Shadowing Practice: Most Europeans Choose ETFs Wrong (Here’s How to Do It Right) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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ETFs are fantastic for growing your money, but here in Europe there are more than 4 ,000 to choose from.

Even if you just want one fund that tracks the S &P 500, there are almost 40 different ETFs doing exactly that.

So how do you pick the best one for you?

Over my two decades as a professional investor, both on Wall Street and as a pension fund CEO here in Europe,

I've invested hundreds of millions of euros in ETFs and their cousin's index funds.

And in this video, I'll walk you step -by -step through how to choose ETFs as a European investor.

I'll do it live on screen using JustETF .com, the same free tool that I use for my own portfolio.

As you can see, right now, JustETF says we have around 4 ,470 different ETFs to choose from.

By the end of this video, we'll get the list down to just a handful.

Now, before we start clicking buttons here, we've got to make a few important decisions that most beginning investors skip completely.

Decision number one.

Where will you keep your ETFs?

And no, I'm not talking about the brokerage or investment platform.

That's coming up later.

I'm talking about the tax structure.

If you just open a regular brokerage account for buying ETFs, in most countries, all your profits will get taxed in full.

And that can become a big drag on your portfolio.

But many countries in Europe have some kind of special account, which lets you invest with lower taxes.

In the best cases, you can even invest tax -free.

In the UK, you have the ISA.

In France, the PEA.

In Hungary, the TBSZ.

But there is another important detail.

The account that you choose can also influence which investments you're allowed to buy.

For example, a French PEA is restricted to European investments, although if you know what you're doing,

you can still buy a global ETF inside a PEA.

While in Finland, the The Osake Sastoteli account doesn't allow you to hold ETFs at all.

Many countries also have retirement accounts, like the PRSA in Ireland or the Ike in Poland.

Retirement accounts give you tax benefits, but there's a price.

You typically can't touch the money until you retire.

These accounts can be very attractive in your 50s and 60s,

but younger investors often prefer to keep at least part of their investments out of these accounts,

just in case you need the money to buy a house or start a business.

So that's the first decision you have to make.

What type of account will your ETFs sit in?

Then you can make decision number two, which brokerage or investment platform to use for buying ETFs.

Ideally you want a platform that is safe, low cost, good for taxes, and offers a wide selection of ETFs.

If you're looking for a special tax -advantaged account like an ISA or PEA,

that's going to narrow your selection down to the brokerages which offer this account type.

Mostly it's going to be the banks and brokerages in your own country.

But if you're looking for a regular taxable account, you've got a lot of good choices these days.

For beginning investors investing small sums, it's hard to go wrong with low -cost, easy -to -use brokerages like Trading212, Trade Republic, or DeGiro.

While if you're looking to invest a big sum of money, you might prefer industry giants, such as Interactive Brokers, Saxo,

or even Swissquote, a Switzerland -based platform, which is a bit expensive, but a favorite among my wealthier students.

Just make sure that whichever platform you choose, it's a good match for investors in your country.

For example, investors from Eastern Europe often complain that the ETF selection at Saxo is relatively limited, while investors in Switzerland often use

Interactive Brokers because they can choose from both US and European ETFs without having to pay the so -called

Swiss stamp duty when buying and selling the funds.

Okay, so now we've made decision number two.

And once you have chosen a good low cost brokerage or investment platform, you are ready to start buying ETFs.

So let's return to justetf .com and narrow down this list of more than 4 ,400 different ETFs.

For decision number three, let's decide what goes inside the ETFs.

A lot of beginning investors think an ETF is its own type of investment.

You've got stocks, you've got bonds, gold, crypto, and ETFs.

But that's actually wrong.

An ETF is like a shopping bag.

It can hold many different kinds of investments inside.

So here at the top left side of JustETF, we can see ETFs that invest in equities.

So that's another name for stocks.

You've got over 2 ,600 of them.

We've got ETFs that invest in bonds.

We've got products that invest in precious metals and commodities and crypto.

We've got ETFs investing in real estate and money market funds and so forth.

So decision number three is which type of investment do you want to make?

In reality, there can be a role for all these investments in a portfolio.

But in my view, only two of these are absolutely essential for smart long -term investors.

Those two investments are stocks and bonds.

So basically, stocks are the growth engine of long -term investing.

When you buy stocks, you own a piece of real companies like Apple or Coca -Cola or Airbus.

That means you've got real people going to work every day to make you money, and that is really powerful.

Over the past 50 years, developed world stocks have earned their owners around 9 % per year on average.

And that's been enough to transform $10 ,000 invested 50 years ago into three quarters of a million today.

This is why most experts recommend stock ETFs as the foundation of your portfolio.

But stock ETFs do have a big drawback.

Especially in the short to medium term, the stock market can be pretty scary.

In a big crash, stock ETFs can fall 40%, 50 % or even more and they can stay down for years.

That is why many investors also include bond ETFs in their portfolio.

So the idea is that bonds are supposed to be the calm part of your portfolio.

A bond is basically a loan to a government or a company,

and because all loans must be repaid no matter what is happening in the news, bond prices are much more stable than stock prices.

A bond ETF typically moves up and down much less, so it helps protect your portfolio from crashes.

So for decision number three, we're going to stick to stocks and bonds in this video.

But this leads us naturally to decision number four.

Once you decide to invest in stocks and bonds, you have to decide how much you're going to put into each of them.

Yes, bonds lower the risk of your portfolio, but because they are so safe, they also tend to be a lot less profitable than stocks.

So if you want to grow your savings while still protecting them, you have to find the ideal balance, how much into stocks versus bonds.

If you're 40 and investing for retirement, you might put 100 % of your money into stock ETFs.

This gives you the highest possible expected profit, and if the market crashes, you've got plenty of time.

You can simply wait for things to recover.

But if you're retired and you're living off your portfolio right now, losing half your money in a crash could be a real disaster.

That is why many older people keep a big part of their portfolio in bond ETFs, maybe 40 % or 50%.

Now, of course, the decision is not only about age.

It's also about your nerves.

If you're somebody who loses sleep at night worrying about market crashes,

you probably don't want to be 100 % in stocks even if you're just 25 years old.

So that's decision number four.

Decide whether you will invest 100 % in stocks, maybe 60 -40 stocks and bonds like many retirees, or in some other proportion.

For this video, I will focus on stock ETFs because that's what people ask me for most frequently,

but I also have videos on bond ETFs in this channel if you're interested.

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Okay, so I'm going to click equity here on JustETF, and that means now we can choose from 2 ,655 different ETFs.

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We're ready to make decision number five, which many European investors completely overlook.

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And this means they end up taking a lot more risk than they realize.

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You see, beginning investors often assume that investing in ETFs means just buying an S &P 500 ETF.

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So the S &P 500 is the index of 500 large American companies.

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If you look at JustETF .com, you're going to see that the most popular ETF here with the most funds invested,

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141 billion euros, is the iShares core S &P 500 usage ETF.

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And I understand that.

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Over the past 15 -20 years, the S &P 500 has been a fantastic investment.

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But if you make this choice, you should be aware that all your money gets invested in America.

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And even though the companies in the S &P 500 are global, you do become very exposed to the economy,

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currency, and politics of a single country.

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Now, I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but when they stop to think about it, many Europeans realize this is not what they actually want,

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especially in today's geopolitical environment.

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Now, happily, it turns out America is not the whole world.

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You can also invest in other stock markets around the globe.

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And historically, many other markets have also done very well.

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For example, the second most popular choice here on JustETF is the iShares Core MSCI World USITS ETF,

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which covers over 1 ,200 different companies in different developed countries.

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Although even this global fund is quite exposed to America, so if we take a closer look, if we open it up here on JustETF,

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and if we go to holdings, we see that 70 % of this fund is invested in the US market.

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And NVIDIA has a weight of 5 .5 % of the whole funds.

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So that means one company takes 5 .5 % of your money, which is approximately as much as Japan, the entire country of Japan takes.

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So even an MSCI World ETF is a lot more concentrated than a lot of people realize.

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Now, if you keep scrolling here, you can see ETFs like this one, the Vanguard FTSE all world used to ETF, which also includes emerging markets,

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so you get a little more diversification.

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Or you can find a fund like this one, the Amundi Core Stocks Europe 600 usage ETF, which invests in European companies.

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It leaves American companies out entirely.

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It is also possible to find ETFs like this one, which invests globally, but leaves out American stocks completely.

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This type of strategy has become a lot more popular in recent years with European investors.

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So this is the fifth decision you need to make.

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Where will you invest geographically? what aligns best with your view of where you want to invest

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and where the world is heading.

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Now for our video, I will focus on global ETFs.

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So I'm going to go here to region and I will select world.

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So that leaves us with 866 different ETFs to look at.

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At this point, I should pause to mention a trap that I see people fall into all the time.

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You buy a world ETF, but then you decide that one ETF is not enough because you've got to diversify, right?

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So you buy an S &P 500 ETF on top.

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But the problem is, these funds overlap.

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The world fund is already mostly invested in America.

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So with half of your money in each fund, you actually end up with 86 % in America, which is not that diversified at all.

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The point is, don't add ETFs to your portfolio just for the sake of diversification make sure

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that every fund serves a purpose, like covering a market or investment that your other funds do not.

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Alright, next up, there's a decision that is really important for a lot of my investment students.

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They ask me, can I invest in a way that matches my personal values?

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Maybe you don't want your money invested in companies that manufacture weapons or sell tobacco or run casinos.

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The good news is there are a lot of ETFs today which are designed for socially responsible investing, SRI.

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But the bad news is there really are a lot of them and it's not easy to choose.

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For example, on JustETF, we can go down here to sustainability and we can select only sustainable ETFs.

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And that leaves us now with 452 different funds to look at.

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And if you start scrolling through these funds and actually reading where they invest,

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you will discover that every fund defines sustainable investing in a different way.

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One fund might exclude weapons manufacturers, but allow oil and gas.

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Another might exclude oil and gas, but tobacco might be included.

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So you have to find what matches your personal preferences.

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Now, unfortunately, there are some significant drawbacks to these types of sustainable ETFs.

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First, because you're excluding many companies, your portfolio will naturally become a lot less diversified.

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For example, let's look at this iShares MSCI World SRI, Socially Responsible Investing, use its ETF.

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If I open it up, I see that it only has 359 different stocks compared to over 1 ,200 for the full MSCI World Index.

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So your money is a lot more concentrated.

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And second, there's unfortunately very little evidence that SRI investing actually encourages companies to behave better or more ethically.

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If it is personally important to you that your money not be invested in specific kinds of companies, you can probably find funds that exclude them.

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But for our video, I will leave this checkbox, the sustainable investing checkbox, unchecked.

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Coming up next, we've got a decision that's behind some of the most expensive mistakes I see smart investors make all the time.

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But before I explain it, here's a thought.

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As you can probably see by now, there is no such thing as one ETF that is right for everybody in Europe.

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The right ETFs for you depend on your age, your goals, how much risk you can handle,

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and the tax rules in the country where you live.

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An ETF that works great for an investor in Germany could be a poor choice for somebody in Spain.

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Well, to solve this exact problem, I have built a step -by -step training program for European investors, and it's called the Index Masterclass.

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To find out more about it, just follow the first link in the description of this video.

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All right, but now let's get to the next decision, decision number seven, which is behind many expensive mistakes that European investors make.

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On JustETF, you will see these two separate sections which say sector and down below theme.

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So a sector ETF invests in one industry like financials or healthcare or industrials or retail.

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A theme ETF invests in a specific investment theme like battery technology or biotech or blockchain or cybersecurity and so forth.

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People often come to me and they say AI is going to change the world.

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Should I buy an AI ETF?

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Or maybe they say there's going to be a lot of demand for energy.

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Should I buy an energy ETF?

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And yes, you can use sector and theme ETFs to bet on big ideas like this, but you should be aware of the risks.

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You see, by the time a particular sector or theme comes to your attention, chances are a lot of investors already know about it.

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In fact, you're probably hearing about it because there's hype and stock prices are already quite high.

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And that means you may be coming in late.

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Take clean energy as an example.

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In 2020, in the middle of COVID, the biggest clean energy ETF in Europe skyrocketed.

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The price shot up.

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And as the hype grew, more investors piled in their money, which in turn drove stock prices even higher and attracted more investors.

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Then in January 2021, the fund peaked.

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And by the end of 2024, it lost half its value.

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Judging from a January 2020 starting point, the ETF still made a small 9 % profit over the following five years.

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But because many investors piled in at the top of the hype, they bought at expensive prices and they lost a lot of their money.

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To profit from betting on sectors and themes, you have to get the timing right twice, when to get in and when to get out.

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And that is incredibly hard.

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That is why for this video, I'm going to go ahead and choose no sectors here and no theme here.

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So what this means is that I want funds which invest broadly in many different kinds of companies and industries.

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So right now we've got 385 different ETFs to look at.

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Now the next decision we have to make is called equity strategy here on just ETF.

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Okay, so this menu is a bit of a hodgepodge of different things, but they include some well -known stock investing strategies such as momentum investing,

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value investing, and fundamental or quality investing.

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Now, these are all examples of what's called factor investing.

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Instead of buying the whole market, factor ETFs lean towards a certain type of company.

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For example, value funds buy companies that look cheap compared to their profits.

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Momentum funds buy stocks that have been rising recently.

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Factor investing is a legitimate approach with a lot of good research behind it.

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But I do see this as more of an advanced strategy for investors who know what they're doing.

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Because with factor investing, your results will not look like everybody else's.

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When the overall market is doing great, you might be suffering and vice versa.

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And it takes a lot of conviction and strong nerves to deal with that.

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Now for some investors this could absolutely be appropriate but for our video I will go ahead and select no equity strategy.

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What that means is that we'll invest in the entire stock market

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and historically this has been a very profitable way to invest over the long term.

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Okay but we still have 132 different ETFs to choose from so how do we narrow this list down further?

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Well now it's time to get technical.

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This is the real nerdy stuff that I love.

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Decision Question number nine is called the fund domicile.

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You can find it down here on JustETF.

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The fund domicile is where the fund is legally based.

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If you watch American YouTubers, they will tell you to just buy an America -based ETF like VOO or SPY.

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But when you try to buy these funds at your broker here in the EU or the UK, you get denied.

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That's because of EU regulations.

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American funds don't publish the standard key information document that every fund sold to private investors in Europe needs to have.

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Now, happily, virtually every U .S.

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ETF that you might want to buy has a twin brother

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that we can buy established in a European country like Ireland or Luxembourg.

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In fact, all of the ETFs you see on JustETF are based in Europe.

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Now, in most cases, which fund domicile you choose makes very little difference.

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But if a fund physically holds American stocks, Ireland does have a significant edge because the fund pays less tax on American dividends.

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So for this demonstration, I'm going to go ahead and pick Ireland.

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So that leaves us with 94 ETFs to choose from.

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We're making some progress.

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Next up, decision number 10, the replication method.

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On just ETF, you could choose between full replication, sampling, and swap -based replication.

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A fully replicated ETF actually goes out and buys all the stocks in its index.

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For example, an MSCI World ETF would buy the 1200 plus stocks in the index.

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A sampling -based ETF would buy a lot, but not all of the stocks,

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while a swap -based ETF doesn't buy the stocks in the index at all.

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Instead, it uses a bit of financial wizardry to get you the same financial result.

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Now, swap -based ETFs are normally considered a little riskier, and I do tend to prefer fully replicated or sampled ETFs myself,

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because with those, you know exactly what you own.

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But in some cases, swap -based ETFs can make sense.

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For example, if you're investing in the U .S stock market,

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swap -based ETFs tend to get slightly better results because they don't pay dividend taxes in America.

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And for another example, do you remember the PEA account, the special kind of account for French investors, which gets you tax benefits?

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Well, if you want to invest in a global ETF inside a PEA account, the only way to do that is with a swap based ETF.

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So in some cases, these ETFs can make sense, but for our video, I will stick with full replication and sampling.

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That's these two check marks.

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Now we have 77 ETFs.

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And next up, we've got decision number 11, the use of profit.

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Basically, you need to choose between accumulating and distributing ETFs.

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And here's the idea.

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An ETF owns companies like L 'Oreal or Coca -Cola.

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And when those companies make profits, they pay part of those profits to the fund as dividends.

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A distributing ETF passes that cash on to you.

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The money lands in your brokerage account and you can spend it or invest it.

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An accumulating ETF keeps the cash inside the fund and uses it to buy more stocks.

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Nothing shows up in your brokerage account, but your ETF grows a bit faster.

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Now, which one should you choose?

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Well, it depends on your situation.

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In most European countries, accumulating ETFs are better for taxes.

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No cash arriving in your account means there's no dividend tax today.

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You only pay tax later when you sell.

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But that is not true everywhere.

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In countries like Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and the UK, hey, an accumulating fund gets taxed every year anyway, even though you never see any cash.

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And your age matters too.

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If you're retired and you want a regular income, a distributing fund does mean regular money coming into your account.

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In my view, it's not a big benefit

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because you can always create your own income by selling fund units whenever you need the money, but some people like that.

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For our video, I'm going to stick with accumulating ETFs.

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So that means we've got 51 ETFs to choose from.

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For decision number 12, let's look at fund size.

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Now, in general, fund size doesn't matter much to results,

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but smaller funds run the risk of getting shut down simply because they're not profitable enough for the fund provider.

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This happens relatively frequently.

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And if it does happen, it can be a bit of a hassle to reinvest the money and you might need to pay some taxes.

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So I generally prefer funds over the size of 100 million euros

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or even 500 million euros if we're looking at a popular strategy like global stock investing.

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So let me select that right now, and that leaves us with 26 different ETFs to look at.

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Okay, and now we get to decision number 13.

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For too many investors, this is actually the first thing they focus on, but that's a mistake.

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This final filter is very important, but it should come last after all your other decisions are made,

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because this way you're comparing apples to apples, not apples to lawnmowers.

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Of course, I'm talking about fund costs.

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As index fund legend

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Jack Bogle said, in investing, you get what you don't pay for.

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On average, the lower your fees, the better your expected result.

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And that's certainly true with ETFs.

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That said, it makes zero sense to compare fees between one fund

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that invests in the broad US stock market and another that invests in European banking stocks.

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That's why we compare fund fees at the end of the ETF filtering process.

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And the easiest way to do it is to click here on TER,

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the total expense ratio, and then you'll have the lowest cost funds at the top.

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So at this point, what I would typically do is open up maybe the top five to 10 funds in their own tab

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and look at them and compare the strategies because we've got a few different strategies here.

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We've got developed world funds like this one.

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We've got all country funds like this one, which also include emerging markets.

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So I would open them up.

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I would go one by one through the different tabs.

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I would look at the holdings and the strategy

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and the key information document and the costs and all of

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that and select one or two funds that I want in my portfolio.

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So this is how with this final filter,

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you narrow the list from those 4 ,000 different ETFs that we had at the beginning to just five to 10,

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a handful, and it's much easier to make your final decision.

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Now, in practice, there are several important decisions that you need to make to build a good portfolio?

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Which type of account is best for taxes in your country?

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What brokerage is the best fit for your account size and your goals?

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How much should you put into stocks versus bonds and which geographical markets should you choose?

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And last but not least, how do you handle your taxes?

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Here on this channel, I help you answer these questions one video at a time.

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But if you'd like a faster solution, take a look at the Index Masterclass, my step -by -step training program for European investors.

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It takes you from A to Z through all these decisions.

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It includes local tax insights covering 34 European countries, and I am there personally to answer your questions.

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To find out more, just follow the first link in the description.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Most Europeans Choose ETFs Wrong”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Etf, fund, stock, investor, decision. This video has 313 sentences and 4341 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:21. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
invest verb	/ɪnˈvɛst/	To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
investor noun	/ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/	A person who invests money in order to make a profit.
portfolio noun	/pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/	A case for carrying papers, drawings, photographs, maps and other flat documents.
swap verb	/ˈswɑp/	To exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else).
select verb	/sɪˈlɛkt/	To choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
narrow adjective	/ˈnæɹəʊ/	Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
equity noun	/ˈɛk.wɪ.ti/	Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right".
sustainable adjective	/səˈsteɪnəbəl/	Able to be sustained.
euro noun	/ˈjʊɹoʊ/	The currency unit of the European Monetary Union. Symbol: €
dividend noun	/ˈdɪvɪdɛnd/	A cash payment of money by a company to its shareholders, usually made periodically (e.g., quarterly or annually).
exclude verb	/ɪksˈkluːd/	To bar (someone or something) from entering; to keep out.
filter noun	/ˈfɪltɚ/	A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from…
retire verb	/ɹəˈtaɪɹ/	To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness.
hype noun	/haɪp/	Promotion or propaganda, especially exaggerated claims.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get out verb		To leave or escape.
go down verb		To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.
leave out verb		To omit, to not include, to neglect to mention.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I'm talking about the tax structure.
You typically can't touch the money until you retire.
It's also about your nerves.
Where will you invest geographically?
Of course, I'm talking about fund costs.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've invested · we've made · have chosen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is restricted · is invested · is already mostly invested
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	platform, which is · somebody who loses · money, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 69 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we've, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, ethically /ˈɛθɪkəli/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: socially /ˈsoʊʃəli/, ratio /ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/, pension /ˈpɛnʃən/, conviction /kənˈvɪkʃən/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, historically /hɪˈstɔɹɪkli/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like invest, investor, portfolio.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?