{"id":45085,"date":"2026-03-17T07:32:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/?page_id=45085"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:13:19","slug":"was-ist-ein-etf","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/etf-guide\/was-ist-ein-etf","title":{"rendered":"What is an ETF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u23f1 Reading time approx. 4 minutes<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Imagine you could invest in hundreds of companies worldwide at the same time with a single transaction. This is exactly what an ETF makes possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETF stands for \u00abExchange Traded Fund\u00bb. A fund is essentially a pot into which many investors pay their money. This money is used to buy securities, in your case shares. And because the fund is traded on the stock exchange, you can buy and sell it just like a share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an index?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we go any further, we need a term: the index. An index is a fixed list of companies that represents a market. The best-known Swiss index is the SMI, which contains the 20 largest Swiss companies. The MSCI World contains around 1,500 companies from 23 industrialised countries worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ETF now replicates such an index. If you buy an ETF on the MSCI World, you invest in all of these 1,500 companies with a single purchase. If Apple does badly, Nestl\u00e9, LVMH and 1,498 others make up for it. This is called risk diversification, and it is one of the biggest advantages of this form of investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it cost?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where it gets interesting. Your bank advisor will probably offer you an actively managed fund where a team of analysts decides which shares to buy. This costs 1 to 1.5% per year in ongoing charges, the so-called TER. Sometimes even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ETF does not need such a team. It simply copies its index, fully automatically. That's why it costs 0.07 to 0.25% per year. The difference sounds small. Over 30 years, however, it results in tens of thousands of francs difference in final assets, thanks to the Compound interest effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tax advantage in Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What many investors don't realise: Price gains from ETFs are generally tax-free for private investors in Switzerland. If you buy an ETF for CHF 20,000 and it is later worth CHF 80,000, you do not pay income tax on this gain. This is a considerable advantage over Germany or Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only exception: dividends, i.e. distributions from the companies in the fund, are taxable. What this means in concrete terms and how to deal with it is explained Chapter 7 on ETF taxes in Switzerland<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETF or index fund, what's the difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically speaking, an ETF is a type of index fund. The only difference is that ETFs are traded continuously on the stock exchange, whereas index funds are only traded once a day directly with the provider. This hardly matters for long-term investors. If you want to delve deeper: We have Index funds and ETFs directly compared<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next step<\/div>\n
Which ETF is right for me?<\/div>\n
Criteria, specific recommendations and a step-by-step guide to ETF selection for Swiss investors.<\/div>\n Read article \u2192<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u23f1 Lesezeit ca. 4 Minuten Stell dir vor, du k\u00f6nntest mit einer einzigen Transaktion gleichzeitig in hunderte Unternehmen weltweit investieren. Genau das macht ein ETF m\u00f6glich. ETF steht f\u00fcr \u00abExchange Traded Fund\u00bb, auf Deutsch: b\u00f6rsengehandelter Fonds. Ein Fonds ist im Kern ein Topf, in den viele Anleger ihr Geld einzahlen. Mit diesem Geld werden Wertpapiere […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":45083,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45085","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45085"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45158,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45085\/revisions\/45158"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwiizerfranke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}