Skip to content

CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

ETF definition

ETF stands for exchange traded fund, a type of investment security that is bought and sold on exchanges.

It is one of several exchange traded products (or ETPs), with others including exchange traded commodities (ETCs) and exchange traded notes (ETNs). Investors sometimes refer to all types of ETP as ETFs, as they are the most well-known type of exchange traded product.

Instead of trading baskets of debt securities or commodities, ETFs aim to track the performance of an underlying set of assets or index, like the FTSE 100.

ETFs can vary in lots of ways, including:

  • Physically replicated ETFs, which buy the underlying assets (usually equities or bonds) which the benchmark tracks, or synthetically replicated ETFs which use derivatives (like swap agreements) to get exposure to the benchmark and track its performance
  • Income distribution ETFs, which return dividends to investors, or accumulated distribution ETFs, which reinvest them into the fund
  • Smart beta ETFs, which use extra rules to try and outperform their benchmark
 
Video poster image

Visit our ETFs section

Find 1000s of ETFs using our ETF screener.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y

See all glossary trading terms

Help and support

Get answers about your account or our services.

Get answers

Or contact us on +971 (0) 4 559 2104 or helpdesk.ae@ig.com.

Our office is open 5 days a week, Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm (Dubai time). Support line is available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, except for Saturday from 1am to 11am (Dubai time).