An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks or bonds. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features. ETFs are considered by many as being innovative investment vehicles and have fundamentally changed the way they construct investment portfolios.

An ETF combines the valuation feature of a mutual fund or unit investment trust, which can be purchased or redeemed at the end of each trading day for its net asset value, with the tradability feature of a closed-end fund, which trades throughout the trading day at prices that may be substantially more or less than its net asset value. Closed-end funds are not considered to be exchange-traded funds, even though they are funds and are traded on an exchange.

ETFs have been available in the US since 1993 and in Europe since 1999 and traditionally have been index funds, but in 2008 the US Securities and Exchange Commission began to authorize the creation of actively-managed ETFs.

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ETFs offer public investors an undivided interest in a pool of securities and other assets and thus are similar in many ways to traditional investment funds such as unit trusts and OEICs, except that shares in an ETF can be bought and sold throughout the day like stocks on a securities exchange through a broker-dealer. Unlike traditional funds, ETFs do not sell or redeem their individual shares at net asset value (or NAV).

Some ETFs invest primarily in commodities or commodity-based instruments, such as crude oil and precious metals. Although these commodity ETFs are similar in practice to ETFs that invest in securities, they are not "investment companies" under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Our ETF platform gives you access to more than funds offering niche funds for a different approach.
To find the ETFs available, simply click on the ETF List tab at the top of the page.

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