iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF

What this fund is

iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IVW (ISIN US4642873099). 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 passively tracks the S&P 500 index — mirroring that market instead of paying a manager to pick winners, which keeps costs low.

It is commonly used to tilt a portfolio towards one market, usually alongside broader, more global funds rather than on its own. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.18% a year — about €18 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication). Its price has swung about 17.1% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good.

It launched in 2000. 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.)