Biotechnology Industry ETF

ETFs are like mutual funds’ way-cooler cousin. They trade throughout the trading day, like stocks, but they track a particular index, making them passively (but smartly) managed. You also don’t have to buy full shares like you do with mutual funds, and there’s no investment minimums like there are on most/all mutual funds, and they’re cheaper when it comes to taxes. In layman’s terms: ETFs are all-around cheaper, more flexible, and have a lower bar to entry than mutual funds.

Okay, so what are biotechnology industry ETFs? Biotechnology combines molecular biology, genetics, and engineering into a crazy, magic cocktail that’s given us things like cancer-fighting DNA nanorobots, more efficient agricultural crop yields and practices, and the development of new drugs to fight diseases that like to try to kill us.

You may be thinking “Gee whiz, Shmoop, that sounds like a great thing to invest in,” but you should do your due diligence before cashing in on individual biotech industry stocks. Biotech companies have to be able to jump hurdles like FDA approval for their drugs, and have to be making drugs that have a demand and can stand up to competing biotech inventions. However, if you get a biotech ETF, that means it’s automatically tracking an index, so you can invest in the biotech industry across the entire sector without having to do a ton of research on individual companies.