Finan¢ial $en$e: ETF Locater

March 16, 2008

ETF Locater - All

Here are the ETF Locater Trees that I have been working on. ETFs are great instruments. They can give an investor instant access to a business sector and remove the volatility of an individual company within that sector. They allow investors to go short, long or 2x short and long positions - whether for a market sector or a market index. Because most of them are passively managed, their expense ratios are a fraction of that of an actively managed mutual fund. They are very useful at times of market extremes as an investor can also utilize them to place an immediate bet at market extremes without the guess-work involved in picking a company or companies that are going to bust loose.

There are 4 slides in the Power Point presentation. The first slide is the one page of all of the most common and actively traded domestic and foreign ETFs (and ETNs), and several that, although not necessarily very active, are needed to complete a category. Also included are the most common ETFs for domestic Fixed Income Instruments, REITS, Commodities, and Currencies. This first slide should be all that 95% of the people need.

The second slide is the comprehensive list of ETFs for the US financial sectors and indices, exclusive of any domestic ETF from Vanguard, ValueLine, Rydex, Claymore, Morningstar, Morgan Stanley and WisdomTree, or those using the FTSE RAFI and AlphaDEX indices. For the most part, when there are multiple ETFs in a given category, the first one listed is the most popular and therefore the most widely traded. Be careful about picking a fund that has a very small asset size. They will be subject to movements uncorrelated to actual market movements. Also included on the slide are the comprehensive ETFs for domestic Fixed Income Instruments, Municipal Bonds and REITS.

The third slide are those domestic ETFs that are from Vanguard (also includes their 5 international ETFs), ValueLine, Rydex, Claymore, Morningstar, Morgan Stanley and WisdomTree, or those using the FTSE RAFI and AlphaDEX indices. Some people just prefer to deal with a known entity for their ETFs. That, and there just wasn't enough room on the second slide to put all of this information on one slide!

The fourth and final slide has all of the International and Country Specific ETFs, in addition to those for Foreign Currencies, and all of the Commodities. The Commodity ETNs are broken out and a description of an ETN is provided.

I think that you will find these reference sheets to be vary valuable. I tried very hard to ensure that there were no errors and to be as comprehensive as I could, but if you find an error, please let me know so that I can correct it. One last thing - there were a couple of ETFs that just didn't have enough daily volume to be included here. They will probably be shut down and did not merit inclusion in this presentation.

To download the Power Point slides with this information that will print out more legibly, click on the title "ETF Locater" title or the ETF Locater picture to be redirected.

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Disclaimer:

David Keepes aka Dave K. is the writer for this blog titled "Finan¢ial $en$e". He is NOT a registered investment adviser nor does he work in any capacity for an SEC-registered, or any other, investment advisory firm. He writes in an educational capacity and urges and expects anyone who reads his posts and comments to not rely on them for accuracy, and for any reader to perform their own due diligence in regards to all investment and retirement matters. David holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Eastern Illinois University. He is also a permanent Certified Cash Manager since 1995. He lives in Carrollton, Texas, with his wife and one child. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks.

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