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| Posted by | Message | tirebiter 
LSU Fan
ATL
Member since Oct 2006
4459 posts
| re: Good ETF or Vanguard fund suggestion... (Posted on 12/6/12 at 5:22 pm to BamaScoop)
quote:
some money into an ETF or fund that I can manage within my scottrade account
You need to determine which is more cost effective for you in your account, monthly trades on ETF's or mutual fund purchases. If you don't know much about buying stocks or ETF's at least read up on bid/ask spreads, types of orders (limit is often best) and use something that is widely traded to lower the spread until you gain experience. Something like VTI (domestic total market) has a very tight spread, something like VSS (smallcap international market) typically has a fairly wide spread and you will likely pay a premium for it.
| | Back to top | | acgeaux129
LSU Fan
We are BR
Member since Sep 2007
13806 posts
 Online
| re: Good ETF or Vanguard fund suggestion... (Posted on 12/6/12 at 7:02 pm to Janky)
quote:
I would not put much weight in the "star system". That only looks backwards and not forwards. For example, if you look at ICMAX it is a 5 star fund. It used to be a great fund, then the manager left and it is pretty weak. Alls I am saying is, do not base your choices solely on morningstar "star" ratings.
This is huge.
Scoop, I'm sure Scottrade has a promotion with several dozen commission-free ETFs. I would simply break it down by sector:
S&P 500: SPY, IVV, VOO
Total Market: VTI, IYY
Gold IAU, GLD
Oil: USO, OIL, DBO (these all track different underlying)
Real Estate: VNQ
Homebuilders: XHB
Then I would do a comparison with expense ratios among the various groups and see if it's worth it to go commission-free on something with a higher expense ratio from the same sector(might be sort of a moot point since they are so low anyway).
| | Back to top | | matthew25 
Ole Miss Fan
Member since Jun 2012
1517 posts
| re: Good ETF or Vanguard fund suggestion... (Posted on 12/7/12 at 7:10 pm to acgeaux129)
Is anybody familiar with the Morningstar Gold, Silver, Bronze rating system that has been around for a year or so?
| | Back to top | | Llama
Member since Nov 2012
12 posts
| re: Good ETF or Vanguard fund suggestion... (Posted on 12/12/12 at 8:33 pm to Janky)
quote:
The last thing I look at is expenses. I will pay an extra 75bps for an extra 3% or more in returns.
Amen. Exactly why its a good idea to hire a good advisor. They can do all the work for you and we could all spend more time in the OT.
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