Active Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are quoted on an exchange and are an easy way for investors to access the investment expertise of fund managers. Active ETFs are managed by a portfolio manager, who 'actively' manages the basket of underlying stocks with the aim of outperforming the market.
The Fidelity Global Emerging Markets Fund (Managed Fund) is trading on the ASX, giving investors access to some of Fidelity’s best hand-picked investments in emerging markets in one trade.
Introducing Active ETFs
Settle into our short video to learn more about Active ETFs and whether they suit your portfolio.
Why Fidelity Active ETFs?
Fidelity Australia’s Managing Director explains our Active ETF story and the benefits to investors.
Your free guide to Active ETFs
Get your free educational eBook on everything you need to know about investing in Active ETFs.
- The history of Active ETFs
- Key features and benefits
- How to choose an Active ETF
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Active ETFs
On the move: ETF special report
Australia's active ETF ecosystem has all the right ingredients. Yet there are still challenges to tackle before we can harvest the benefits. Key decision makers in the industry look at what it will take for active ETFs to win big.
Actively Managed ETFs vs Managed Funds: Critical Differences
The universe of managed funds is huge and deciding where to place your assets can be as tricky as choosing single shares.
Managed by investment experts
Active ETFs provide access to a fund manager’s investment expertise via a simple trade on a stock exchange.
Active ETFs are open-ended actively-managed funds quoted on an exchange. The fund is managed by a portfolio manager, who ‘actively’ manages the basket of underlying stocks with the aim of outperforming the market. An active manager seeks to reduce the downside risks during volatile periods in the market.
The power of active management
Many of Fidelity's actively managed equity fund outperform their underlying index, net of fees, by 1-2% p.a over the long term. With the power of both time and compounding, this additional amount of annual return can have a big impact on your portfolio over the long term. The below highlights Fidelity Global Emerging Markets managed fund performance as an example. The Fidelity Active ETF: FEMX implements the same strategy by the same portfolio manager.
Chart as at: 31 March 2021
Total net returns represent past performance only. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns of the Fund can be volatile and in some periods may be negative. The return of capital is not guaranteed. Benchmark: MSCI Emerging Markets Index NR. NR: NR at the end of the benchmark name indicates the return is calculated including reinvesting net dividends. The dividend is reinvested after deduction of withholding tax, applying the withholding tax rate to non-resident individuals who do not benefit from double taxation treaties.
Diversified
Diversification is the practice of spreading your investments between different asset classes, markets, and industry sectors which can provide investors with increased confidence that if one or two of the investments within the portfolio are performing poorly, there are other investments within the portfolio which may do better to balance out the returns.
More markets
Gain exposure to overseas markets, companies and asset classes that may be difficult to access directly or are less well understood such as global, Asian or emerging markets.
More companies
Gain exposure to multiple underlying companies in one trade - not just one single stock.
All investments carry risks and diversification is not a guarantee for achieving returns nor a guarantee against potential loss of capital.
Saves you time
We select and monitor the portfolio
An Active ETF fund manager can adapt the fund to changing market conditions. The fund manager of the fund makes the decision on the stocks selected and actively manages the portfolio. An actively managed ETF will have a benchmark index, but are benchmark ‘unaware’ - which means they select the best opportunities for stocks and can deviate from the index as they see fit.
Less paperwork
There is no paperwork for investors with a trading account and you can buy and sell units from an online broking account.
Strategy and tactical usages of ETFs
Strategic use for long term investment horizons
ETFs can be used for long-term asset allocation among primary asset classes such as equities or fixed income. They can also be used to make strategic tilts to other asset classes, such as emerging markets, demographics or small-caps, as examples of other categories.
Tactical use of ETFs
ETFs can be an efficient way to adjust portfolios for risk during periods of market volatility.
ETFs are easy to buy and sell as they are quoted and traded on the stock exchange, so your ETF holdings can be quickly increased or reduced to instantly rebalance your investment portfolio.
Why you may want to consider Active ETFs
How Active ETFs differ in structure
There is an increasing number of ways investors can access investment funds - some are available on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX and CXA) and others aren’t, some are actively managed and others track the index. The below table helps to articulate the key differences between types of investment funds
Compare Active ETFs with
| Active ETFs | Passive ETFs | Managed Funds (unlisted) | Listed Investment Companies (LIC) | Listed Investment Trusts (LIT) | |
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| Availability | Quoted or Listed | Quoted or Listed | Unlisted | Listed | Listed |
| Management style | Actively managed | Passively managed / index tracker | Actively and passively managed | Actively managed | Actively managed |
| Corporate structure | Trust | Trust | Trust | Company | Trust |
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| Disclosure | All holdings are disclosed quarterly with a two-month lag, subject to Australian stock exchange approval. | The daily basket of holdings are typically disclosed. | Typically, holdings are disclosed monthly with a 30-day lag. | Required to disclose NAV monthly, but not required to provide portfolio information. | Required to disclose NAV monthly, but not required to provide portfolio information. |
| Minimum investment | No minimum | No minimum | Typically A$25,000 | No minimum | No minimum |
| Application process including anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) |
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| Franking credits | All trust structures (including LITs), must distribute all underlying income and realised capital gains to investors on an annual basis. The level of realised capital gains depends on trading activity within the strategy and the level of embedded capital gains within the portfolio holdings. As a trust, unitholders are responsible for any tax obligation arising from the distribution and should seek professional tax advice on this matter. | LICs have the ability to pay franked dividends. |
LITs must pay out any surplus income to investors in the form of distributions. These distributions carry the franking credit level allocated by the underlying investment. |
Can I invest in more than one ETF style ie passive and active?
Active and passive funds can be used to create a portfolio to suit your investment objectives as determined by you or your adviser. Some asset classes are more suited to active investing and some to passive - and this also varies according to the risk you are prepared to take. Investors may choose to combine these strategies in their portfolio.
Three popular styles of ETFs
How are Active ETFs priced?
There are a number of unique features of an Active ETF which provides liquidity to investors:
1
Units in an Active ETF are traded at the market price on the stock exchange.
2
An Active ETF operates as an open-ended fund, and as a result is expected to trade relatively closely to the fund's NAV.
3
The Fund acts as the market maker and provides liquidity by issuing and redeeming units based on market demand.
What does this mean for investors?
Importantly, this means an Active ETF will generally trade at a reasonably tight spread around the NAV per unit.
Investors know the price they are buying/selling at, their trade is executed immediately and they can monitor the value of their investment holdings via their Broker Trading Account.
It is important to note that the trading price of units on the stock exchange may differ from the NAV (Net Asset Value) and iNAV (indicative NetAsset Value) of the Active ETF. Ideally an ETF will trade close to its NAV which is the underlying total value of net assets/number of securities on issue. The NAV can be used as an indicator of how much the ETF is worth and what sort of price is appropriate to pay for the investment.
How to buy/sell
An Active ETF is bought and sold via a broker in the same way as buying or selling a share on the stock exchange.
The difference is that this one trade gives you exposure to a diversified portfolio of shares. Investors can view their Active ETF holdings alongside any other direct share holdings they have.
Find out how to invest now.
