The index takes the closing market price, and as an unlisted index fund, our job is to match that price. This means that the majority, if not all, of our trading happens in the closing market auction to ensure underlying security prices match those that the index take.
FX is handled slightly differently, but the overall premise remains - we aim to replicate the index therefore we manage FX accordingly so that can happen.
In terms of how this structurally plays out:
Orders into the funds are accepted every business day at 12pm. Place an order at 10am and your investment will go into the fund on that NZ day. If that fund holds solely NZ equities; it takes the closing market price on that same business day.
If a fund holds global equities, the trading within the fund will happen as global markets close, which from an NZ perspective takes us into the next business day. Trading is wrapped after US market close, in our morning, after which our great team and administrators do their post-trade work to ensure settlement and unit pricing within the funds can be complete.
Only once that is done can we update investor dashboards with the most recent unit price - which is also why there is always a delay in unit prices. That speaks to the nature of an unlisted index fund, compared with a listed ETF.
So, if I invested on Thurs 10 April at 11am, my money would be invested into global markets during their closing auctions, and I'd get the closing market price on that calendar day in global markets. I'd then get an update to my dashboard with new unit prices dated 10 April, on the 11/12th April.
Check out our other resources for more information: