Are ETFs stocks?

ETFs are not stocks, but they trade like stocks.

A stock is typically a share of ownership in a single company. An ETF share is a claim on a portfolio (a basket) of investments held by the fund.

The “trade like stocks” part is important:

ETFs can be bought and sold during market hours.

Prices move intraday.

You’ll see bid/ask spreads, and you can use market or limit orders.

So if you’re looking at your brokerage screen, an ETF can feel like a stock because you enter a ticker and place an order. But economically, you’re buying exposure to whatever that ETF holds (hundreds or thousands of stocks in a broad index ETF, for example).