What Are Exchange Traded Funds And How Do They Work?

In his 2013 annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett put forward some ideas on ETFs. He discussed how in his will he's left instructions for 90% of the money which is to be held in trust for his wife to be invested in (low cost) ETFs. If one of the most successful investors in history is recommending exchange traded funds, maybe the rest of us should have a closer look as well.

What Is An ETF?

It's a product which provides investors with relatively low cost exposure to a broad range of companies or other invest-able assets. They are traded on the stock market just like the shares of listed companies.

An ETF tracks an index like the ASX300 or the price of a commodity like gold.  This means that investors should receive the same return as they would if the held all of the shares which make up the index, or in the cast of something like gold, it would be similar to buying gold.

Australian Exchange Traded Fund Range Bolstered By New iShares ETFs

The choice for ETF investors just got a little broader. Earlier this month BlackRock launched 4 new ASX listed Exchange Traded Funds all covering the Australian stock market. The table below list each of the 4 new funds.

ASX Code	Fund Name	Purpose of Fund
ILC	iShares S&P/ASX 20	Tracks the performance of the S&P/ASX 20 Index
IOZ	iShares MSCI Australia 200	Tracks the performance of the MSCI Australia 200 Index
ISO	iShares S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries	Tracks the performance of the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index
IHD	iShares S&P/ASX High Dividend	Provides exposure to 50 of Australia's larger high dividend paying stocks

New iShares Exchange Traded Funds

Exchange Traded Funds - ETF Investing In Australia

My interest in Exchange Traded Funds has grown since I first wrote about asset allocation a few months ago. As you may recall from that post, I like the strategy as a way of diversifying away from Australian shares and as a way of making the investment process more objective and systematic. Anyway, this line of reasoning caused me to search for a cost effective and relatively simple way of implementing a fairly basic asset allocation - and the humble ETF fits the bill. 

What Are Exchange Traded Funds?

An ETF is an open ended fund which trades on the stock exchange (open-ended means that the fund can issue or redeem shares at any time). Most of the ETFs I've looked at are designed to track the price of a particular index. They are similar to shares in that you can buy and sell them through your normal stock broker. The only cost you need to pay is brokerage. Another way in which they are like shares is that they pay distributions in a similar way to which shares pay dividends.