Listen to The ETF Store Show every Tuesday at 9am on ESPN 1510 as we cover everything you need to know about Exchange Traded Funds and the world of investing.
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With over 1,500 ETFs available and nearly 1,000 more filed with the SEC, it’s becoming a bigger challenge for investors to choose the right ETFs for their portfolios. For example, if you run a basic screen on emerging market equity ETFs, it can yield more than 150 ETFs from which to choose. Obviously, there are going to be significant differences between these ETFs – from country exposure to index tracked to cost. While the growth and innovation in the ETF industry is no doubt a net positive for investors, the downside is that finding the right ETFs for your situation is now more cumbersome than ever. On our most recent radio broadcast, we walked through the basics on how to choose the right ETFs for your portfolio, including the most important factors to consider. We also discussed some of the free online tools available to help with this process.
In our weekly market update, we talked Syria and its impact on the financial markets. With investors already on edge over a laundry list of concerns including Fed taper talk and the upcoming debt ceiling debate, a potential military confrontation in Syria is the last thing they want to hear. However, investors would be wise to consider how the market has fared historically in these types of situations. The lesson? Investors who didn’t overreact to these events, on average, have ended up better off within a very short-time frame after the particular event. In our weekly ETF Spotlight segment, we looked at the Vanguard Total International Bond ETF (ticker BNDX). International bonds make up approximately 35% of the world’s total investible assets (which is larger than international stocks, US stocks, or US bonds), yet this asset class tends to be significantly underrepresented in investor portfolios. BNDX can be a low cost way to access this exposure. Learn more about BNDX by visiting www.etfbuzz.com.
