Bought The VWO and BND Vanguard ETFs Last Week
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
I am really starting to like the Vanguard ETFs, almost as much as I like their mutual funds. They have really low expense ratios, they perform spot-on to the indexes they track, and they track sectors and indexes that I really like. In my rollover IRA, I have invested all in exchange traded funds, because for some reason, I thought it would be smart to throw my 401k money in Sharebuilder, because they have low fees, and they allow you to buy portions of shares of securities. Little did I know that they only sell ING mutual funds, so I was pissed about that.
A Good Article About Leveraged ETFs
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
Some of you might track certan ETFs from ProShares, Direxion, and other big ETF families that offer leveraged funds with increased performance. For instance, the FAS fund tracks the financials sector index at three times the normal rate due to leveraging. So, if the financial sector gaines 5% on the day, FAS will gain around 15 percent. However, the key word here is on the DAY. These leveraged ETFs are not meant to be held for long-term investing, and some amateur investors don’t realize that.
Read more from the Kiplinger article.
An Update On My Battered Market Sector ETF Strategy
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
A few weeks ago, I wrote this article about my experiment with some battered market sector exchange traded funds in my rollover IRA.
Current Performance
So far, it has been right on pace with the S&P 500. It dropped about 7% in February, then it rose about 20% in March. They are doing well, but in this market anything can happen. I am confident that financials, real estate, and energy sectors will rebound at some point, and when they do, this retirement account will flourish. We are also going to open an IRA with Vanguard. We’ll pump more money into this account and invest in balanced growth mutual funds, bonds, and dividend appreciation funds.
The ETF’s In My Rollover IRA
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
Back in October, I left my day job to help my wife pursue a career as a physician assistant in childhood neurosurgery. We moved to Orlando, and even though I worked out of my house, I had a specific territory that I covered as a claims adjuster, and I was unable to transfer to the Orlando area. So when I left, I transferred my beaten down 401(k) money, which lost about 35% in 3 months, to ING’s rollover IRA through Sharebuilder. I liked the dollar-cost averaging investment incentives that Sharebuilder offered, but I did not do enough research about what products they offered to purchase through their brokerage firm. They only offer ING mutual funds, which discouraged me. So, I started looking into ETFs.
Investors Pour Into S&P 500 ETFs
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
Yahoo Finance posted an article from Investor’s Business Daily about investors putting more money into S&P 500 index exchange-traded funds.
This is a good sign, because investors are starting to realize that now is the time to buy domestic stocks. The quasi-recession will be short-lived, and buying domestic stocks at a discount is how you become wealthy. Emerging Markets, European Markets, and the Gold market exchange-traded funds were the hardest hit for investors pulling out their money. These are trendy funds. This means that short-term investors are speculating a fourth-quarter rally for the U.S. economy. I think they’re right.
Choosing an ETF versus an Index Fund For Your Long Term Investments
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing
The ETF (Exchange Traded Fund): The ETF seems like it was created for those active traders that like the way mutual funds perform, but they hated the way they traded.
Liquidity: The ETF is very liquid. It trades like a regular, single stock. Whereas, a mutual fund can only be traded once a day. If you sell a mutual fund, you get the price that it ends in at the end of the day. Active traders that trade on a margin or short sell like the ETF and the way its liquidity.
Get Ready For the Actively Managed ETF
by Erik Folgate
Filed under Investing, Stocks
Check out this article about the newest type of ETF. Exchange Traded Funds have grown exponentially in popularity over the last decade. Investors like them because they can trade them like individual stocks, but they offer the same diversification as a mutual fund. Although, these funds have typically followed an index like the S&P 500 instead of being actively managed by a fund manager.
Now, a new breed of ETF’s is putting in the human element of managing funds. An ETF provided lower fees, because you weren’t paying for a broker’s commission or fees, but now brokers like Vanguard and Fidelity and put their hot hands on an ETF and still charge a lower fee than the traditional mutual fund.
