Sonray offers clients access to a wide range of ASX and global listed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) through our full advisory service or our award winning online platform. We have a 24 hour dealing desk to assist with execution. 

An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day.

ETFs generally provide the easy diversification, low expense ratios, and tax efficiency of index funds, while still maintaining all the features of ordinary stock, such as limit orders, short selling, and options. Because ETFs can be economically acquired, held, and disposed of, some investors invest in ETFs as a long-term investment for asset allocation purposes, while other investors trade ETFs frequently to implement market timing investment strategies.

Index ETFs: Most ETFs are index funds that hold securities and attempt to replicate the performance of a stock market index.

Commodity ETFs or ETCs (Exchange Traded Commodities): Commodity ETFs invest in commodities, such as precious metals, crude oil, grains and other agricultural commodities

Currency ETFs: Currency exchange traded funds (ETFs) would hold currency rather than companies like traditional ETFs. The idea being that you could buy shares of the ETF and in effect hold different currencies. 

Leveraged ETFs: Leveraged exchange-traded funds (LETFs), or simply leveraged ETFs, are a special type of ETF that attempt to achieve returns that are more sensitive to market movements than non-leveraged ETFs. 

Lower costs: ETFs generally have lower costs than other investment products because most ETFs are not actively managed and because ETFs are insulated from the costs of having to buy and sell securities to accommodate shareholder purchases and redemptions. ETFs typically have lower marketing, distribution and accounting expenses,

Buying and selling flexibility: ETFs can be bought and sold at current market prices at any time during the trading day, unlike mutual funds and unit investment trusts, which can only be traded at the end of the trading day. As publicly traded securities, their shares can be purchased on margin and sold short, enabling the use of hedging strategies, and traded using stop orders and limit orders, which allow investors to specify the price points at which they are willing to trade.

Tax efficiency: ETFs generally generate relatively low capital gains, because they typically have low turnover of their portfolio securities. While this is an advantage they share with other index funds, their tax efficiency is further enhanced because they do not have to sell securities to meet investor redemptions.

Market exposure and diversification: ETFs provide an economical way to rebalance portfolio allocations and to "equitise" cash by investing it quickly. An index ETF inherently provides diversification across an entire index. ETFs offer exposure to a diverse variety of markets, including broad-based indexes, broad-based international and country-specific indexes, industry sector-specific indexes, bond indexes, and commodities.

Transparency: ETFs, whether index funds or actively managed, have transparent portfolios and are priced at frequent intervals throughout the trading day.

Some of these advantages derive from the status of most ETFs as index funds.

Sonray offers free online education to help you trade with confidence. 

The Australian Stock Exchange provides free general education:

• Exchange Traded Funds - Fact Sheet