iShares Edge MSCI World Value Factor UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares Edge MSCI World Value Factor UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IWVL (ISIN IE00BP3QZB59). 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 owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread broadly across markets worldwide. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the MSCI World Value index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC, CISCO SYSTEMS INC and VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. With about 418 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 29.2%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

By geography it is weighted towards ~47.1% United States, ~20.3% Japan and ~8.1% United Kingdom. By industry it concentrates most in ~32.7% Technology and ~16.2% Financials. 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 0.25% a year — about €25 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 46.4% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2014. 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.)