Hi. Im a bit confused about the ETFs.
For low cost / unhedged I found that State Street’s SPDR S&P 500 (SPXL) seems to be the cheapest at 0.03% TER but its demoninated in USD.
As a newbie, I’m not clear if IE take a larger spread , either market spread or FX spread on USD denominated ETFs that might negate the cheaper cost.
Am I better off getting a GBP ETF - I see ones like Invesco (SPXP) at 0.05%??
I understand that im taking currency risk either way, I just want the cheapest overall cost
My other broker charges 0.15% currency charge on USD ETFs so I usually avoid them. But it seems IE doesnt charge FX costs. Do they make it up with wider spread?
Hello @NeilRichards
According to the factsheet for the fund, SPXL is bought and sold in £. (SPYL is the $ version traded in London, not available via IE). See linked factsheet, bottom of Page 1
SPDR S/S S&P 500 :-
It does have a wider spread than SPXP, but that is down to The Market, not IE. Spread is 0.1% on average compared to 0.04% (according to HL), so you need to hold it for >2.5 years for it to work out cheaper overall (assuming no change to the spread). If more choose to buy it, the spread should narrow though.
SPYL is not available on IE.
Both SPXL and SPXP are in USD but the currency is hedged into GBP. So there is no real difference between those ETFs other than the charges (TER).
Any currency exchange is handled by SPDR or Invesco as part of the quoted buy and sell prices.
Indeed all IE ETFs are traded in GBP.
If you wish to avoid any currency conversion then would need to go to a different broker and setup a USD currency fund and then buy an ETF based in USA.
I have invested in SPXL because the TER is so low.