Invest beyond the index with active ETFs
Designed to outperform passive indexes, our active ETFs offer flexibility, liquidity, and opportunity—helping investors seek higher returns through strategic fund management.
Open a brokerage account to purchase ETFs
close- Select the brokerage account that best meets your needs from the list below
- Register your account with a one-time verification code
- Select the brokerage account that best meets your needs from the list below
- Complete your financial profile and investment details*
- Link your bank account to fund your account and start buying ETFs
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Brokerage – Individual Owner
Invest for a variety of goals, with access to your money whenever you need it.
Brokerage - Roth IRA
Build your retirement savings tax-deferred, with the ability to invest in stocks, ETFs, and more.
Brokerage - Traditional IRA
Save for your retirement and invest in stock, ETFs and more with T. Rowe Price.
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Diversify your portfolio. Expand your opportunities.
About ETFs
What is an ETF?
An ETF is a fund that trades like a stock—its value changing as shares of it are bought and sold. Most ETFs are passive, meaning they simply track a market or sector. Active ETFs are different.
How do active ETFs work?
Active ETFs have hands-on portfolio managers who look to uncover market opportunities and select investments with the goal of outperformance—rather than merely tracking an index.
How do I buy and sell ETFs?
You can buy and sell ETFs in a brokerage account, which also allows you to trade stocks and manage your investments in one place.
Are ETFs right for investors like you?
Active ETFs are for all investors seeking returns that go beyond the limitations of an index. Every T. Rowe Price ETF is actively managed by a portfolio manager, so your investment is not on autopilot.
There are thousands of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) out there. But most of them are passively managed, which means they simply track the general market or a particular sector.
What if investors could get the key benefits that ETFs offer but with products specifically designed to seek outperformance?
Now, they can! Active ETFs from T. Rowe Price come with the same qualities that have made exchange-traded funds incredibly popular.
- First, they’re convenient, giving investors the flexibility to buy or sell throughout the trading day, and with no minimum investment requirements.
- Second, compared to some investments, costs are streamlined with ETFs because client service, reporting, and other expenses are limited. With fewer expenses, we can help minimize the fees paid by investors.
- And third, they offer tax efficiency, with the ETF structure potentially helping to reduce capital gains distributions that are realized.
However, there’s more to these ETFs. Most ETFs are passively managed, which means they simply track the general market or a particular sector.
T. Rowe Price Active ETFs go beyond the limitations of passive ETFs and are carefully designed to seek outperformance of their benchmarks. Across both equity and fixed income, we draw on our firm’s global reputation for investment management expertise. Our portfolio managers use a forward-looking approach to security selection based on rigorous research and in-depth analysis.
Through sound judgment and prudent risk management, your investments aren’t just left on autopilot. Our portfolio managers use a strategic approach to investing that keeps their eyes on the road ahead.
Active ETFs from T. Rowe Price. The well-known benefits of an ETF, plus our signature skills and expertise that has made us synonymous with strategic investing.
Access and convenience
ETFs can be bought and sold throughout the trading day—and have no investment minimum requirements.
Tax efficiencies
Though they may generate some capital gains, ETFs have historically been the tax-efficient option when compared to similar products, like mutual funds.
Cost-effectiveness
Costs are streamlined with ETFs compared to similar investments because client service, reporting, and other expenses are limited.
Compare ETFs vs. mutual funds at a glance
How are active ETFs and active mutual funds similar?
Active ETFs and active mutual funds both pool investor money into diversified portfolios—unlike individual stocks—and are actively managed by a portfolio manager who selects securities or investments to try to outperform the market.
How are active ETFs and active mutual funds different?
Active ETFs can be traded throughout the day and usually update their holdings daily, while active mutual funds only trade at the end of the day and typically share their holdings monthly.
| ETF | Mutual fund | |
|---|---|---|
| Intraday pricing | Yes | No |
| All-day trading | Yes | No |
| Automatic transactions | Yes
|
Yes
|
| Minimum investment | No
|
Yes
|
| Control over capital gains | Yes
|
No
|
Guided by our curiosity and 85-year legacy
We believe that curiosity unlocks opportunity—not just following an index. We aim for better returns over many market cycles, relying on our time-tested active approach to help millions of people around the world invest in the things that matter most.
At T. Rowe Price, investment analysts are curious, independent thinkers with a passion for investing.
With diverse backgrounds—from medicine to geology—they bring unique perspectives to their work and our active management approach.
And today these insights drive their global search for investment opportunities.
They decide which ideas are worth a firsthand look by examining company and security valuations, the competitive environment, industry growth, and much more.
In the field, equity and fixed income analysts often travel together, to study companies, industry sectors, and entire economies from every angle.
They meet with senior executives, front-line employees, and industry leaders. Asking better questions. Getting a deeper understanding of worker productivity, the quality of facilities and products, and the way business gets done.
They measure a company’s effectiveness by talking with suppliers and customers.
And they sit down with legislative, regulatory and other public officials, looking for answers to seek information that could affect the future of a potential investment.
Back at the office, our analysts turn findings from site visits into actionable insights—sharing ideas and debating them, collaborating to identify opportunities that can help give clients an investment edge.
Their insights help us decide what to invest in. But the work doesn’t end there. Analysts keep a long-term view, constantly asking better questions and re-evaluating the case for, or against, an investment.
The analyst’s journey is one of the many ways we help clients reach their most important financial goals. And thrive in an evolving world.
Delivered more returns. More often.
T. Rowe Price mutual funds beat passive peers more frequently—and with higher average returns—than the average of all active managers, including the largest ones. Our mutual funds delivered an average of 0.83% more return than comparable passive funds across all periods analyzed over 20 years, and showed higher returns in 70% of those periods. Results are net of fees. Ten-year periods, rolling monthly, over 20 years ended 6/30/24.
View standardized returns and other information about the funds in this analysis (PDF).
For more information on the methodology of this analysis, please visit troweprice.com/complete-performance-study (PDF).
23 years
Average industry experience of our portfolio managers.2
Experienced managers
Our skilled portfolio managers have deep experience—through good markets and bad, over many cycles—and they stay with us an average of 17 years.2
525
Investment professionals around the globe, as of 12/31/2023.
Rigorous research
Our investment professionals go into the field to uncover insights from suppliers, companies, and regulators to find opportunities that others might miss.
Insights and resources to empower your investment decisions
Ready to get started?
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The performance data shown is past performance and is no guarantee of future results. There is no guarantee any ETF will outperform its benchmarks.
Risk Considerations: Fixed income investing involves risks, including, but not limited to, interest rate risk and credit risk. International investments can be riskier than U.S. investments due to the adverse effects of currency exchange rates, differences in market structure and liquidity, as well as specific country, regional, and economic developments. Diversification cannot assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.All investments are subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal. Results from other time periods may differ. Active investing may have higher costs than passive investing and may underperform the broad market or passive peers with similar objectives. Passive investing may lag the performance of actively managed peers as holdings are not reallocated based on changes in market conditions or outlooks on specific securities.
Analysis by T. Rowe Price. Comparable passive funds are (1) mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) classified as an “index fund” in the Morningstar Direct database and (2) in the same Morningstar category as the active funds being analyzed. All Active Managers represents the actively managed (non-“index fund”) mutual funds and ETFs in the Morningstar Direct database, excluding those managed by T. Rowe Price. The performance of the T. Rowe Price active funds and the All Active Managers funds were compared against the comparable passive funds using 10- year rolling monthly periods from 7/1/04 to 6/30/24. The analysis was conducted at the Morningstar category level analyzing all open-end funds and ETFs within U.S. Morningstar categories where passive funds are present. Oldest share class returns are used for analysis. Money market funds are excluded from the analysis.
188 funds covering 7,778 rolling 10-year periods.
2507 funds covering 42,548 rolling 10-year periods. The active assets under management (AUM) as of 6/30/24 across all funds considered in the
analysis are aggregated and those funds offered at any point in the analysis period by the largest five active fund managers by AUM, identified by
Morningstar, other than T. Rowe Price are grouped together here. Source: Morningstar.
35,166 funds covering 364,797 rolling 10-year periods, excluding T. Rowe Price.
ETFs are bought and sold at market prices, not NAV. Investors generally incur the cost of the spread between the prices at which shares are bought and sold. Buying and selling shares may result in brokerage commissions which will reduce returns.
*T. Rowe Price equity ETFs based on existing mutual fund strategies publish a daily Proxy Portfolio, a basket of securities designed to closely track the daily performance of the actual portfolio holdings. While the Proxy Portfolio includes some of the ETFs holdings, it is not the actual portfolio. Daily portfolio statistics will be provided as an indication of the similarities and differences between the Proxy Portfolio and the actual holdings. The Proxy Portfolio and other metrics, including Portfolio Overlap, are intended to provide investors and traders with enough information to encourage transactions that help keep the ETF's market price close to its net asset value (NAV). There is a risk that market prices will differ from the NAV, ETFs trading on the basis of a Proxy Portfolio may trade at a wider bid/ask spread than shares of ETFs that publish their portfolios on a daily basis, especially during periods of market disruption or volatility and, therefore, may cost investors more to trade. Although the ETF seeks to benefit from keeping its portfolio information confidential, others may attempt to use publicly available information to identify the ETF's investment and trading strategy. If successful, these trading practices may have the potential to reduce the efficiency and performance of the ETF.
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