US Stock Market: How to invest in ETFs listed abroad and what to buy now

The US stock market has been at the forefront of the global investment opportunities available to investors worldwide. Investors in India are also not left behind and there are international trading and brokerage platforms that are giving easy access to the US stock market. And, not just some of the top US stocks, including Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google shares, collectively known as FAANG stocks – there are several Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) to choose from on the US stock exchanges.

ETF is a sort of variant of a mutual fund and tracks a specific index. The units in an ETF can be bought or sold only on a stock exchange anytime during the trading hours. ETF’s are low cost investments and allow one to take exposure in several stocks of the same index at one time. They come in various forms and typically track different indexes and sectors. Similar to stocks, they even have their specific Ticker symbol.

There are several ETFs available on the US stock exchanges tracking the banking sector or the tech stocks. Vanguard Financials (VFH) is an ETF that will suit you if you prefer an exposure in financial stocks. Similarly, Invesco QQQ ETF tracks the Nasdaq-100, a market index comprising 100 of the largest non­financial companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Along with FAANG stocks, exposure in the blue-chip Tesla and several other tech stocks can be taken through this ETF.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF is a hugely popular ETF that tracks the S&P 500 index – an index of a diversified group of large-cap US companies across eleven major industries. If you are unsure which stocks of the index could be a long-term winner, it’s better to take exposure in the entire index through the ETF.

ETFs through ETF brokers give you an opportunity to invest in all of the index stocks or several stocks of the same sector in a single-go and through a single investment. After all, you need to be invested in all of the growth stocks that hold the potential to generate a high return over the next few years.

Investing in an ETF gives easy access to take exposure to different stocks of the same index or sector. In an ETF you get the live prices as trading happens all through the market hours and the cost of owning them is considerably low. So, what’s stopping you to open a US brokerage account in India and reap the benefits of investing in global markets through ETFs?