From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. 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. In a survey of investment professionals conducted in March 2008, 67% called ETFs the most innovative investment vehicle of the last two decades and 60% reported that ETFs have fundamentally changed the way they construct investment portfolios.

Only so-called authorized participants (typically, large institutional investors) actually obtain or redeem shares of an ETF directly from the fund manager, and only then in creation units, large blocks of tens of thousands of ETF shares that can be exchanged in-kind with baskets of the underlying securities. Authorized participants may hold the ETF shares or they may act as market makers on the open market, using their ability to exchange creation units with their underlying securities to provide liquidity of the ETF shares and help ensure that their intraday market price approximates the net asset value of the underlying assets.Other investors, such as individuals using a retail brokerage, trade ETF shares on this secondary market.

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. ETFs traditionally have been index funds, but in 2008 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to authorize the creation of actively-managed ETFs.

Below I have provided a list of ETFs from InvescoPower Shares (Exp. by popular is mix). There are many other fine companies that offer ETFs and have different requirements and researching other companies that offer similar products should be considered for your Due Diligence.

 

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