An investment fund invests the money of multiple investors. This money is spread across different types of financial instruments, such as shares and bonds, across various sectors and regions.
By investing in investment funds, you can achieve broad diversification in your portfolio with a relatively small amount. This helps reduce risk.
There are many types of investment funds. With an investment fund, you can invest in, for example:
A combination of investment categories is also common. For example, an investment fund can consist of 90% shares and 10% bonds, or the other way around.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"Easier to spread risks"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"Investing in an investment fund is a practical way to spread your investments and therefore your risks. This is why we believe that most private investors are generally best off with investment funds.
Important: an investment fund must be put together in a balanced way.
Let’s take a share fund as an example. Such an investment fund has the shares of dozens of companies in its portfolio. This means you automatically invest your money in several companies at the same time. This also spreads your risks: a loss in one sector can (partly) be offset by a gain in another sector.
There are many different investment funds – even more than there are shares. The composition of the investments in an investment fund depends on the policy and the vision of the fund managers. You do not have any influence on this yourself.
A disadvantage of investing in investment funds is that the fund managers charge costs for managing the investments. You pay these for their expertise to achieve the best possible return.
"}},{"title":"Good to know","richBody":{"value":"Did you know that you do not pay any transaction costs with us for buying and selling investment funds and ETFs from the ING ETF Top Selection? You can choose from a wide range of investment funds and ETFs. Whether you follow the AEX, focus on video games or want to invest in a more sustainable world.
"}}]},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"Difference between an ETF and an investment fund"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"An ETF (index investing) is a more passive way of investing than what a fund manager does for you with an investment fund. A fund manager can make adjustments and change the composition of the portfolio with the aim of achieving a return. For example, more shares compared with bonds.
An ETF only follows an index and is therefore much more static. Because of this, the costs of an investment fund are usually a bit higher than those of an ETF.
ETF is short for Exchange Traded Funds. They are also called trackers, because with these you follow a specific index. This is a collection of investments (for example: shares or bonds) that shows the performance of a market or sector.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"How can you invest in investment funds at ING?"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"You can invest with us in 3 ways. Only with Self Invest can you choose which investment funds you want to invest in yourself. In the other cases, we make sure your investments are well diversified. Depending on the chosen strategy, part of this consists of bonds.
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Do you want to trade at any time during the trading day? Then ETFs are a better alternative. ETFs can be traded continuously throughout the trading day, just like shares.
Because investing comes with costs (such as a service fee for platforms like Self Invest), we recommend working towards an amount of €1,000 or more. You don’t need to invest this all at once — you can also build it up gradually, for example by investing €100 per month.
Good to know: with us, you don’t pay transaction costs when buying or selling investment funds.
If you invest with us via Self Invest, you can place a buy or sell order for an investment fund in My ING or in the Mobile Investing App.
Good to know: orders for investment funds are collected on trading days and sent to the exchange at one fixed moment.
If you invest with us via Self Invest, please take the following into account when placing an order for an investment fund.
Each fund has a so-called cut-off time. Other commonly used terms are dealing deadline or trading time. This time is often stated on the fund’s factsheet. Cut-off times can differ per fund provider and may also vary between funds from the same provider.
All orders placed before the cut-off time are executed at the next available Net Asset Value (NAV). In Dutch, this is referred to as the Netto Intrinsieke Waarde (NIW).
The NAV is determined afterwards, usually the next business day. For some funds this may take longer. In the case of so-called Fund of Funds, this can easily take one or two additional days.
To ensure all client orders are submitted to the fund provider on time, ING applies a sufficient safety margin. In practice, this is usually about one hour earlier than the cut-off time set by the fund provider. This means the time at which you submit your order to ING determines whether it qualifies for execution at the next NAV.
Also important to know:
Investing involves risks and costs. You may lose all or part of your investment.
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*For informational purposes, we will use the name Self Invest. The actual product name, which will also appear in the onboarding flow and on your bank statements, is Zelf op de Beurs. This translation is intended for the customer’s convenience only. In the event of any inconsistency between the English translation and the original Dutch version, the original Dutch version shall prevail.
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