Vanguard Surpasses the Entire Hedge Fund Industry’s AUM

A hilarious and possibly poignant stat from Kirsten Grind at the Wall Street Journal:

Vanguard Group reached $3 trillion in global assets under management for the first time, a company spokesman said Thursday, a record for the country’s largest mutual fund firm. It’s also apparently accumulated more assets than the entire hedge fund industry, which reached $3 trillion in assets in May, according to data provider eVestment.

If I were prone to grand pronouncements or susceptible to symbology as market trend timing indicator, I might say that this is a watershed moment of some sort. Could this be a moment similar to that time when GLD surpassed the assets under management in SPY I discussed yesterday?