Vanguard Group, the Malvern-based investment giant that manages close to $5 trillion in clients’ money, said Tuesday that it has registered a plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell its first actively managed U.S. exchange-traded funds, starting next year. The funds will be targeted to “factors,” or investing trends, such as recent high share prices (a “Momentum” ETF) and strong financial results (“Quality”), writes Joseph DiStefano for philly.com.

As stocks, exchange-traded funds are easier to buy and sell quickly than mutual funds, one reason Vanguard founder John Bogle, who preached a buy-for-the-long-term philosophy, initially resisted ETFs.

So the latest Vanguard step, given the company’s past culture, “is huge. It’s the equivalent of  Dylan going electric,” cracked Eric Balchunas, fund analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, in a social-media post.

Given Vanguard’s low fees and its success at raising $1 billion a day in customer funds, often from competitors, in the last year, “good luck to everyone else,” said Josh Brown, chief executive of Ritholtz Wealth Management, a $600 million-asset New York firm that sells Vanguard ETFs, among other investments, to its clients.

The company already sells low-fee index-based stock and bond ETFs — which are stocks consisting of shares in other companies — in competition with BlackRock, Barclays, and other industry pioneers, as well as active ETFs in Canada and Britain. The company manages about  $710 billion in stock ETFs and $148 billion in bond ETFs.

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