The idea of pooling investment assets has been around for centuries. Mutual Funds first appeared in the 1920s. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that mutual funds became widely popular with mainstream investors. In recent years, ETFs have taken off as an alternative to mutual funds.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a “basket” of stocks, bonds, or other financial instruments that gives convenient exposure to a diverse range of assets. ETFs are an incredibly versatile tool that can track anything from a particular index, sector, or region to an individual commodity, a specific investment strategy, currencies, interest rates, volatility, or even another fund. You can do about anything with them — hold a diversified portfolio, hedge, focus on a particular sector, or even profit in a bear market.
The most significant practical difference between mutual funds and ETFs is…
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