What is the advantage disadvanted of exchange traded funds vs. regular mutual funds?

Question

I understand mutual funds very well but have little experience with ETFs so do I need to learn about them? Does it provide more control from a tax stand point? More variety in investing options?

Answer 1

ETFs are awesome. Really low internal expenses, less than 1% almost always. You can pick a sector, like healthcare, or international (EFA is a good one) or just mimic an index such as the S&P 500 (IVV). ETFs are traded like stocks, that is, you can set a limit order to buy and a sell stop to protect your downside or lock in your profits. This is not possible with a mutual fund. Mutual funds are valued at the end of each market day, and when you buy or sell, the value is calculated at the end of that day. ETFs are superior in every way and are traded in realtime, again, like a stock. Mutual funds are legally required not to be comprised of more than 5% of any one stock. This makes the mf manager (to whom you pay a hefty management fee) forced to sell the winners in their portfolio.

Answer 2

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. Since you mention knowing a bit about mutual funds, you probably already know why they're not for most people. But just in case, here's a few reasons.


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! You can even sell options on many of them.

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


You need to invest for yourself. If you can't, then sure, use mutual funds. But be aware of the shortcomings (and as you can see, there are many).

Let me know if you have further questions.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

Here is a short piece on ETFs, I think they are a very useful tool for investors.
http://www.valuestockreports.com/021907.htm