ETF Categories
A category here gathers the funds whose index covers the same ground: a geography such as the developed world or emerging markets, an asset class such as bonds or gold, a sector such as healthcare or semiconductors, or a theme such as ageing or climate. Assignment rests on the index tracked and on the fund's actual composition, not on its commercial name: a fund called innovation whose index is a broad technology index is filed under technology. The same fund can appear in two categories when its index genuinely spans both, and that is deliberate: overlap between categories is exactly what an investor needs to see before adding a line to a portfolio that already holds one. The count shown next to each category is the number of funds attached to it today, and it moves: a fund whose index changes leaves, a newly listed fund arrives at the next data update.
Published by Radif Partners · Updated
Explore ETFs by category, find the right asset class, sector, or strategy for your portfolio
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Global Equity (World)
MSCI World, FTSE All-World, ACWI, broad exposure to developed markets worldwide
S&P 500 and US Equity
Invest in the 500 largest US companies, the world's most tracked equity index
European Equity
STOXX 600, Euro STOXX 50, MSCI Europe, invest in Europe's leading companies
Emerging Markets
MSCI EM, FTSE EM, access growth in China, India, Brazil, Taiwan and more
Bonds and Fixed Income
Government bonds, corporate bonds, high yield, inflation-linked, portfolio stability
ESG and Sustainable
SRI, ESG Leaders, Climate Transition, invest with environmental and social criteria
Dividend
High yield, Dividend Aristocrats, generate regular income from quality payers
Small Caps
MSCI World Small Cap, Russell 2000, higher growth potential from smaller companies
Technology
NASDAQ-100, Digitalisation, ride the tech wave with leading innovators
Gold and Commodities
Physical gold, silver, broad commodities, inflation hedge and diversification
Energy
Oil & Gas, integrated majors, traditional energy sector exposure
Clean Energy and Climate
Solar, wind, hydrogen, the energy transition and net-zero economy
Real Estate and REITs
Global property, European REITs, real estate without buying property
Water
Water utilities, technology, treatment, essential resource investing
Infrastructure
Utilities, transport, telecom towers, essential assets with stable returns
India
MSCI India, FTSE India, the world's fastest-growing major economy
Japan
Nikkei 225, TOPIX, Japan's corporate renaissance and shareholder reforms
China
MSCI China, China A-shares, the world's second-largest economy
Frequently asked questions
How are these categories built?
Each category gathers the funds that track a comparable market, using the themes and geographies recorded for every fund, plus the fund and index names where a theme is not recorded. A fund can therefore appear in more than one category, and a broad world tracker is never compared with a sector fund on the same scale.
How many funds does a category need to be useful?
Enough to show a spread of charges, which in practice means three or more. Some themes have only a handful of UCITS funds available to European investors: the category still shows them, and the small number is itself information, because a narrow theme with one provider leaves you no alternative if its charges rise.
Which category should a beginner start from?
A broad index, world or S&P 500, rather than a theme. Broad categories hold hundreds of companies across sectors, cost the least, and have the longest track record; a thematic fund concentrates the risk on one story and usually charges three to five times more. The guides explain the trade-off with figures.
What a category page contains
Each page lists every fund attached to it, with ongoing charges, assets, index, replication method and performance, then an analysis built on those same funds: where the assets sit, what fee gap separates the cheapest from the dearest and what it is worth in money, how many distinct indices are tracked, how replication and domicile break down, and which funds remain below critical size. Last comes what the category actually is, what it covers and the risk specific to it.
A category is not a recommendation
The default sort follows assets, not a quality score, and the display order does not say which fund to buy. A thematic category in particular is not meant to constitute a portfolio: its place is counted as a percentage of a whole, and many themes overlap heavily with what a plain world index already holds. The portfolio page exists precisely to measure that overlap before a line is added.
What decides the assignment
Three things are examined: the index methodology published by its provider, the fund's full holdings list, and its sector and geographic breakdown. Where those three diverge from the fund's name, they prevail. Categories are reviewed at every data update, and a fund changes category when its index changes, which happens on a range overhaul or a change of index provider.