Secrets to Exchange Traded Funds

By Mike Swanson

The SPY ETF is currently the largest stock trading fund in the world. PDR services is its current sponsor. Despite its dominance it does have competition on the market. A list of the larger ETF's to analyze using technical analysis are listed on the New York Stock exchange.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a method of trading on stock exchanges. In principle, an ETF is worth the same as the stocks they represent. This is valued at whatever those assets are worth over the day's trading. As of 2009, there are 680 exchange-traded funds on the US markets, accounting for $610 billion in assets.

Their popularity is based on the easy diversification that they facilitate across the entire index. In addition, ETFs are usually much cheaper to manage than most other trading options. They are also much more tax efficient than shares and stocks. As they can be bought at any time during the day they are also more flexible. Unlike other options, there is much more market transparency to ETFs.

Many critics have railed against ETFs for various reasons. Firstly, they do not provide sufficient flexibility. Secondly, they are short-term in their scope. Thirdly, any tax advantages are minimal to investors that usually use tax deferred accounts. Finally, it has been shown that they can often be used to manipulate market prices. However, many agree that an ETF can still be a wise investment.

Their origin lies with the Index Participation Shares (IDSs) of the late 1980s. IDSs were traded on the American Stock Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Eventually the practice was stopped following a lawsuit by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Later that year the Toronto Stock Exchange began to trade in IDSs. The American Stock exchange looked for anything similar that could pass regulations. The ETF was the result. The very first ETF in the United States was the SPDR (Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts). SPDRs are often known as "spyders" or "spiders".

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