Anatomy of an Exchange-Traded Fund: Variety

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Anatomy of an Exchange-Traded Fund: Variety

While the majority of exchange-traded fund assets are in familiar equity indices, the ETF universe offers exposure to virtually every investment possible. There are funds that drill down into specific sectors, industries, regions, and countries, as well as funds that offer relatively inexpensive access to investments such as currencies, precious metals, and even bank loans and volatility. Recently, fund companies have even launched actively managed ETFs. Without ETFs, these asset classes would have continued to be the sole province of larger institutional and wealthy investors.