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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If you understand nothing else about your portfolio, you should know this one simple fact: Mutual funds and ETFs both charge you money to invest in them. Period. End of story. This will come as a surprise to some or simply be a small reminder to others. Regardless, the fact remains that you must shell out your hard earned money for the privilege of investing in these products. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – the key is you must understand exactly what you’re paying for and what you’re getting in return. We discussed on our most recent radio broadcast and helped decode confusing investment jargon like “expense ratios”. We also explored why mutual funds are typically much more expensive than ETFs and we tackled a common misperception among investors – that higher priced funds deliver better performance. Most importantly, we explained how investment costs can be the difference between meeting your financial goals and coming up short.
In our weekly market update, we talked jobs report, including why the financial markets viewed the most recent jobs report (which showed the unemployment rate ticking down) as bad news and why the stock market went up in response to this bad news. In our weekly ETF Spotlight segment, we highlighted the United States Oil Fund (ticker USO), which holds futures contracts for light sweet crude oil. With the spot price of oil up sharply over the past several months and tensions flaring in the Middle East, this ETF can be an easy, cost effective way to gain exposure to oil. Learn more about USO by visiting www.etfbuzz.com.
