Top 10 most-purchased ETFs in November 2020

How did an eventful month affect the ETF choices of investors?

November was an eventful month for markets. First, there was the US presidential election. Soon after came news of a couple of successful Covid-19 vaccines, sending markets around the world into an optimistic rally. In particular, value and other cyclical stocks increasingly started to outperform, leading some to suggest that we were seeing a major “market rotation”.

However, there was little change in the ETFs being bought among interactive investor customers. 

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The biggest change was the entry of the iShares Core MSCI World ETF (LSE:SWDA) into the index at the expense of the L&G FTSE 100 Leveraged Daily 2x (LSE:LUK2).

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However, the entry and exit of these two ETFs appears not to be suggestive of any broader pattern. While L&G’s leveraged FTSE 100 ETF has fallen out of the top 10, there was still plenty of bullishness towards the FTSE 100. iShares Core FTSE 100 ETF (LSE:ISF) kept its place in the number one spot, as did rival Vanguard FTSE 100 ETF (LSE:VUKE).

Both FTSE 100 trackers have one-year losses of just over 10%. However, in November both experienced gains of more than 14%.

The WisdomTree FTSE 100 3x Daily (LSE:3UKL) also kept its place in the rankings, albeit falling by three places. Leveraged ETFs provide investors with the daily performance of the index multiplied by a certain amount. These products are considered very risky and not suitable to be held for more than a day, as previously explained.

Investors continued to keep an interest in the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF USD Dist GBP (LSE:INRG), a member of interactive investor’s ACE 40 list of ethical options. The ETF has produced strong performance over the past year, returning investors more than 108%.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (LSE:VUSA) kept its place in the rankings, as did the Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 UCITS ETF (LSE:EQQQ). In November, both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones reached new highs.

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The Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF (LSE:VWRL) also retained its place in the rankings, albeit falling by a couple of places. The ETF, which follows the fortunes of 3,455 shares, charges just 0.22% a year.

Investors still appear to have some interest in gold, with the iShares Physical Gold ETC GBP (LSE:SGLN) maintaining fifth place in the list. Gold has rallied this year, with the price hitting a new all-time high in the summer. Appetite, however, appears to be cooling, with other precious metals ETFs falling out of the table over the past few months.

The top 10 most-bought ETFs in November

Source: FE Analytics. Note: the top 10 is based on the number of “buys” during the month of November.

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.