An EFT is highly artificial in many ways.
When you buy an EFT, you are basically relying on the EFT sponsor to do what he said he would do. For example, in a physical gold EFT, if shares are sold, then the sponsor is supposed to use that money to buy gold. Same thing with stocks and other underlying securities.
Now suppose there was another financial crisis, and the big financial houses that sponsor these things desperately need cash. Isn’t it possible that some of them might raid whatever money is available?
Can an unscrupulous sponsor pull a Madoff? Well Madoff did and so did so did Jon Corzine.
But they are the great exception. Furthermore, there is nothing to stop a mutual fund manager from pulling the same stunt...or a corporate management team like that at Enron.
Actually, no. An EFT is not artificial.
You might be thinking of ETN's (Notes) wherein there is an institutional guarantor. Also, some leveraged ETF's might contain swaps and corporate guarantees...which is why I would avoid them.
This all said, I am not giving advice and none should be taken.