The Individual Investor's Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds

At the same time, total assets have grown to $488 billion from last year’s $337 billion (excluding HOLDRS), according to the Investment Company Institute, an investment company trade organization. The assets include $244 billion in broad-based U.S. stock ETFs, $71 billion in U.S. sector stock ETFs, $147 billion in global and foreign stock ETFs, and $27 billion in bond ETFs.

Exchange-traded funds are primarily passively managed portfolios of securities that track an index, offering an alternative to traditional index mutual funds. They are similar to traditional mutual funds in that they consist of a portfolio of securities. However, ETFs are listed on an exchange and trade just like an individual stock, offering trading flexibility that does not exist with traditional index funds.

The concept is not new. The first exchange-traded fund, the S&P 500-tracking SPDRs (“Spiders,” ticker symbol SPY), was introduced in 1993 and was an immediate hit.

PowerShares QQQ, formerly known as Qubes (a name derived from the original ticker QQQ), which tracks the NASDAQ 100 index, was introduced in 1999 and is the second most actively traded ETF today after SPDRs.

What’s New

This year’s new ETF offerings continue last year’s trend toward covering every conceivable market niche—and then some. And like last year, many of this year’s new ETF offerings track indexes most investors have never heard of.

There are two reasons for this. One is that a number of new ETFs cover not-very-well-known specialty indexes; the other is that many of the indexes underlying some of the new ETFs were designed specifically for the ETF.

Why create an index specifically for an ETF?

Many “custom” indexes use rules-based quantitative analysis to select component securities and determine the weightings, either to focus on a particular market strategy or a market segment.

Here is a brief description of some of the more unusual ETFs introduced over the last year. [For more on how these ETFs might fit into a portfolio, see the article “Building an ETF Portfolio: From the Simple to the Complex.]

Specialty ETFs

A number of new ETFs could be termed “sector-sector” funds, focusing on sectors within a particular sector. For example, the new HealthShares series of 20 ETFs offers what it terms “vertical portfolios,” organized by therapeutic categories, in the pharmaceuticals, healthcare services, life sciences and biotechnology sectors.

Similarly, iShares now offers several ETFs that focus on specific REIT sectors.

Want to participate in the ETF boom? The Claymore/Clear Global Exchanges, Brokers and Asset Managers focuses on companies making money in the global capital markets.

The trend toward ETFs that focus on market strategies also accelerated over the last year. Among the more unusual are several Claymore offerings: the Claymore/Clear Spin-Off ETF tracks an index of stocks that have recently been spun-off from larger corporations; the Claymore/Sabrient Insider ETF tracks an index representing stocks that are reflecting favorable corporate insider buying trends or Wall Street analyst earnings estimate increases; the Claymore/Ocean Tomo Patent ETF tracks a rules-based index of stocks with high patent-value-to-book-value ratios, and the Claymore/Zacks Sector Rotation ETF tracks an index that follows a sector rotation strategy (rebalancing quarterly).

PowerShares continues to introduce new ETFs focusing on specific strategies. Among the more unusual that are new to the listings this year: the PowerShares Listed Private Equity Portfolio, which focuses on U.S. publicly listed companies with direct investments in private businesses; the PowerShares DWA Technical Leaders Portfolio, which tracks an index composed of stocks with high relative strength; and the PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation Portfolio, which follows an industry rotation index based on Value Line Timeliness rankings.

The WisdomTree series of ETFs has introduced its earnings-focused funds, which track six indexes that use “core earnings” (defined by Standard & Poor’s) to determine the size of the holdings, so that companies with greater earnings generally have larger weights in the index. These new ETFs are designed to complement WisdomTree’s year-old dividend-focused series that use dividends paid and dividend yields to determine the weightings.

More Dividend-Focused ETFs

Dividend-focused ETFs have become extremely popular, so much so that last year we created a new “dividend-focused” category in our listing. This year there are several notable additions. The iShares U.S. Preferred Stock Index fund provides access to high-yielding preferred stocks. The Claymore series of ETFs offers two funds (the Claymore/Zacks Yield Hog ETF and the Claymore/BBD High Income Index ETF) that track indexes focusing on higher-yielding stocks, ADRs, REITs, master-limited partnerships, closed-end funds and preferred stocks, with the holdings determined by rules-based quantitative ranking systems devised by the index providers.

Equal-Weighted ETFs

The Rydex series has expanded its offerings of ETFs that cover equal-weighted indexes, this year covering S&P sector indexes, as well as smaller-cap indexes. Equal-weighted indexes weight their holdings based on equal representation for all companies in an index, rather than on market capitalizations, where larger companies tend to dominate.

More Leveraging & Shorting ETFs

The ProShares series has expanded its offerings of ETFs with leverage—these ETFs provide investors with magnified exposure, short exposure or magnified short exposure to various indexes, which this year now includes many sectors (for instance, consumer goods, consumer services, healthcare), as well as mid-cap and smaller-cap indexes.

Currency ETFs

The PowerShares funds this year began offering ETFs that follow currency indexes, including a U.S. dollar bearish fund and a U.S. dollar bullish fund. These new currency funds offer an alternative to last year’s new exchange-traded fund offerings by the CurrencyShares series, which track actual foreign currencies (net of expenses), rather than indexes.

Bond ETFs

The number of bond ETFs this year expanded dramatically, with new offerings covering more of the bond market, including high-yield bonds, two new municipal ETFs, and a series covering specific-term U.S. Treasuries.

Complete Coverage

Currently, ETFs cover almost every equity index imaginable, including the Dow, S&P, Russell, Morningstar and Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes.

Fixed-income ETFs include short-, intermediate- and long-term Treasuries, corporate bonds, TIPS (Treasury inflation-protected securities) and municipal bonds.

Exchange-traded funds are uniquely suited for individual investors, offering a low-cost and flexible way to ensure diversification in a portfolio.

Because these funds are relatively new and rapidly expanding, AAII has put together a complete listing of all existing exchange-traded funds, along with a guide to how they work and where you can get more information on them.

Our listing of ETFs categorizes each one by the type of index it tracks for easier comparison of similar alternatives. The listing is broken down into these market segments:

• Broad-Based/Large-Cap ETFs
• Broad-Based/Mid-Cap ETFs
• Broad-Based/Small-Cap ETFs
• Broad-Based/Micro-Cap ETFs
• Broad-Based/Specialty ETFs
• Broad-Based/Specialty/Dividend Focus ETFs
• Sector ETFs (listed by sector)
• Foreign/Global ETFs
• Foreign/Regional ETFs
• Foreign/Country ETFs
• Foreign/Sector ETFs
• Foreign/Currency ETFs
• Fixed-Income ETFs

The listing includes recent performance and trading statistics, expense ratios, how the ETF is structured, and which index it tracks.

HOLDRS, which technically are not really “exchange-traded funds,” are included in the listings under the appropriate sector.

What You Need to Know About ETFs

Exchange-traded funds offer many of the advantages of a traditional index fund. Because they are composed of a basket of securities that track a particular index, ETFs provide diversification within the sector of the index that they track.

And because ETFs now cover almost every sector of the equity markets, they offer an easy and low-cost way to adjust the asset allocation of any portfolio.

How They Work

An exchange-traded fund is similar to a mutual fund in that it consists of a portfolio of securities. Shares in the ETF represent an ownership interest in the underlying basket of securities held by the fund.

ETFs continuously create new shares or redeem existing shares, depending on market demand. However, the creation and redemption process is limited to institutional investors that qualify as Authorized Participants (APs), who deal with the ETF in large, specified quantities called “creation units” and “redemption units.” Although any given basket of securities may be large, consisting of hundreds of different individual stocks, the trading of these baskets is instantaneous over the sophisticated electronic trading platforms that exist today.

ETF shares are created when the AP provides the fund with a specific basket of securities (the holdings in the index the ETF tracks), and the fund in turn transfers the corresponding number of shares (a creation unit) to the AP; those shares are then sold by the AP on the secondary markets. ETF shares sold in the secondary markets trade on an exchange just like a stock. This is the marketplace individual investors go to when purchasing or selling an ETF.

Similarly, ETF shares are redeemed when the AP provides the ETF with a specific number of ETF shares (a redemption unit), and receives from the ETF the corresponding basket of securities.

Who are these APs?

They primarily consist of institutional traders that are able to make small profits on the arbitrage opportunities. Here’s how it works.

The underlying assets in an ETF are priced every 15 seconds, allowing a per unit value of the portfolio to be determined throughout the day. This is known as the intraday indicative value of the fund, and it is similar to a mutual fund’s net asset value (NAV), except that it is determined continuously throughout the day.

Institutional traders closely track these intraday NAVs. If an ETF’s unit price diverges from its intraday NAV, the trader can profit by either delivering the basket of individual securities to the fund (for creation units) and then simultaneously selling ETF shares in the secondary markets, or by buying ETF shares on the secondary markets, and simultaneously receiving the basket of individual securities from the ETF (for redemption units).

This institutional trading and arbitraging process helps keep the prices of ETFs on the secondary markets very close to their actual NAV. In fact, the amount of divergence between an ETF’s intraday NAV and its share price is related primarily to the liquidity of the ETF’s underlying basket of securities. For ETFs that track indexes with less-liquid holdings, arbitraging is more difficult and therefore divergence is more likely to be greater.

ETF Advantages

ETFs have several unique advantages compared to traditional index mutual funds.

Lower Costs at the Fund Level

Although index mutual funds have low annual expense ratios, ETFs typically—but not always—have even lower ratios. Like their traditional index fund counterparts, they are passively managed and, therefore, do not have high management fees.

Unlike traditional index funds, ETFs are traded on an exchange and, therefore, the fund does not have to buy and sell securities to accommodate shareholder purchases and redemptions. This also results in lower annual taxable distributions by the fund, as well as lower costs.

And although an investor must pay commissions to buy and sell shares, ETFs do not impose annual 12b-1 fees.

Trading Flexibility

Because they are exchange-traded, ETFs have the same trading flexibility as an individual stock:

• They can be bought and sold at intraday market prices, unlike traditional mutual funds which are bought and sold at end-of-day prices;
• They can be purchased on margin;
• They can be sold short; and
• They can be traded using stop orders and limit orders, which allow investors to specify the price points at which they are willing to buy and sell shares.

ETF Risks

Exchange-traded funds carry many of the risks of traditional index mutual funds. In particular, they face market risk—the risk that the sector of the market that they are tracking may drop based on a variety of factors such as economic conditions and global events, investor sentiment and sector-specific factors. ETFs also face other risks.

Market Pricing

The market share price of an exchange-traded fund is determined by the forces of supply and demand and, therefore, investors may purchase shares at a premium or discount to the fund’s net asset value. However, arbitrage by large institutional traders tends to keep these at a minimum, and for most exchange-traded funds, these differences are insignificant.

Tracking Error

Tracking error refers to the fact that an index fund’s returns can sometimes fall short of (or exceed) the benchmark returns. Most index-based tradable funds track their benchmarks closely, as do low-cost traditional index funds. Some portfolios may exhibit larger tracking errors than typical. Such discrepancies are not necessarily a drawback for investors, especially if limited alternatives exist for gaining exposure to a tiny segment of the stock market. Yet it’s important to understand why these deviations exist.

Three primary factors account for tracking errors:

• Sampling: A fund may sample the universe tracked by the index rather than employ full replication.
• SEC- and IRS-mandated diversification requirements: Investment company regulations state that a single company may account for no more than 25% of a fund’s total assets. Thus, if a company makes up more than 25% of a market’s index, that stock would be underweighted by the fund. To optimize a portfolio, the manager may increase weightings of other portfolio components or even go outside the index.
• Expenses: Even if a fund identically weights all the stocks in its benchmark, performance will be reduced by the expense ratio (i.e., net return equals gross return of index less expenses).

The Indexes

Most ETFs are designed to replicate the holdings and correspond to the performance and yield of an underlying index, although several newer ETFs are designed to track the price of a commodity or currency.

Benchmarks tracked by exchange-traded funds fall into four general categories:

• Broad-based indexes: A wide cross-section of equities from a broad range of industries is included in these benchmarks. Examples are the S&P 500, Dow Jones U.S. Total Market and Russell 3000. Style-specific “growth” and “value” options exist for certain benchmarks; you can choose between large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap and micro-cap firms; there are indexes that focus on dividends, and others that use methods other than market capitalizations to weight the holdings in the index; lastly there are proprietary indexes that focus on specific strategies or market segments.
• Sector indexes: A specific industry or stock group, such as real estate or telecommunications, is the focus. Some benchmarks are relatively broad, such as consumer services, while many others are highly defined, such as Internet companies. Several newer exchange-traded funds do not track an index but rather a commodity.
• International indexes: Global stock indexes, regional indexes and country-specific equity indexes are included. A newer group of exchange-traded funds does not track foreign indexes but rather foreign currencies.
• Bond indexes: Currently 33 bond indexes are tracked covering a wide swath of the bond market, including several Treasury indexes of varying maturities, several corporate bond indexes, a TIPS (Treasury inflation-protected securities) index, several high-yield corporate bond indexes, and two municipal bond indexes.

If you are interested in an ETF, you should make sure that you understand the underlying index (or asset) that it tracks. For example, although DIAMONDS and iShares DJ U.S. Total Market Index fund both cover broad-based large-cap stocks, the performance of the underlying indexes will differ—the Dow Jones industrial average (tracked by DIAMONDS) covers only 30 stocks and is price-weighted, while the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market index is broader-based and is capitalization weighted.

The Rydex S&P Equal Weight Trust covers an S&P 500 index that gives equal emphasis to all 500 stocks. In contrast, the S&P 500 index is based on market capitalizations, which means the stock performances of larger companies have a greater impact on the index; ETFs tracking the S&P 500 index will perform differently than those following an S&P 500 equal-weight index.

In many of the newer ETFs, specialty indexes have been created—for example, the “Dynamic Intellidexes” have been created for many of the PowerShares exchange-traded funds, and the WisdomTree indexes that focus on dividends have been created for the WisdomTree ETFs. Some of these indexes base their holdings and their weightings on fundamental rules rather than market capitalizations, introducing a strategy-based approach to the offering. Rules-based indexes will perform quite differently than a traditional index fund.

Be careful of similar-sounding names. The Select Sector SPDR indexes are different than the S&P Select Industry indexes, which are constructed from a universe of more than 5,000 securities that collectively comprise the S&P Total Market index. The S&P Total Market index measures the performance of common equities listed on New York, American, and NASDAQ exchanges. Each S&P Select Industry index is constructed with an equal–weighted methodology and is rebalanced quarterly, which is designed to prevent a few select stocks from dominating the performance of the index.

The Select Sector SPDR fund indexes, which cover the various sectors of the S&P 500, were designed so that, taken in combination, all eight of the Select Sector funds make up the S&P 500. These indexes are not the same as the more familiar S&P sector indexes that are published by Standard & Poor’s, although they would likely perform very similarly.

Merrill Lynch’s HOLDRS, which are portfolios of securities designed to cover various market sectors, do not track an index. Instead, the stocks are selected at the time a HOLDRS is introduced, based on criteria such as company size and liquidity (discussed more fully later). The American Stock Exchange (Amex) has developed indexes to follow the value of the various HOLDRS, but the HOLDRS came first and do not track the index.

Information on the underlying indexes can be found in each ETF’s prospectus, and in many instances at the fund sponsor’s Web site.

What You Need to Know About Fixed-Income Exchange-Traded Funds

The number of fixed-income exchange-traded funds is starting to grow, after a somewhat slow start. This year, over 30 ETFs track various bond indexes (see listing on page 42), compared to only six last year. New to the listings this year: Two ETFs that track municipal bond indexes (the iShares S&P National Municipal Bond Fund and the SPDR Lehman Municipal Bond ETF); the Ameristock series where each ETF tracks a specific-maturity Treasury; and SPDR and Vanguard ETFs that track several Lehman bond indexes. Bond ETFs work like their stock counterparts. Each fund has both a trading symbol and an IOPV (indicative optimized portfolio value) ticker. The IOPV approximates the fund’s net asset value and is updated every 15 seconds throughout the trading day. By comparing the IOPV and real-time stock quote for a bond ETF, you can determine any discounts or premiums in share price to net asset value, although creation and redemption of the shares by large institutional traders helps keep these to a minimum. You can also determine a bond ETF’s end-of-day discount or premium based upon its net asset value (computed daily at the market close) and last traded price. This information can be found most readily at the sponsor’s Web site. Keep in mind, however, that bond quote and price reporting is less well-developed than stock quote and price reporting, making the IOPV and net asset value less reliable for bond ETFs. Fortunately, bond quotes and price data are improving. As with bonds themselves, the prices of bond ETFs vary inversely with the level of interest rates—i.e., rising rates lead to falling fixed-income security prices and vice versa. Like most bond funds, fixed-income ETFs do not pay a fixed rate of return and do not guarantee that your investment will be recouped when you cash out. Bond ETFs pay monthly dividends in cash. Individuals interested in reinvesting their dividends should contact their brokers for further information, including any fees. Bond ETFs offer benefits similar to those of stock ETFs, such as low cost, diversification, the ability to trade shares throughout the day, and the ability to short a portfolio. Many bond ETFs feature rock-bottom 0.15% expense ratios (or lower)—a major plus for fixed-income portfolios, particularly during times of low returns. The highest expense ratios are two ETFs that focus on the high-yield market. Tax efficiency, an advantage for stock ETFs, would not be a relevant consideration with bond ETFs because of their income orientation. Like Treasury securities themselves, Treasury bond ETFs generate income that is subject to federal income tax but should be exempt from state and local income taxes if the fund sponsor and the shareholder meet the state’s administrative requirements. A few of the bond ETFs replicate their underlying target indexes, but many other bond ETFs use optimized sampling techniques. Because bonds have a given lifespan before they mature, a bond ETF portfolio needs to be reconstituted frequently, reflecting changes in its target index. This process could lead to some capital gains distributions. You could generally expect a bond ETF to have a higher portfolio turnover rate than the broad-based equity ETFs tracking benchmarks like the S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial average, and the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000.

Structure

There are three main structures for index ETFs:

• Open-end index mutual fund: By far the most common structure, these are registered with the SEC as investment companies. Examples are iShares funds and Select Sector SPDRs.
• Unit investment trust: Also registered with the SEC as investment companies, but far less common. However, the first ETFs were structured this way and, thus, the most popular ETFs—Qubes, DIAMONDS and SPDRs, are structured as unit investment trusts.
• Exchange-traded grantor trust: The most similar to actually owning the underlying shares. These are not registered as investment companies and are not considered “exchange-traded funds” under strict definitions of the term. Examples include the HOLDRs funds, and most of the exchange-traded funds that track an underlying commodity (for example the iShares COMEX Gold Trust and the streetTRACKS Gold Shares) or currency (the CurrencyShares ETFs). What’s the advantage of one structure over another?

Open-End and Unit Investment Trusts

The differences between ETFs structured as open-end mutual funds and unit investment trusts are relatively minor. ETFs structured as open-end mutual funds can reinvest the dividends they receive from their underlying holdings in the fund when they receive them, whereas unit investment trusts cannot. The latter accumulate the dividends and reinvest them quarterly, resulting in a so-called “dividend drag” during rising markets. The drag is not that significant with an S&P 500 index fund because the benchmark yields currently are low; it would be more noticeable with higher-yielding portfolios.

The open-end structure also allows a fund to use stock index futures to equitize its dividend stream, enabling it to be more fully invested in the underlying index.

In addition, stock loans can be made by open-end funds but not by unit investment trusts. The interest generated by such loans theoretically results in lower expenses. Stock lending is most significant for a fund that owns a lot of hard-to-borrow stock.

Grantor Trusts

Exchange-traded funds structured as grantor trusts operate quite a bit differently than ETFs structured as investment companies.

Merrill Lynch’s HOLDRS are the largest group of funds organized as grantor trusts. Many information providers do not define HOLDRS as “exchange-traded funds” but rather list them separately. HOLDRS do provide diversified exposure to a particular industry, sector or group. However, HOLDRS allow you to keep ownership benefits related to the underlying stocks: the right to vote shares, to receive dividends and to sell the stock when you want to.

HOLDRS also do not track an independent index. When a new HOLDR is developed, an industry, sector or group of securities is identified and the underlying stocks to be included in the HOLDR are then selected for inclusion on the basis of objective criteria—such as market capitalization, liquidity, price-earnings ratio or other measures. The selected stocks may be weighted equally or on a modified market-cap basis.

However, once determined, stock composition does not change unless due to a corporate event such as a merger or spin-off. Because the relative weightings of the stocks are a function of market prices, the relative weightings within the HOLDRS will change substantially over time.

The other unique feature of HOLDRS is that you can take delivery of the underlying securities, if you choose, by canceling your HOLDR. To cancel, you simply instruct your broker to deliver your HOLDRS to the HOLDRS trustee and pay a cancellation fee. The trustee will transmit ownership of the underlying shares to your account. Canceling a HOLDR is not a taxable event.

Several recently introduced exchange-traded funds are designed to track the price of a commodity, such as gold (iShares COMEX Gold Trust and streetTRACKS Gold Shares), or currency (the CurrencyShares ETFs). These are organized as grantor trusts, where the trusts issue shares representing interests in their net assets, which tend to be the physical holdings of the asset. These funds are not registered under the Investment Company Act, which means they are regulated differently than most other exchange-traded funds.

One important implication of the trust structure concerns taxes: Trust owners are treated as if they own a corresponding share in the underlying asset. In the case of the gold trusts, the asset is taxed as a collectible. Currently, gains from collectibles held over one year are taxed at a maximum rate of 28%, rather than the lower long-term capital gains treatment that is afforded to financial securities.

Other Structures

Several of the newer funds do not fit into any of the above structures because of their use of futures contracts to track their underlying assets. The United States Oil Fund and the United States Natural Gas Fund are designed to track the price movements of crude oil and natural gas, with assets that will consist primarily of futures contracts and U.S. Treasuries. The PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund is designed to track commodity pools, with assets that will consist of futures contracts and U.S. Treasuries. Like the gold trusts, these funds are not registered under the Investment Company Act, which means they are regulated differently than most other exchange-traded funds and have additional tax implications.

Trading ETFs

Because ETFs trade like stocks, you need to know their trading characteristics.

Pricing Considerations

Exchange-traded funds have pricing symbols for three different variables:

• A stock price—the price at which trading occurs.
• An official closing net asset value—with a few exceptions, this quantity is computed as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern time each business day.
• An estimated intraday net asset value—this number is updated every 15 seconds based on the real-time prices of each of a fund’s underlying holdings. It is called “intraday value” for some funds while others call it the “indicative optimized portfolio value.”

Ticker symbols for these funds, along with considerable other trading, performance and structural details, can be found in the individual fund “tear sheets” at the Web site of the exchange on which the fund trades.

Premiums and Discounts to NAV

While premiums and discounts are generally not a major issue, they may be larger in special instances, particularly when the underlying basket of securities is less liquid.

Liquidity and Trading

Liquidity is the ease with which an investment can be bought or sold for a price at or very close to the recent quote. Some ETFs are based on indexes with holdings that are less liquid. This affects the arbitrage process and thus the creation and redemption of ETF shares by institutional traders, leading to wider spreads. The liquidity of an ETF is thus primarily based on the liquidity of the underlying securities in the ETF’s basket.

What the Listings Show

Exchange & Ticker Symbol

The exchange and ticker symbol are provided next to the fund name. The ticker symbol that is given is for the stock price at which trading occurs. This is the symbol you would use when buying or selling shares.

Performance Information

Market Return: The one-year return net of expenses for each fund based on its market price, through June 30, 2007. This is the actual return you would have received if you had invested in the fund over that one-year time period. Keep in mind, however, that it does not include brokerage commissions or spread costs you would incur when buying or selling the shares.

NAV Returns: The three-year annualized return and one-year return net of expenses for each fund based on its net asset value, through June 30, 2007. This provides an indication of how the underlying portfolio of stocks performed over the time period. Funds in which the market return is closer to the NAV return trade with lower discounts and premiums.

Index Return: The one-year return through June 30, 2007, of the underlying index tracked by the fund. Index returns are not included for HOLDRS because they do not track an index.

Tracking Index – NAV Return: The difference between the index return and the fund’s NAV return, an indication of how closely the ETF tracked its underlying index over the time period. Most funds tend to underperform the index, primarily due to expenses. Other factors may also lead to tracking differences. Note that a negative sign indicates a fund outperformed the index.

Risk

RiskGrade: A risk measure that relates the volatility of a particular portfolio to a portfolio of all stocks worldwide during normal market conditions. The base worldwide stock portfolio has a RiskGrade of 100; a portfolio with a RiskGrade of 77 implies that it has a risk 77% as high as the average risk of the worldwide stock portfolio. (The RiskGrades Web site at www.riskgrades.com provides the mathematical details of the approach.)

Trading Information

Closing Price, 52-Week High and 52-Week Low: The closing market price of the fund on September 12, 2007, and the high and low prices over the last year through September 12, 2007.

Volume: The average daily volume of shares traded for the fund for the last three-month period through September 12, 2007.

Asset Size: The net assets of the fund presented in millions of dollars. This provides an indication of the fund’s size, popularity and flexibility.

Expenses

Expense Ratio: The current reported expense ratio for each fund. Keep in mind that these expenses are at the fund level. To purchase or sell shares, you will incur brokerage commissions.

ETF Structure

Whether the fund is structured as an open-end mutual fund, a unit investment trust, a grantor trust, or a special structure.

Index Tracked

The underlying index (or other asset) that the fund is structured to track.

Maria Crawford Scott is editor of the AAII Journal and Cara Scatizzi is AAII’s associate financial analyst.

© 2010 AAII Journal

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