Executives who oversee exchange traded funds at asset management firms and others in the industry said they're optimistic about the future of exchange traded funds and believe their prevalence has mitigated some of the damage from the recent market turmoil.

Speaking at a panel hosted by exchange operator Nasdaq OMX, Lawrence Carrel, author of a recent book about ETFs, said that the instruments were the direct result of the 1987 stock market crash when the Securities and Exchange Commission began searching for a basket product that could absorb some of the extreme volatility and uncertainty in the US stock market.