Archive for April 6th, 2008

Exchange Traded Funds

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Exchange Traded Funds (also known as ETF’s) are an excellent way to diversify a portfolio over a basket of stocks instead of a single stock.  If you want your account to follow the ups and downs of the S&P 500 you would have to individually own all of the S&P 500 stocks which would take a lot of money and stock trades, or you have the choice of an ETF that follows the S&P 500.  With one trade of the S&P 500 ETF you own the basket of S&P 500 stocks.  ETF’s allow you to purchase a basket of gold or oil stocks as well, instead of investing in one oil stock, and risking picking a really bad one, if you feel oil stocks are going up overall, you can purchase the oil ETF and it will follow the basket of oil stocks, diversifying your portfolio over a basket of oil stocks instead of just one.


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