It is a passive ETF that tracks an index of global companies that produce and process natural resources such as energy, metals, and agriculture. By spreading across the resource industry as a whole, it gains exposure to resource price cycles and inflation.

It suits investors who want to diversify across the natural resource industry while hedging against inflation and tolerating the volatility of the economic cycle.

It is an ETF managed by VanEck using a passive (index-tracking) approach.

It tracks an index of global companies that produce and process natural resources, including energy, metals, agriculture, and forestry. By spreading across several resource industries, it reduces concentration in any single resource, and its structure is exposed to resource price cycles and inflation trends.

• Diversified across the natural resource industry as a whole
• Exposure to resource cycles and inflation

Assets under management (AUM) stand at $327.7M, and the expense ratio is 0.41% per year.

The main point of comparison is that it diversifies across several resource industries, unlike single-resource ETFs or energy sector ETFs.

Natural resource companies are driven by the global economy, commodity prices, industrial demand, and the inflation environment. They tend to be strong when inflation rises or resource demand comes into focus, and weak when the economy slows. They are highly cyclical and sensitive to the economic cycle.

Fund flows into natural resource products shift with the inflation outlook, the stage of the economic cycle, and commodity prices, and money sometimes moves into related products when demand for inflation hedging grows. It is also worth noting that performance can vary widely depending on the resource cycle and economic conditions.

Natural resource diversification and an inflation hedge are its strengths, while sensitivity to the economy, commodity volatility, and exchange rates are considerations.

For a different way to gain exposure to global natural resource companies, direct substitutes include GNR, and for a focus on upstream resource companies, products such as GUNR are also worth comparing. If you want U.S. natural resource companies, a product such as IGE can be considered as well. This ETF is differentiated by its broad diversification across the natural resource industry as a whole, and its resource mix is wider than that of single-resource or energy sector products.

Here are the points to review before investing in HAP. Natural resource diversification is the appeal, but sensitivity to the economy, commodity volatility, and exchange rates should be checked in advance. It is also a good idea to compare it with single-resource and energy sector products.

Falling resource demand from a global economic slowdown and commodity price swings are the main short-term variables, and resource companies are highly cyclical, depending heavily on the economic cycle. Declines can be steep during an economic slowdown.

It is a suitable candidate for investors who want to diversify across the natural resource industry while seeking an inflation hedge. If you want a different style of resource exposure, compare products such as GNR and GUNR, and if you want broad diversification across natural resources, compare this product alongside them before choosing.