iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Govt Bond UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Govt Bond UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker SEML (ISIN IE00B5M4WH52). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single company. In plain terms it is about lending to governments and companies in return for regular interest, which tends to be steadier than shares but grows more slowly, spread across its target market. Its largest holdings include ISHARES BRAZIL LTN $ GOVT BO USDHA, BRAZIL FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF (GOV and INDIA (REPUBLIC OF).

With about 357 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 12.8%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. By geography it is weighted towards ~10% Mexico, ~10% China and ~9.9% India. By industry it concentrates most in ~96.3% Government and ~0.3% Other. Funds like this are often used as the steadier, lower-swing part of a portfolio — the ballast that cushions the ups and downs of shares. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.5% a year — about €50 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

It is a distributing share class — dividends are paid to you as cash rather than reinvested, and over the last year it paid out roughly 6.79% (its trailing yield). 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 21.3% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2011. 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.)