Investing in individual shares is always risky to a degree, but ASX growth stocks are perhaps the riskiest playground to be dabbling in, outside the penny stocks arena of course.
Although the ASX has many fantastic growth stocks, many of them have been labelled as extremely frothy at current valuations. Some of the WAAAX stocks like Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) come to mind, as do payments businesses like Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT).
Therefore, I think ETFs provide a good alternative to some of the more popular growth stocks out there today. ETFs are usually though of as 'passive' investments, but not all ETFs are index funds like the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS).
Some cover high-growth sectors, and I think would be perfect additions to a high-octane portfolio. Here are 2 such ETFs.
ETFS ROBO Global Robotics and Automation ETF (ASX: ROBO)
This ETF tracks a basket of companies that are directly involved in the development of robotics and artificial intelligence. This is an area where I think everyone can agree a lot of future potential resides, so an ETF basket tracking this potential might be a great way to add some of this potential to your portfolio.
Some of ROBO's holdings include NVIDEA, Brooks Automation and iRobot Corporation (not affiliated with Will Smith in any way). This ETF has a nice geographic range too, with significant holdings across the US, Japan, Germany and Taiwan.
BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK)
HACK is in a similar vein to ROBO (you've got to love these ticker symbols) but focuses instead on a basket of companies involved in cybersecurity and hacking prevention. Again, I don't see many scenarios where this industry as a whole doesn't experience significant growth into the future, as I don't think the internet is going away anytime soon.
Thus, I think HACK would be well-placed in an ASX growth portfolio. Some of its top holdings include Okta, Palo Alto Networks and Cisco Systems. It's a little less diversified than ROBO from a geographical perspective, with 82.5% of its stocks listed in the US.
Foolish takeaway
I think these 2 ASX ETFs offer an exotic and exciting way to diversify a growth-focused portfolio across some key trends that offer a lot of future potential.
