It took three years, but annual ETF inflows are back at record levels. On Tuesday, year-to-date inflows for U.S.-listed ETFs topped $902 billion -- and then on Wednesday, they breached $909 billion.

That means that, with a month-and-a-half left in the year, 2024 inflows are tracking to end up comfortably ahead of the previous annual record of $900 billion set in 2021.

Of course, it's still possible that ETFs could register outflows from now through December, putting inflows below $900 billion at the end of the year -- but it seems very unlikely.

Inflows have been robust all year long, and recent enthusiasm in the stock market following the U.S. presidential election suggests that December will be a strong month for inflows.

In fact, if trends persist, an annual inflows record of more than $1 trillion seems to be in the cards, with an outside shot at $1.1 trillion.

In addition to being a new record, such a haul would be a sharp acceleration compared to the roughly $600 billion of inflows seen in both 2022 and 2023.

A buoyant stock market, a plethora of new product launches, and the rise of active ETFs have all contributed to the surge of interest in exchange-traded funds this year.

Another inflows milestone that etf.com has been watching is the $100 billion mark for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO).

Earlier this year, the ETF broke the calendar-year inflows record for an individual ETF when it surpassed $47 billion in inflows. It's since almost doubled that haul, bringing year-to-date inflows up to $93 billion, according to etf.com's Fund Flows tool.

The ETF has pulled in about $17 billion of new money over the past month, a pace that if maintained, means that VOO will easily crack $100 billion by year end.

In other words, 2024 could be the first trillion-dollar year for ETFs as a whole and the first $100 billion year for a single ETF.