iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker PICK (ISIN US46434G8481). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. In plain terms it is about tracking physical commodities like gold or oil, which often move differently from shares and are used to spread risk or hedge inflation, spread broadly across markets worldwide. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers index — the passive, low-cost approach.

It is typically held as a diversifier — a slice that behaves differently from mainstream shares — rather than as a portfolio's main engine. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.39% a year — about €39 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 29.9% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality.

It launched in 2012. Like any investment, it can lose value as well as gain, and what it did before does not predict what it will do next. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)