These questions is about investment. What is ETF and how is it different from Mutual Fund? Thank you.?

Answer 1

What a great question!

ETF's are the more liquid instrument vs. Mutual funds.

Mutual funds are appropriate for some and the wrong investment for a increasingly growing number of people.

For me, I would NOT invest in mutual funds if it weren't for having a 401K.

Overall, Mutual funds are not good (once you're educated in investing) and many people should not invest in mutual funds unless you have to (like if it were a requirement in a 401K).

Here's why.

First of all, mutual funds exist to take average person's money.

Second, mutual funds seem to be "happy" just to do better than the S&P index, since that's often the gauge. A monkey, yes monkey, can usually outpick most mutual funds. Over 60% of the mutual funds out there can't even outperform the market (CNBC just reported the current # was 72%). That's VERY SAD!

Third, mutual funds have embedded management fees in their costs. Most of these mgmt fees are 0.5% to 2% annually. This is one of the reasons they can’t outperform the market; they take a cut out regardless of how well or poorly they do!

Fourth, most mutual funds exist not to earn you a lot of money, but are more interested in NOT "losing" you lots of money. That way you stay with them and they continue to collect their fees. Did they not highlight to you that they take this fee each and every year regardless of how poorly they do?

Fifth, mutual funds are not as liquid as one might think. If you're in mutual funds and a Bush talks in the morning and you call your broker to sell because the market is now tanking, the broker will gladly take your order, but the order will not be executed until the day is over and the negative impact is already priced into the fund.

Sixth, many mutual funds charge extra "fees" if you buy/sell their fund within a certain amount of time, meaning you must keep your money in the fund 90 days to 2 yrs before you're free from the fees (read the fine print on trying to get a withdrawal). These fees can be up to 3% or so of your money as well.

Seventh, mutual funds have to be in the market. So if the market is crashing or going down like it has between May and now, then the funds still have to be in the market and taking those losses too. With some practice, you can time your monies to avoid some of those losses (it'll take practice).

Convinced yet? Need more?

Eighth, mutual funds have to be pretty diversified and so if there are hot and cold sectors, they are probably in both the hot sectors and cold sectors. However, as an investor, you can buy into just the sectors you want, like metals, or housing, or energy, etc. or right now, Brokers/Dealers, Retail, and insurance!

Ninth, mutual funds are so big, they can only invest in certain companies. A small mutual fund with $10 billion in assets. 1% of that money is $100 million. How many companies are this big where $100 million investment isn't the whole company? Do you want to limit yourself to just those larger companies like Times Warner, Microsoft, home depot, Cisco, Ebay which have been sideways for years? I think not.

A better way would be to buy ETFs (exchange traded funds) or holders. These trade like stocks, so are very liquid, and do not have the high fees like the mutual funds. Further, you can buy/sell them as you wish. They represent sectors or indexes, so buying them gives you the same diversification as the sector/industry/index, but with much less overhead!

See Amex.com (american stock exchange) or ishares.com, holders.com for more info.

Sorry for the long answer, but I wanted to be sure you had some good info on why mutual funds might not be as good as ETFs.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Best of luck!

Answer 2

the best way to think of ETFs is to imagine them as a GPS- a tracking device... whereas a mutual fund is like the compilation of what's under your hood. Both help the car get to the destination, but in very distinct ways. ETFs track the performances of say.. the S&P or the DOW- so in essence, there is a direct relationship between your ETF's performance and that of the index it is tracking. A mutual fund is an assortment of investments in various securities.. and much more diversified since you are not putting all your eggs into one basket, so to speak. Diversification leads to risk minimization...So when investing, consider your risk tolerance, AND your time frame as well.

Answer 3

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I hope it helps

Answer 4

ETFs are a passive basket of like iteams (metals, stocks, bonds but not stocks and bonds in the same ETF) that you own which have the same rules as stock as far as how they are traded.

Mutual funds are a basket of co-owned iteams that are determined by the fund manager at any one time. Mutual funds can't be shorted and their buy and sell price is the close price of that day.