Friday, November 20, 2009

What To Know About ETF Trading

By Patrick Deaton

Exchange traded funds and ETF trading activities and how to use them can make for excellent investment vehicles for anyone looking at generating good rates of return on investments in the exchange traded fund. Basically, an ETF is nothing more than an index fund that tracks one of the big market indexes out there. For example, many track the Standard & Poor's 500.

They sometimes are also what are called "trusts." Either way, they usually are constituted much like mutual funds in that they contain a basket of various securities. Also, they are listed on a stock exchange and can be traded all day long, which the industry refers to as "intraday." This means that trading activities in the fund are looked at on a trading day basis.

At present, there are more than 100 exchange traded funds operating on the American Stock Exchange. Most represent a variety of market sectors and indexes. ETFs are also carrying securities or bonds from many different industries, stock index funds, individual markets and international regions. They also are big players in Treasury and corporate bond indexes.

Investors who wish to participate in ETF trading sell or buy shares in the collective performance of one or several of an entire portfolio of bonds or stocks as a single security. As an arrangement, there are many benefits to doing so. This includes combining liquidity of stock investing with all the benefits of investing using traditional fund indexing.

Any size investor (large institutional or small individual) will readily see the numerous advantages to participation in an exchange traded fund. Small investors normally are participating through a trading system, so keep that in mind. Costs involved in running an ETF are usually much lower and -- as they are not indexed based -- management fees are also very low.

This is particularly attractive, and is made possible because an ETF is not considered to be actively managed on a very close basis. In other words, there are not a lot of movements in the fund that require management to get involved on trades and such. This is supported by the fact that studies reveal that there is no advantage with actively managed funds over these kinds.

Much of this is due to the fact that the net asset value on the trading day is determined by the underlying assets in the fund. This gives it a great deal of transparency because they imitate or replicate the holdings in, and try to track the performance of and yield of, the index that they track and which underlies the fund itself.

Most small investors usually trade throughout the day through pricing and trading of security portfolios. ETF trading makes this possible because there aren't any restrictions placed on trading activity, such as restricting trades to once a day, at the end of the day. Many small investors using a trading system, though, do this. Additionally, ETF pricing is also available throughout the day, making it particularly attractive. - 23204

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