ETF Central (2024)

FAQs

Why I don't invest in ETFs? ›

Costs Could Be Higher

Yet, if you compare ETFs to investing in a specific stock, then the ETF costs are higher. The actual commission paid to the broker might be the same, but there is no management fee for a stock. Also, as more niche ETFs are created, they are more likely to follow a low-volume index.

Generally speaking, fewer than 10 ETFs are likely enough to diversify your portfolio, but this will vary depending on your financial goals, ranging from retirement savings to income generation.

For instance, some ETFs may come with fees, others might stray from the value of the underlying asset, ETFs are not always optimized for taxes, and of course — like any investment — ETFs also come with risk.

Experts agree that for most personal investors, a portfolio comprising 5 to 10 ETFs is perfect in terms of diversification.

There are a few reasons why ETFs generally die. Low assets under management, high fees, poor performance, and short track records are closely associated with the probability of closure. In 2023, there were 244 ETF closures with an average age of 5.4 years and average assets under management of only $54 million.

There are many ways an ETF can stray from its intended index. That tracking error can be a cost to investors. Indexes do not hold cash but ETFs do, so a certain amount of tracking error in an ETF is expected. Fund managers generally hold some cash in a fund to pay administrative expenses and management fees.

A Lazy Portfolio is a collection of investments that requires very little maintenance. It's the typical passive investing strategy, for long-term investors, with time horizons of more than 10 years. Choose your investment style (Classic or Alternative?), pick your Lazy Portfolios and implement them with ETFs.

SPY, VOO and IVV are among the most popular S&P 500 ETFs. These three S&P 500 ETFs are quite similar, but may sometimes diverge in terms of costs or daily returns. Investors generally only need one S&P 500 ETF.

In the past year, QQQ returned a total of 32.22%, which is higher than VOO's 28.12% return. Over the past 10 years, QQQ has had annualized average returns of 18.60% , compared to 12.80% for VOO. These numbers are adjusted for stock splits and include dividends.

Yes, an inverse ETF can reach zero, particularly over long periods. Market volatility, compounding effects, and fund management concerns can exacerbate losses. To successfully manage possible risks, investors should be aware of the short-term nature of these securities and carefully monitor their holdings.

Can an ETF ever go negative? ›

In other words, you could potentially be liable for more than you invested because you bought the position on leverage. But can a leveraged ETF go negative? No. If you own a leveraged ETF you can't lose more than your initial investment amount.

If you're looking for an easy solution to investing, ETFs can be an excellent choice. ETFs typically offer a diversified allocation to whatever you're investing in (stocks, bonds or both). You want to beat most investors, even the pros, with little effort.

Holding an ETF for longer than a year may get you a more favorable capital gains tax rate when you sell your investment.

Under the Investment Company Act, private investment funds (e.g. hedge funds) are generally prohibited from acquiring more than 3% of an ETF's shares (the 3% Limit).

Over the long run, they do compound—those fee differences—and investors have been putting a lot more money into VOO versus SPY. That is the reason why we view VOO slightly better than SPY. And that is just the basic approach, which is the lower the investor can pay, the better the investment is.

If you're looking for an easy solution to investing, ETFs can be an excellent choice. ETFs typically offer a diversified allocation to whatever you're investing in (stocks, bonds or both). You want to beat most investors, even the pros, with little effort.

Interest rate changes are the primary culprit when bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lose value. As interest rates rise, the prices of existing bonds fall, which impacts the value of the ETFs holding these assets.

You expose your portfolio to much higher risk with sector ETFs, so you should use them sparingly, but investing 5% to 10% of your total portfolio assets may be appropriate. If you want to be highly conservative, don't use these at all.

An ETF provides diversification to that active manager and helps you to build a better portfolio. So regardless of the investor and their experience an ETF, if somebody is looking to invest, is something worth considering? Most definitely.