iShares MSCI EM Asia UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI EM Asia UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker CEMA (ISIN IE00B5L8K969). It lets you buy a basket of holdings in a single trade, spreading your money across them rather than one company. In plain terms it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread across its target market. It follows the MSCI EM Asia index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down.

Investors often use a broad fund like this as a long-term 'core' holding — a single building block that covers much of a global portfolio in one trade. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.2% a year — about €20 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. Income such as dividends is automatically reinvested inside the fund (an accumulating share class), so returns compound without you doing anything. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in Ireland and UCITS-regulated, a European standard built to protect everyday investors and trades in USD.

Its price has swung about 34.3% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2010. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)