Are ETFs mutual funds?

Not exactly, but they’re closely related.

Most ETFs are structured as open-end investment funds, similar to mutual funds, and both generally hold a diversified “basket” of assets. The key difference is how you buy and sell them. Mutual fund shares are typically bought from (and redeemed with) the fund company at a single end-of-day price (NAV). ETFs trade on stock exchanges throughout the day at market prices.

ETFs also often publish holdings frequently (many do daily), and they use a creation/redemption process involving large institutional participants, which helps keep the trading price close to NAV and can reduce certain taxable capital gain distributions relative to mutual funds.

So: ETFs aren’t “mutual funds” in the traditional, transact-once-per-day sense, but many ETFs and mutual funds sit under the same broad regulatory umbrella and share the same idea: pooled investing.