FYI: Most ETFs track indexes. This means ETF investors can understand exactly how much it costs, all-in, to hold an ETF. ETF investors expect to get the index returns, minus fund expenses, with no surprises.
But it turns out there’s more to this story than you might expect. To tease out how well run—or how complex—an index-tracking ETF is, we generally turn to tracking difference, which is the performance gap between the ETF’s net asset value (NAV) returns and the returns of its underlying index. Alas, this measurement, while useful, can also be absolutely maddening.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.etf.com/sections/blog/how-well-run-your-etf?nopaging=1
