How do active ETFs work: The ETF buyers’ guide (2024)

FAQs

How does an active ETF work? ›

Active ETFs are managed by professional investors in an attempt to outperform a market index such as the S&P 500. A portfolio manager and a team of research analysts work to identify investments they think will do better or worse than the overall market and then position the fund's portfolio accordingly.

As the ETF market has evolved, different types of ETFs have been developed. They can be passively managed or actively managed. Passively managed ETFs attempt to closely track a benchmark (such as a broad stock market index, like the S&P 500), whereas actively managed ETFs intend to outperform a benchmark.

How do ETFs work? Exchange-traded funds work like this: The fund provider owns the underlying assets, designs a fund to track their performance and then sells shares in that fund to investors. Shareholders own a portion of an ETF, but they don't own the underlying assets in the fund.

Authorized participants create ETF shares in large increments — known as creation units — by assembling the underlying securities of the fund in their appropriate weightings to reach creation unit size, which is typically 50,000 ETF shares. The AP then delivers those securities to the ETF sponsor.

Active funds

The job of an active fund manager is to pick and choose investments, with the aim of delivering a performance that beats the fund's stated benchmark or index. Together with a team of analysts and researchers, the manager will 'actively' buy, hold and sell stocks to try to achieve this goal.

ETFs or "exchange-traded funds" are exactly as the name implies: funds that trade on exchanges, generally tracking a specific index. When you invest in an ETF, you get a bundle of assets you can buy and sell during market hours—potentially lowering your risk and exposure, while helping to diversify your portfolio.

Because active investing is generally more expensive (you need to pay research analysts and portfolio managers, as well as additional costs due to more frequent trading), many active managers fail to beat the index after accounting for expenses—consequently, passive investing has often outperformed active because of ...

Advantages to actively managed ETFs include lower expense ratios than mutual funds and the participation of seasoned financial professionals. Many actively managed ETFs have higher expense ratios than passively-managed index ETFs, which puts pressure on fund managers to consistently outperform the market.

ETFs can be more tax efficient compared to traditional mutual funds. Generally, holding an ETF in a taxable account will generate less tax liabilities than if you held a similarly structured mutual fund in the same account. From the perspective of the IRS, the tax treatment of ETFs and mutual funds are the same.

What is the downside of ETFs? ›

For instance, some ETFs may come with fees, others might stray from the value of the underlying asset, ETFs are not always optimized for taxes, and of course — like any investment — ETFs also come with risk.

Trading ETFs and stocks

There are no restrictions on how often you can buy and sell stocks, or ETFs. You can invest as little as $1 with fractional shares, there is no minimum investment and you can execute trades throughout the day, rather than waiting for the NAV to be calculated at the end of the trading day.

ETFs COMBINE THE BEST FEATURES OF STOCKS AND MUTUAL FUNDS

A fund manager then actively manages and invests this money into a basket of different assets and securities – often stocks. You pay the manager in the hope they drive better performance than the market performance.

Seed capital is the initial funding that allows an ETF to launch and become available to investors. The seed capital is used to fund the creation units that underlie the ETF so the shares can then be offered and traded in the open market.

It's rare for an index-based ETF to pay out a capital gain; when it does occur it's usually due to some special unforeseen circ*mstance. Of course, investors who realize a capital gain after selling an ETF are subject to the capital gains tax.

Factoring in 0.5% to 0.75% for actively managed fees is considered to be around the average. Another type of fee that investors may encounter when buying or selling ETF shares is trading commissions. These fees are charged by brokers and can vary depending on the specific broker and ETF.