Exchange Traded Funds PrimerWritten by Mark Mahorney
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are a group of passive index funds that trade on an exchange like an individual stock. At time of writing there are 162 ETFs with $220 billion in assets under management trading on U.S. exchanges.ETFs hold a basket of securities that mimic results of various indices including broad stock and bond market, industry sectors, and international securities. New niche funds are being created regularly. Recent introductions include gold and China funds, and there are rumors that a silver ETF will soon be available. The most popular ETF is NASDAQ 100 Tracking Stock (QQQQ) trading 50 million shares a day on NASDAQ Stock Market. The volume leaders on American Stock Exchange are SPDRS (SPY) tracking S&P 500 trading 25 million shares per day, Energy SPDR (XLE), Japan iShares (EWJ), Russell 2000 iShares (IWM), and Financial SPDR (XLF). ETFs are widely used by institutional and individual investors as a tool for diversification, risk reduction, hedging, and an efficient way to acquire a basket of securities providing partial ownership in all holdings with only a single commission and small administration fees. ETFs are also transparent, meaning that investors know at all times what securities they are invested in.
| | Maximise your compound interest, FREE mortgage quoteWritten by Luke Goodin
Compound interest is very method that finance companies have made their money for many decades. However at last competition from a booming worldwide economy has forced industry to give consumers a better deal.Compound interest in a nutshell is basically daily calculation of interest that accumulates into thousands of dollars designed to suck consumer dry. FACT: I used an interest calculator to work out how much interest my best friend Brad would be paying if he continued paying normal repayments on his $280,000 home loan over 30 years. It worked out he would be paying $412,000 JUST IN INTEREST over 30 years. Now if he put his homebuyers grant (for overseas viewers of this article in Australia first home buyers get a grant from government of $12,000) straight into his loan it would cut 7 years off his loan. A total saving of just over $150,000 in compound interest just from that small investment of $12,000. The same applies if you put just $5.00 or $10.00 per week extra into your loan or if you get ultimate deal where you put your whole salary into mortgage loan account and draw only funds you need to survive out. These methods blow compound interest away real quick and save you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
|
