ETF as a product provides a great opportunity to reduce the overall risk of the investment. It is a basket of tens or hundreds of financial products.
Because they are traded on regulated and major exchanges, just like stocks, they are easy to buy or sell
You can buy an ETF that tracks a specific industry, commodity market or investment strategy
It is cheaper to buy an ETF basket of stocks or commodities than to buy stocks or commodities individually
ETFs are financial products of the modern age, created in the early 2000s.
An ETF is a basket of stocks or commodities traded on regulated exchanges.
The relevant regulatory authorities approve each ETF fund.
ETFs are traded simply like a stock.
Today, the most diverse baskets of ETF products contain over 10,000 billion dollars worth of assets, which best speaks to its popularity.
The most famous issuers of ETF instruments are some of the biggest names in the fund industry, such as BlackRock, State Street, Invesco, Vanguard, First Trust and ProShares.
Top 10 largest ETFs by asset value
|
A symbol
|
Name
|
Asset value (billion)
|
|---|---|---|
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | $357.01 mlrd |
| IVV | iShares Core S&P 500 ETF | $288.25 mlrd |
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | $245.50 mlrd |
| VTI | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | $245.19 mlrd |
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | $161.26 mlrd |
| VTV | Vanguard Value ETF | $93.38 mlrd |
| VEA | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF | $90.26 mlrd |
| IEFA | iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF | $86.23 mlrd |
| AGG | iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF | $80.97 mlrd |
| BND | Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF | $80.36 mlrd |