Investing can look very different from person to person. Everyone has different financial goals, limitations, and risk tolerances.
Professional investors might say they “express a view” on the market with the positions in their portfolio. But if you think you’re not a big enough fish to look at big themes in your investments, think again.
Thematic investing, usually through exchange traded funds, or ETFs, allows you to make even a small, targeted bet on a specific trend, such as artificial intelligence, or clean energy.
The benefits of thematic investing is that you can gain access to a specific sector or trend. On the flipside, thematic ETFs’ narrow focus could also mean that they underperform the broader market.
Thematic ETFs move away from the idea of index investing, which can give you very broad exposure to an asset class or sector.
How ETFs May Fit into Your Portfolio
If you’ve ever heard of investing in a fund that tracks the broader stock market, whoever you were speaking with may have been referring to an ETF, or exchange traded fund.
An ETF bundles assets into one product that you can buy or sell on the market. That’s the beauty of ETFs, they trade just like stocks do but encompass more than just the shares of one company. They’re structured differently than mutual funds, and average lower fees, even though a brokerage may still charge commissions on your trades.
ETFs are also generally passive investments, because they just mirror the performance of an index or sector, such as the S&P 500, or tech.
There’s likely an ETF out there for every type of investor, whether you’re looking at a particular market, sector, or theme. If you’re just getting started with this type of investment, do your research, and be choosy when it comes to which ETF will best serve you on your path to reaching your financial goals.
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