Online investment platform, Selftrade from Equiniti, has launched the ETF Select 100, a list of best-in-class exchange traded funds available in the UK market.
Launched in partnership with ETF experts, ITI Group, the ETF Select 100 is based on carefully selected criteria, taking into account the cost of ownership, assets under management and average daily trading volumes to objectively present the best products available.
Built into the list will be a filtering tool that allows investors to search and compare ETFs by geography, performance over one, three or five years and asset type.
As the list goes live, the top performing ETFs in their respective sectors over the last 12 months were for stocks Db X-trackers Europe basic resources, for bonds it is iShares UK Government inflation-linked bonds, for commodities there is Source Global gold, and for money market it was Db X-tracker UK Cash.
In a bid to tackle the frustrations faced by many investing in ETFs, Mark Taylor, chief executive of Selftrade from Equiniti, said: “It is our mission, along with ITI Group, to provide those looking to invest in ETFs with tools that help deliver better investment outcomes.
“With over 1,500 ETF products on the UK market, many of which are duplicates, underperformers, or competing offers from different issuers, this market is needlessly overcomplicated. The ETF Select 100 confronts this problem and seeks to make investing simpler and more accessible for those who are put-off by the jargon.
“The names of the ETFs in ETF Select 100 have been simplified to make it easier for investors to understand what the ETF aims to track. This means investors can compare like-for-like ETFs and work towards building a winning low cost-portfolio”.
Martin Bamford, Chartered financial planner at Informed Choice, said as ETFs are becoming increasingly popular it is great to see more information available for investors.
He said: “This is a very easy to use tool although lacks the depth of data that would make it genuinely useful. Investors should never base their fund selection decisions on past performance alone.
“When selecting an ETF, it would be useful to also filter results based on replication strategy, costs and tax reporting status.”
emma.hughes@ft.com
