What is an ETF?

Short for Exchange Traded Fund, ETFs are currently one of the more popular investment products. It is a security that encompasses various different stocks often tracking an underlying index.

Low Cost and Strong Performance

Short for Exchange Traded Fund, ETFs are currently one of the more popular investment products for investors to get started with and now there are thousands to choose from to fit your investment strategy. 

Whether it is emerging markets, large-cap growth, mid-cap growth, information technology or health services, an investor is guaranteed to find the desired ETFs for their portfolio.  

The flow into ETFs has increased by trillions of dollars over the last several years. 

Gives Investors Instant Diversification to Help Them Sleep at Night

An ETF trades like a common stock on the exchange where the price of each share is subject to change during the course of trading hours. It is a security that encompasses various different stocks often tracking an underlying index which is where it draws similar comparisons to a mutual fund. 

The largest difference between a passive mutual fund and passive ETF is that ETFs offer intraday liquidity (i.e. they can be traded like a stock during market hours but mutual funds don’t settle trades until the market closes). 
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is perhaps the most popular ETF for investors and ETFs are a guaranteed means by which to gain indirect exposure to a diversified portfolio through one single security. While you can actively create an ETF Portfolio, ETFs are usually passive investments but actively managed ETFs do exist as well.