The amounts of ETFs are often lower than those of an equivalent mutual fund. This is due in part to their exchange-traded nature, which shifts usual costs to the brokers or exchange, as opposed to a mutual fund, which must pay the cost as a whole. ETFs are much more liquidity than mutual funds, which can only be purchased or sold at their final payment at the time of the day. They normally trade near their true Net Asset Value because their creation/redemption process regularly balances out pricing arbitrage opportunities, pushing the price of ETF shares back to fair value. Some conventional financial intermediaries will be much more tax-efficient than ETFs. A mutual manager may trade equities to meet redemption requests from investors or to achieve the fund's goals. The fund's shareholders may face taxed profits if they sell their shares. Redeeming ETFs isn't a problem because they're similar to stocks. Furthermore, managers of index-based ETFs only conduct trades in response to changes in their index, resulting in higher tax efficiency.