Resources

. ishares

. AMEX

. Morningstar 

. FOLIOfn

. ETF Digest

. ETFConnect

. XTF

. ETFExpert

. ETFdB

. ETFGrind

. Schwab ETF's
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ETF's

What are ETF's?

• ETF is short for  Exchange Traded Funds. 
  
  
• They work like stocks and unlike regular open-end mutual funds, ETF’s can be bought and sold throughout the trading day and are also margin-able (margin trading involves special risks).
   
• They track like index funds and have low expenses. 
  Recently, however there have been some elements of active management, see PowerShares.
  
  
• They are tax efficient like their index fund counterparts. 
  
  
• Disadvantages of ETF's:
  To buy and sell shares, you must pay a commission which is a drawback over index funds for investors contributing small amounts periodically.
  They act as index funds and may lag in periods when actively managed funds do well.
  There are some style boxes where ETF's are not available.
  There are several ETF's with a very narrow focus and some with untested startegies (Caveat Emptor).
  Tracking error (difference between a fund's price either NAV or market value and its benchmark) in many ETF's (Yahoo article).
  
  Research ETF's at xtf.com
  
  
• Some ETF names: Qubes, SPDRs, sector SPDRs, MidCap SPDRs, HOLDRs, iShares, and Diamonds. 
  
  
• Popular ETF's and corresponding indices are:
  
  
  
  
  
• Check resources on the left of this page for more information on ETF's and how to construct a portfolio using ETF's.
  
  

• Traditional Index ETF: S&P 500 Spider
  
  QuasiTraditional Index ETF: Rydex S&P Equal Weight
  
  Untraditional Index ETF: FTSE RAFI 1000  
                                       Wisdom Tree 

ETN's

What are ETN's?

They are debt instruments designed to mimic a fund or ETF. The difference is that investors in the ETN do not own assets in the index like a fund or ETF. Instead they own a promise from the ETN's issuer to make payments based on the value of the underlying securities. Read excellent Forbes article.