Turn to Understanding Exchange-Traded Funds for a quick, accessible overview of ETFs, the hottest and most significant investment tool of recent years. This expert guide explains why exchange-traded funds are important and why they work so well, highlighting the advantages of ETFs over traditional mutual funds and discussing all the new types of ETFs.
Introduction:
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are extraordinary new investments, each one a cross between a mutual fund and a stock. They function like mutual funds but trade like stocks. By my count, 318 exchange-traded funds are available in the United States, with more abroad. Only a few years after ETFs started trading, two of them have become the most actively traded securities in the world. ETF net assets currently stand at more than $350 billion. This pales in comparison with the $9.3 trillion held in mutual funds, but ETF assets are growing considerably faster.
This book explains how exchange-traded funds work, how you can use them, and why you should indeed use them. We begin from the bottom up:
- Stocks and bonds
- Mutual funds
- Exchange-traded funds
- Unsuccessful and successful ways of using ETFs
- A rundown of all ETFs currently available in the United States
Ironically, the person who invented exchange-traded funds intended them to be used by investment professionals for buying and selling over short periods. Short-term trading works fine for some professionals—we’ll explore why. But it’s highly unlikely that in-and-out trading will work well for you. ETFs work better for long-term investing—even better, in fact, than mutual funds.
The book contains an extensive glossary. Terms appearing in bold in the body of the work also appear in the glossary. A few words not otherwise mentioned in the book are explained in the glossary as well. Nearly a lifetime of learning is crammed into this book. But even for the novice, it’s still an easy read. The book enables you to invest with more understanding, better returns, less worry, and less work.
Contents:
- Stocks
- Secondary Trading
- Those Quirky Bonds
- Mutual Funds
- Indexes and the Funds That Track Them
- The Basics of Exchange-Traded Funds
- Comparison of Costs
- Comparison of Risks
- Comparison with Actively Managed Mutual Funds
- Comparison with Index Funds
- General Financial Guidelines
- Mostly Bum Strategies
- Pretty Good ETF Strategies
- The Ins and Outs of Brokerage Accounts
- Fear Not the Purchase of Stocks
- Approaching a Promising Investment Strategy
- A Superior Portfolio of Exchange-Traded Funds
Understanding Exchange-Traded Funds By Archie Richards pdf
Zain Marks (verified owner) –
ETFs are not a form of extraterrestrial, but they do remain a mystery to many. We should be grateful to Archie Richards for explaining everything about them and also offering mush useful advice. This is a timely and terrific book on one of today’s hottest investment topics.
Alejandra Carr (verified owner) –
Archie Richards delivers the nuts and bolts of ETFs—and much more that the investor needs to know.
Heath Ballard (verified owner) –
I’ve been an investor for some thirty years. I now invest almost solely in ETFs. I found this book extremely valuable.
To begin with, it is well written and organized well. In addition, it offers the reader lots of current information on almost all of the EFTs currently offered.
It starts out with the basics. So I skipped a lot of that but if you’re new to investing, you should read every word. This fantastic book tells you more about EFTs than you’d ever find elsewhere. I was amazed at all the material covered and the information given.
I didn’t agree with the author when he advised the reader to use FolioFN. I find Buyandhold better in that the fees for one year at $14.99 per month is less than a year with FolioFN. (This is for unlimited window trades.) But that’s the only area in which I had disagreement.
Well, perhaps one other area. He seemed keen on a 60/40 allocation for everyone at all times. I’m not so sure I can buy that. At my age and in a recession, I sleep better with closer to 50/50. But, having said that, I found his idea of nine EFTs wonderful. He showed how to actually lower your risk using more equities and asset classes.
While he doesn’t give but one suggested portfolio (which is also on his Web site), it is a good portfolio. It’s a bit different from mine but I don’t follow any particular advice.
I keep this book together with my other favorite EFT books — right beside me. If you’re interested, the other books are:
The EFT Book
All About Asset Allocation
To me, these are valuable books that I wouldn’t part with.
But Richards gives the reader the key elements of ETF costs, redemptions, the three basic categories, tax consequences, and much more. I found the part about taxes especially useful. Oh, and he doesn’t believe in IRAs! This is perhaps the first time I’ve read this in a financial book. But his reasons make a good deal of sense. This book is revolutionary.
Highly recommended.
Monica Castro (verified owner) –
I can’t give it lower than 3 stars, because the book is generally titled “Understanding exchange traded funds”. I should have known it would be somewhat basic. It provides good, accurate information in layman’s terms.
That said, it doesn’t really go beyond that. If you are an academic or practitioner, this would only be used as an entry level quick read. It’s very short. If you’re an individual investor, this is probably a great digestible way to learn about ETFs.