19 September 2025
What are exchange traded funds?Learn all you need to know about exchange traded funds (ETFs), including what they are, how they work and how to invest in ETFs.
About the expert
Dan Coatsworth is AJ Bell's Head of Markets. Dan has been with the company since December 2012 and has more than 18 years' experience in the industry, following the markets and all things investing. He has a degree in Corporate Communications from Southampton Solent University.
Dan is involved in a lot of the content published by AJ Bell, which includes; providing market commentary, starring in our educational videos, writing for Shares Magazine and co-presenting our Money and Markets podcast, as well as hosting and presenting at events for customers – both in person and online.
Dan’s passion lies with educating customers all about investing and staying informed about market events. He previously worked for Teletext on the business and personal finance desks which taught him the importance of telling a story in as few words as possible. He has also appeared as a business commentator on Times Radio and LBC News and written investment-related articles for The Telegraph, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday and The Week.
A fun fact Dan learned about investing early on was to not get caught up on the hype around certain stocks. He found this out himself when the first share he bought was a company trying to recover copper from a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean… this sounded exciting but sadly didn’t make him any money! Outside of work, Dan enjoys swimming and going to live gigs.
Latest articles from Dan Coatsworth
18 September 2025
UK IPOs lag the US by volume, but the potential pipeline looks interestingA surge in the number of companies joining the stock market – known as IPOs or initial public offerings – in the US bodes well for an uplift in UK stock market listings as we head towards 2026.
It implies investors are eager to embrace new opportunities on the stock market, and they’re no longer panicking about the impact of tariffs and any...
18 September 2025
Fund managers turn their back on UK and European markets in favour of US sharesThe big rotation from the US stock market to cheaper regions such as the UK, Europe and emerging markets may have peaked, judging by what fund managers are saying around the world.
At the start of 2025 we saw a shift in investor behaviour as many people expressed concern about the outlook for the US economy and policies being adopted by the Trump...
11 September 2025
Paying for university: how parents are taking action to minimise debt pressures for their childrenAs the new intake of undergraduates start their degree course, the clock is ticking on parents of children aged under 18 to decide how to cover the cost of sending them to university.
Research by AJ Bell* finds that nearly half (46%) of parents of under-18s are now saving towards university costs, and a further 21% have done so in the past but are...
5 September 2025
How retail investor choices have evolved before and after Trump’s return to powerThe return of Donald Trump to the White House in January has fuelled big changes to ISA and pension portfolios for retail investors.
Analysis of buying and selling patterns on AJ Bell’s DIY investment platforms* over three distinct periods since the start of 2024 suggests that certain investors are falling into different camps.
Many of those happy...
4 September 2025
Why financial markets have been front page news this weekIt’s been an eventful week across financial markets amid a sell-off in government bonds, a decline in the value of the pound against the US dollar, and billions of pounds wiped off the value of UK medium-sized companies.
While this all sounds quite dramatic, there is no need to panic. There is a logical reason why we saw these movements, and it is...
29 August 2025
Is it better to invest early on?There’s nothing like a deadline to spur us into action. It’s why so many investors find themselves opening ISAs in the final few days of each tax year, just before 5 April.
But there are also investors who do things a bit differently, opening their ISAs in the first few days of each tax year – on 6 April or just after.
28 August 2025
What we learned from Nvidia’s results: China battle, a big new opportunity, and robotics planAI demand is not the problem for Nvidia, it’s more how politics has got in the way of its grand ambitions for global domination.
The company is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Nvidia has technology that countless companies are queuing up to buy, yet the US trade war has made it difficult to sell whatever it wants into China.
The Trump...
28 August 2025
Going viral: investing in the latest hot trendsEvery year without fail we get products that fly off the shelves. Thanks to social media, it doesn’t take long for the word to get around and certain items to go viral. This hype fuels demand, making these items even more desirable.
Companies love nothing more than for their products to be the talk of the town. Going viral can mean a bump in sales...
22 August 2025
Daily market update: FTSE reshuffle, Jackson Hole summit, Revolution Beauty“The FTSE 100 saw a subdued start on Friday after achieving a record close above 9,300 yesterday,” says AJ Bell Investment Analyst Dan Coatsworth.
“This followed more selling on Wall Street overnight, albeit of moderate persuasion, as investors fret about the message Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell might deliver at the Jackson Hole summit.
“Inv...
