Pros And Cons Of ETF Vs. Mutual Funds

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ETF vs. Mutual Funds Mutual funds are investments that contains pools of individual stocks or bonds which are specifically chosen by a fund manager or team1. Exchange-traded funds or ETFs are offshoots of mutual funds that allow investors to trade index portfolios1. While ETFs maintain a lot of the characteristics of mutual funds – including the fact they are a pools of investments, have low costs, and have benefits such as the ability to achieve diversification and asset allocation – ETFs offer advantages that mutual funds cannot. Pros and Cons of ETFS The popularity of ETFs has grown exponentially in recent years due to their flexibility and efficiency. They are often recommended to investors because they offer the following benefits: Low Cost ETFs, like mutual funds, are simple as well as inexpensive. On average, ETFs are actually cheaper than their comparable mutual funds because there are no loads (fees) and operating expenses are much cheaper. Average Total (TOT +0.46%) Operating Expenses Mutual Funds ETFs US Large-Cap Stock 1.31% 0.47% US Mid-Cap Stock 1.45% 0.56% US Small-Cap Stock 1.53% 0.52% International Stock 1.57% 0.56% Taxable Bond 1.07% 0.30% Municipal Bond 1.06% 0.23% Chamberlain, Michael. "What's The Difference?" Forbes. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. Liquid Mutual funds can be bought or sold based on that day’s closing price. ETFs can be bought or sold intraday, you can rapidly enter and leave the market throughout the trading day. This offer investors the chance to wager on the direction short-term market movements – daily fluctuations of securities. Tax Benefits ETFs are tax efficient and very few, if ever, are eli... ... middle of paper ... ...s can be used for speculative trading strategies like short selling (1) and trading on margin (2). Overall, regardless of your investing Smart beta ETFs are ETFs built for outperformance that track a rule-based index. They are transparent in that they provide exposure to a specific risk factors other than market cap weighted size, growth, value, or industry sectors. Also, they are low cost and offer the best benefits of active and passive investing. (1) Short-selling occurs when the sale of shares is not owned by the investors by borrowed through a broker and later purchased to replace the loan1 (2) Trading on margin occurs when a security is purchased with money borrowed in part from a broker. The margin is the net worth of the investor’s account1 1 Bodie, Zvi, Alex Kane, and Alan J. Marcus. Essentials of Investments. Ninth ed. N.p.: McGraw, 2013. Print.

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