New ETF invests in industry close to home: ETFs themselves | Reuters

NEW YORK Exchange-traded funds have proliferated in niches ranging from cyber security to solar power and even marijuana. On Thursday, a new index fund launched that will let investors chase the growth potential of ETFs themselves.

The ETF Industry Exposure & Financial Services ETF (TETF) comes to market after a record $375 billion poured into the funds globally last year.

ETFs are a basket of stocks, bonds or other assets traded by individual investors and institutions. They can be cheaper to own than competing products, such as mutual funds, from which they have taken market share.

The funds have become a central part of modern markets.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which tracks its namesake equity index, is on average the most traded security in the U.S. stock market, by value.

“It’s really a ‘fin-tech’ revolution: It took an inefficient way of investing and made it efficient,” said Mike Venuto, chief information officer of Toroso Investments LLC, which built the index for the new ETF.

“Every good idea out there has the potential to be repackaged as an ETF some day.”