With the stock market picking up, exchange traded funds, investment trusts linked to stock market indexes, are gaining popularity, especially among stock investment beginners and some brokerage houses who have begun to market overseas ETFs.
Like individual stocks, ETFs are listed on securities exchanges and can be bought and sold at brokerage firms.
The popularity of ETFs, whose trading in Japan began in 2001, stems from the fact that they can be traded at market prices, unlike ordinary index-linked investment trusts that are traded at a standard price set on any given trading day.