The top ASX ETFs for 2021

I only want to invest in the best ETFs. Two ETFs to think about are the Betashares Global Quality Leaders (ASX: QLTY) ETF and VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports (ASX: ESPO) ETF.
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Here are 2 top Australian or ASX ETFs to research today, for 2021 and beyond.

Betashares Global Quality Leaders ETF (ASX: QLTY)

The QLTY ETF is about giving investors exposure to shares of some of the highest-quality companies across the world. This isn’t just about Australian businesses or American businesses, it’s about giving people exposure to a great list of names throughout the world.

The businesses that make it into the QLTY ETF have been selected based on a high return on equity (ROE) and profitability, low leverage (debt) and earnings stability. This means QLTY tries to exclude expensive, no-profit businesses which may not end up justifying their share price tag.

QLTY’s top 10 holdings are: Keyence, Texas Instruments, Nike, Alphabet, Intuit, Unitedhealth, Cisco Systems, L’Oreal, Apple and Intuitive Surgical. They haven’t been the strongest performers in the world this year, but QLTY is a diversified ETF that could keep performing well over the long term.

Looking at the index it tracks (which has been going for a lot longer than the QLTY ETF), it has returned 13.75% over the past year and 15.6% per annum over the past five years.

See our QLTY ASX ETF review.

VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ASX: ESPO)

The purpose of ESPO ETF is to give investors exposure to the theme of video gaming and in particular eSports (competitive and leisure games played online). eSports and video gaming generally has been a long term growth sector for quite a while, particularly in the area of live gaming competitions. Hundreds of thousands of speculators tune in to watch professionals play video games.

COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns seem to have accelerated the video gaming trend. At the moment there are large shortages of the latest video gaming consoles, which shows how in-demand they are.

The ESPO ETF only has 25 holdings, but it has many of the world’s biggest gaming companies including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), China’s Tencent, Bili Bili, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Zynga.

ESPO has an annual management fee of 0.55%. While the ESPO ETF is relatively new, you can look at the index it tracks to see that the index has returned 68.75% over the past 12 months and 36.2% over the past five years. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance, but it does go someway to demonstrate how strongly these gaming businesses have performed in recent times.

See our ESPO ASX ETF review.

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At the time of publishing, the author of this article does not have a financial or commercial interest in any of the companies mentioned.

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