Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are index based investment products that allow investors to buy or sell exposure in an index through a single financial instrument .ETFs are funds that trade on a stock market like shares of any individual company. They can be traded at any time during market hours and can be sold short or margined. But they are shares of a portfolio, not of an individual company. They represent shares of ownership in either open-end funds or unit investment trusts that hold portfolios of stocks or bonds in custody, which are designed to track the price and yield the performance of underlying indices.
