Online broking will spur on the growth of exchange-traded funds (ETF), according to Morgan Stanley London managing director Deborah Fuhr.
"You can trade in and out whenever you want to and that will be a huge advantage for the retail investor as well as institutional players," Fuhr said.
"The retail investors are benefiting by getting the same cost structures that institutions do, which is quite unusual ... whether it is a superannuation fund or an individual investor, they are getting the same cost structure."
Fuhr was speaking ahead of the launch today of Barclays Global Investors' (BGI) second tranche of iShares ETF's on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
The iShares cover the MSCI Taiwan, MSCI South Korea, FTSE/Xinhua China 25, MSCI Hong Kong, MSCI Singapore and Russell 2000. The six new ETFs bring the total number now traded on the ASX to 14.
BGI listed its first tranche of eight iShares on the ASX on October 10 and it originally planned to have 35 listed by the end of the year. BGI iShares make up over half the market and 290 iShares are now traded on major stock exchanges across the globe.
The 14 iShares are cross-listed from the New York Stock Exchange and comprise $178 billion in total assets under management.
By June 30 this year, total assets under management in ETFs worldwide exceeded US$668 billion.
