Almost 90% of Canadians are unfamiliar with exchange-traded funds even though they are Canada’s fastest-growing investment vehicle, according to a recent national poll commissioned by Barclays Global Investors Canada Ltd.

Although three quarters of those surveyed are familiar with mutual funds, only 11% of Canadians know what an ETF is. ETFs allow an investor to buy an entire portfolio of stocks through a single security that tracks and matches the returns of a stock market index. ETFs are considered to be a special type of index mutual fund, but they are listed on an exchange and trade like a stock.

The survey also found that only 7% of Canadians have ETFs in their investment portfolios while only 9% of Canadians are currently considering ETFs for their portfolio.