After more than 2 years since the publication of the previous edition of this ranking, it is time for a major update, or rather a completely new entry with the current ranking of ETFs for shares from around the world. The very good news for all passive investors who value the possibility of investing in shares from around the world using a single ETF is that ETF providers have started to compete very strongly with each other in the last year. And as we know, the more competition, the better for individual investors, so without further ado, let me show you the offer of ETF funds for the global stock market and present the current ranking of the best ETF funds of this type.
In this article you will learn:
The offer of European providers, i.e. the offer of ETF UCITS funds, currently includes 8 accumulating global stock ETFs and 3 distributing ETFs. Since most readers are only interested in accumulating versions and there are only 3 paying versions, the next few paragraphs will only concern accumulating global stock funds , and later in the entry I will present two distributing funds.
When I presented the offer of funds for the global stock market previously, there were 6 such funds. Now there are already 8 funds based on 4 different indices:
Since the tracked index slightly influences the differences in the investment results of these funds, below is the first breakdown of the current offer along with the division into tracked indices:
The leaders in terms of assets are still the leaders and for the past 2 years their assets have grown significantly and are still neck and neck:
In the meantime, the following changes to the offer have occurred:
So we have 5 big changes in the offer that gave me a reason to update this ranking. So let's take a look at the basic parameters of the 8 funds as of September 2024.
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The current offer of European ETF funds for global shares really is full of choice. There are large ETFs (over EUR 10 billion in assets) and small ones (below EUR 100 million in assets). There are funds that have been around for years (2011) and completely new ones (created in 2024). Finally, there are cheap funds (0.07% per year) and expensive funds (0.45% per year), which allows you to quickly filter out funds that are not good enough to make investing in them worthwhile. Here are the basic parameters of ETF funds for global stock indices in September 2024:
In fact, the biggest issue in this ranking will be choosing between large, proven funds that have higher reported fees (iShares and Vanguard) and new funds or funds that have recently significantly reduced fees but have not yet proven that low fees translate 1 to 1 into better future performance (although in theory they should). We also don't know if iShares and Vanguard won't be cornered and have to lower their fees slightly to remain competitive.
I will now discuss all the parameters step by step, starting from the time of existence of ETFs.
You may be surprised to learn that the oldest global ETFs in the European offering are the State Street-run SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF ( IE00B44Z5B48 ) and SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF (IE00B3YLTY66), which have been around since May 2011. The Amundi MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF (LU1829220216) and iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B6R52259) are not much younger, having been around since September and October 2011, respectively.
After them, we have a 7-year break without new additions, and then the addition of 2 ETFs in 2018 and 2019 (in July 2019, the popular Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF with the ISIN code IE00BK5BQT80 was added to the European offer). The youngest of the funds are the Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (IE000716YHJ7), added in June 2023, and the Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF (IE0003XJA0J9), added recently in June 2024.
As you can probably guess, neither of the 2 youngest funds have managed to accumulate large assets yet, nor do they have a rich enough history to receive too many points in the ranking. However, they do have some advantages, which I will mention shortly, and for now I will take a look at the size of assets among the 8 ETFs compared.
In this context, not much has changed since 2022, as the two largest ETFs accumulating global stocks are the iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B6R52259) and the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (IE00BK5BQT80). What is shocking is the scale of their asset growth, which in 2 years amounted to 141% and 133% respectively (although the former has been on the market for almost 14 years!). This proves the increasingly strong trend of passive investing among European investors, who, as you can see, very often focus on the simplest global stock funds.
In terms of assets, the competition is very far behind iShares and Vanguard, because the largest 2 among the remaining funds, i.e. SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B44Z5B48) and SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF (IE00B3YLTY66) provided by State Street have assets at least 4 times smaller than the leading 2 ETFs of this type. Not to mention the Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, created a year ago, which, despite being the cheapest ETF in this rate for almost a year (TER = 0.15%), collected "only" a little over EUR 350 million in assets during the year. This shows that passive investors are usually loyal to the fund they started investing in and do not change providers/funds as soon as something a little cheaper appears (0.15% vs. 0.20% or 0.22%). And since we're on the subject of costs, let me briefly discuss the costs of global stock ETFs.
Just 2 years ago it was completely unthinkable that an ETF fund for global shares, however complicated to create and run, could cost less than 0.20% per year. Currently, as many as 4 ETF funds for global shares cost less than 0.18% per year, and these are:
The above means that we can only wait for the move of the largest ones (Vanguard and iShares), who will probably not want to lose their dominance to smaller but much cheaper funds Amundi, SPDR and Invesco.
Why, however, do I not recommend that you “jump” straight into the cheapest fund Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF (IE0003XJA0J9)? For several reasons:
So let's check how the funds' real results compare to the costs they declare.
In every ETF comparison and ETF ranking, I pay special attention to the so-called Tracking Difference (TD), which is nothing more than a comparison of the fund's performance with the index that is its benchmark. The lower the tracking difference value, the better, and if this value is negative, it means that the fund is beating the index it tracks, which is possible thanks to, among other things, the profit from securities lending.
Despite their not-so-low costs, the lowest track spreads so far have been achieved by the iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B6R52259) – annual cost 0.20% and track spread -0.17% and SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF (IE00B3YLTY66) – annual cost 0.17% and track spread -0.17%. Funds from UBS and Vanguard are also doing well, as their track spreads are lower than their declared annual costs.
The biggest mystery is the SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B44Z5B48), which, with costs previously amounting to 0.40% per year, has achieved a good 0.07% annual tracking difference. A mystery, because after reducing costs from 0.40% to 0.12% per year, we can also expect the tracking difference to decrease significantly and potentially enter the podium when it comes to beating the MSCI ACWI global stock index. This is an interesting observation, worth noting, because the previously unremarkable fund has a chance to start beating its more expensive competition (but let's give it 2-3 years to examine the impact of the new, lower costs on its results).
Time for the ranking that everyone has probably been waiting for.
It probably won't surprise you that, all things considered , the best ETF fund for the global stock market is the iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF with the ISIN code IE00B6R52259 and tickers ISAC (LON) or IUSQ (FRA). ISAC/IUSQ is a very large fund, existing for many years, with a correct annual cost and a much lower tracking difference and very good results compared to the competition. The only drawback of this ETF is the relative difficulty of buying a unit due to the relatively high price of around EUR 75, which is currently over PLN 320, although most ETFs in this list have even more expensive units.
Second place was taken by Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (IE00BK5BQT80) also known as VWRA (LON) or VWCE (FRA), from which I deducted points for its shorter history (from 2019), slightly higher annual cost and slightly higher tracking difference, and for being even harder to buy for the deductible amount. Harder because the unit price is currently around EUR 120 (~ PLN 500), so if your brokerage doesn’t let you buy fractional shares/ETFs (like XTB or IBKR ), you may have trouble buying units for the deductible amount.
In third place I placed the SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF fund (IE00B44Z5B48) with the ticker ACWD (LON) or SPYY (FRA), which attracts attention especially due to the recent reduction of the annual cost from 0.40% to 0.12%, which means that its mapping difference (on average 0.07% in the last 3 years) may be drastically reduced in the future. It has an acceptable asset value, but buying its unit for a specific amount may be very difficult, because it costs about EUR 200, i.e. over PLN 850 (hence, for the MSCI ACWI index I suggest a larger fund from iShares, and we can watch SPDR in terms of results in the coming years).
Among the competitors to watch is certainly the cheapest (lowest fees) and youngest fund Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF (IE0003XJA0J9) with ticker WEBN (FRA), whose low cost (0.07% per annum) will certainly attract new investors. WEBN has an additional advantage in the form of a low unit price (only EUR 9, or less than PLN 40), which makes it easy to buy for a certain amount even without the possibility of fractional trading.
The only problem with the WEBN ETF is that it tracks a different index than most of the above ETFs, which is the Solactive GBS Global Markets, which resembles the MSCI ACWI in terms of composition and global market coverage (both indices claim to cover about 85% of the world) . The Solactive GBS Global Markets index, like the FTSE All-World index, treats Poland as a developed market. In contrast to the MSCI ACWI and MSCI ACWI IMI indices, which treat Poland as an emerging country (jokingly: this gives us Poles an ambitious reason to boycott MSCI index funds and choose FTSE or Solactive index funds).
Without further ado: WEBN is a very young ETF with a low asset value, which I would give 2-3 years to get going, check its results and the difference in projection after that time and only then make a decision on whether to recommend it. Remember that costs are not everything, and the 2 winning ETFs, despite relatively "high" (for ETFs) costs, have very low differences in projection.
Both leaders of the ranking, the ISAC/IUSQ and VWRA/VWCE funds, can be purchased both in DM BOŚ , as well as in BM mBank, XTB and Interactive Brokers . The availability of the remaining funds will be slightly worse, but among the brokerage accounts for ETFs that I recommend, both DM BOŚ and Interactive Brokers offer them (and 4 of them also XTB).
I suspect that many brokers will soon add the new Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF fund to their offer due to customer pressure caused by its revolutionary low annual cost (and that's good, because competition makes the entire price offer improve). Just because it was cheap (0.20-0.22% per year) doesn't mean it won't get even cheaper (0.05%-0.10% per year), so we wait for the giants, namely BlackRock (iShares) and Vanguard to move in terms of lowering the prices of ETF funds on global shares. If thanks to the above ranking you have chosen the right ETF for yourself, and you don't have a brokerage account yet, I would be grateful if you could set one up from one of my affiliate links (they are in the box below). Many thanks!
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If you want to receive dividends from a global stock ETF, you will only have 3 ETFs to choose from:
In terms of parameters, there is no point in ranking these funds, because only one of them (Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Distributing) has been around long enough for any comparison (apart from examining the parameters) to make sense:
The dividend-paying VWRL (Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Distributing), with assets of over EUR 14 billion, is currently the largest European global equity ETF. The rapid growth of assets in the paying version of the aforementioned Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF (WEBG/WEBJ) is very impressive, having only been in existence since February 2024, but having already accumulated EUR 1.3 billion in client assets. This is certainly due to its low costs (0.07% per annum) and suggests that similar growth will soon be seen in its accumulating version (WEBN), which was launched a few months later and is not yet listed on most European exchanges, which naturally hinders its growth.
In terms of availability, it is currently easiest to simply choose the largest Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Distributing (IE00B3RBWM25) with tickers VWRL or VWRD, which is the basis of the offer in all the main brokerage houses and offices specializing in ETFs. In DM BOŚ you can also buy the cheapest fund of this type from Amundi (Amundi Prime All COuntry World UCITS Distributing):
Although payout funds are generally much less popular than accumulation funds, due to the significantly lower costs than the Vanguard fund, I also expect cheaper competition from Amundi and Invesco to be added to the brokerage offer.
First of all, don't panic, because in the world of investment funds (and ETFs), the cheapest fund is not always the best, because declared annual costs are just one of the criteria influencing the results achieved by the funds. Now you will think "how so? You are always the one who demonstrates an obsession with costs and suggests choosing the cheapest accounts, funds and brokerage services!" and you will be right (see, for example, the entry " How to gain more? Control costs and avoid expensive institutions! "). However, a cost difference of 0.05-0.15 percentage points per year (e.g. the difference between 0.20% and 0.07% per year) is something completely different, as is a cost difference of 1-2 percentage points per year (e.g. the difference between a TFI with a cost of 1.50% per year and an ETF with a cost of 0.20% per year).
So what to do if you previously bought iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B6R52259) or Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (IE00BK5BQT80) with annual costs of 0.20% and 0.22%, respectively, when funds with a cost of 0.07% (Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF) and 0.15% (Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF) appeared on the market and SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B44Z5B48) reduced fees from 0.40% to 0.12% per year? Do not panic and do not make emotional decisions, because these smaller and cheaper ETFs will not necessarily beat the results of more expensive ETFs from this group. Let's give them at least a few years to verify whether lower costs will directly translate into better results (and let's give iShares and Vanguard time to react to these cost reductions, because I suspect they will also start reducing the costs of their global equity funds).
Also remember that the cheapest Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF tracks a different index than its competitors, so the difference in results may be mainly due to differences in index compositions, not annual costs alone. I would suggest following the non-obvious SPDR MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (IE00B44Z5B48), because after reducing costs from 0.40% to 0.12% per year, it has a chance of beating the competition from iShares in the coming years. To answer the question in the headline: I would keep buying the same ETFs I did (unless I bought more expensive ETFs like Amundi MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF), because in passive investing, consistency and pragmatism are more important than the difference in costs of about 0.1 percentage points per year.
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You have reached the end of this short but specific entry, in which I compared 8 accumulating global stock ETFs and 3 distributing global stock ETFs. I am extremely pleased with the high growth in assets of funds from this group, because All-World funds are the simplest solutions for participating in global economic growth. I am also pleased with the development of the offer, because the emergence of cheap competition for the two giants and the reduction of costs by smaller funds will almost certainly mean that when I write an update of this entry (in 2-3 years), the offer of investing in ETFs for global stocks will almost certainly be much better than it was in 2022 and 2024, i.e. when I wrote and published the previous ranking of this type and this entry.
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The information presented on this website is the author's private opinions and does not constitute investment recommendations within the meaning of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of 19 October 2005 on information constituting recommendations concerning financial instruments, their issuers or exhibitors (Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 206, item 1715). The reader makes investment decisions at their own risk. The author of the blog is not responsible for the content of advertisements placed on the blog.