS fund began trading, with $18 billion in AUM as of April 2024.

In November 2004, the Gold SPDR (GLD) was launched as the first commodity ETF offering exposure to physical gold bullion. It became one of the most popular ETFs available, despite debuting more than a decade after the first ETF.

In December 2005, Rydex (now Invesco) introduced the first currency ETF, the Euro Currency Trust (FXE), which tracked the value of the Euro.

In June 2006, Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs) entered the market, adding to the variety of exchange-traded products available for investors.

In the middle of 2006, Barclays introduced the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index ETN (DJP B+) and the S&P GSCI Total Return Index ETN (GSP C+), providing investors with exposure to commodity futures contracts.

In 2008, Bear Stearns launched the first actively managed ETF, the Current Yield ETF, after the SEC authorized the creation of ETFs using active management strategies.

Lawrence Carrell's book 'ETFs for the Long Run' was published on September 9, 2008. The book explains what ETFs are, how they work, and provides strategies for successful long-term investing.

On December 31, 2009, ETFGI provided data on the assets of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), offering insights into the investment landscape at the end of that year.

By December 2014, the total net assets of ETFs had grown to nearly $2 trillion, constituting approximately 13% of the total net assets managed by various investment funds. This demonstrated the continued growth and significance of ETFs in the financial market.

Despite regulations, ETFs experienced a flash crash in 2015 where prices seemed disconnected from their actual value, leading to increased scrutiny from regulators and investors.

As of March 23, 2017, the combined assets of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) globally exceeded $6.5 trillion, spread across 7,430 different investment products.

It took four years for the SPY ETF to be approved by the SEC, as discussed in the Bloomberg article by Balchunas and Weber.

The article by Balchunas and Weber on Bloomberg highlights that AMEX was not alone in designing the first ETF.

By December 31, 2018, ETFGI reported updated information on the assets of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), reflecting the growth and changes in the ETF market over the years.

By March 2019, the European ETF market had reached €760bn in assets under management, a substantial increase from €100bn in 2008.

By November 2019, assets under management by U.S. ETFs reached $4 trillion.

In January 2021, assets under management by U.S. ETFs grew to $5.5 trillion.

ETFGI reported that assets invested in the global ETFs industry reached a new milestone of US $12.25 trillion at the end of February 2021.

ETFs have limit up/down protections to prevent extreme price movements in volatile markets, especially in the digital age where information spreads rapidly and trading occurs within milliseconds.

As of April 12, 2024, the first ETF, the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), had over $511 billion in AUM and its shares traded at a price of around $510.