ETF is the abbreviation of exchange traded fund in English, which translates into "exchange traded fund" and is now generally called "transactional open index fund". It is a special type of open-end fund, which combines the advantages of closed-end fund and open-end fund. Investors can buy or redeem fund shares from fund management companies, and at the same time they can buy and sell ETF shares at market prices in the securities market like closed-end funds. However, the subscription and redemption of ETF must be exchanged for fund shares with a basket of stocks, or exchanged for fund shares with a basket of stocks, which is one of the main characteristics that ETF is different from other open-end funds. \x0d\ Simply put, ETF is an open-end fund that tracks the changes of the "underlying index" and is listed on the exchange. Investors can buy and sell indexes by buying and selling ETFs just like buying and selling stocks. Therefore, ETF can be understood as "stock index investment product". At present, SSE 50ETF is an open index fund that tracks SSE 50 index and is listed on the exchange. \ x0d \ What are the advantages of ETF \ x0d \ First, ETF overcomes the shortcomings of closed-end fund discount trading. ETF funds can be traded in the secondary market, or they can directly purchase and redeem a basket of stocks from fund managers, which makes it possible for investors to arbitrage in the primary and secondary markets. It is the existence of this arbitrage mechanism that inhibits the deviation between the secondary market price and the net fund value, making the transaction price in the secondary market basically the same as the net fund value. \x0d\ Secondly, compared with other open-end funds, ETF funds have the characteristics of low transaction cost, convenient transaction and high transaction efficiency. In the past, when investors invested in open-end funds, they generally bought and redeemed funds from fund management companies through banks, brokers and other consignment agencies. The transaction fee is generally 1%- 1.5%, while ETF only needs to pay 0.5% of bilateral fee at most. Generally, the redemption money of open-end funds will not arrive until 3 days (at least 7 days) after redemption. Buying different funds requires going to different fund companies or banks and other institutions, which is not convenient for investors to trade. However, if you invest in ETF funds, you can trade directly through the exchange according to the public quotation, just like buying and selling stocks and closed-end funds, and the funds will arrive the next day. \x0d\ In addition, ETFs generally adopt a completely passive indexation investment strategy to track and fit representative underlying indexes, so the management fee is very low and the operation transparency is very high, allowing investors to invest in constituent stocks in a basket of underlying indexes at a lower cost, fully diversifying their investments and effectively avoiding the unsystematic risks of stock investment. \x0d\ What's the difference between investing in ETFs and investing in stocks \x0d\ Trading methods are exactly the same. Investors can use the existing Shanghai securities account or fund account for trading without opening a new account. You can buy and sell ETFs at any time, and the transaction price changes in real time according to the market price. The difference lies in: investing in ETF does not have stamp duty like investing in closed-end funds; Buying an ETF is equivalent to buying an index portfolio.