Record investments into ETFs - Telegraph Exchange traded products (ETPs) have had a bumper six months. Inflows for the first half of 2012 were the largest ever for the global ETP industry. ETPs attracted net new assets of more than $100bn during the first half of 2012, with particularly strong demand for exposure to income-producing assets. According to research by BlackRock, market volatility encouraged investors to use ETPs to capture income. Fixed-income ETPs attracted $42.0bn in new cash during the first half of this year in this context, with investment-grade corporate bond ETPs seeing inflows of $15.5bn. Dodd Kittsley, head of ETP research for BlackRock, said: "The ETP industry continues to gather new assets from investors around the world, who are attracted by the efficient market access ETPs can offer. Demand for exposure to fixed income assets has been a key theme for the last year and shows no sign of abating, as acceptance of the value of an indexed approach to fixed income investing gains increasing traction amongst investors. During times of economic uncertainty and increased market volatility, the efficiencies, precision and flexibility that ETPs may offer tends to resonate with investors. Demand for gold also returned in June, with gold ETPs seeing more than $2.2bn invested. Gold ETFs fall into two categories - those, known as "physically backed," that hold the actual assets that they seek to track and those that do so by means of complex instruments such as derivatives, which are called "synthetic." Most experts have no concerns about the safety of ETFs provided that they are physically backed, that they are run by one of the big issuers such as iShares or Deutsche Bank and that all parties concerned are domiciled either in Britain or in another stable jurisdiction such as the United States.