iShares Global Energy ETF

What this fund is

iShares Global Energy ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker IXC (ISIN US4642873412). 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.

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 0.4% a year — about €40 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 19.7% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2001. 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.)