Those of you who can't afford gold can buy gold index funds.
Better than the rest
Commentary: Five ETFs for people who hate ETFs
By Matt Hougan & Jim Wiandt
Last update: 5:26 p.m. EDT Sept. 14, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Every hot new thing has its backlash, and exchange-traded funds are no different. No less an authority than John Bogle has called them "gimmicky" and a threat to long-term returns.
We'd be the first to admit that ETFs aren't perfect. ETFs often don't make sense for "slow and steady" investors who must pay a commission on every trade. And many ETFs have been launched into bubble-like environments, just in time for investors to shoot themselves in the foot by buying high and selling low.
Still, when you cut through the hype, even an investing curmudgeon will realize that there are some areas where ETFs offer the only practical, low-cost access.
Here are five:
1. Gold
A few years ago, buying physical gold was both a pain in the neck and terribly expensive. Your local bank might sell you a one-ounce American Buffalo coin, but you'd pay a 5%-10% mark-up for the privilege. Online metal dealers could do a bit better, and gold pools were cheaper still, but arranging the paperwork was a hassle; besides, you always ended up paying more than spot.
Enter ETFs. The SPDR Gold Fund (
GLDspdr gold trust gold shs
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GLD) and iShares COMEX GOLD Fund (
IAUiShares COMEX Gold Trust
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IAU) let you buy real gold bullion and pay just 0.40% in annual expenses. Best of all, you can do it from the comfort of a brokerage account, just like buying a stock. The funds hold physical bullion in a secured vault. There's no need to worry about theft, paperwork, or anything else; just click and you are golden.
2. Frontier markets
Globalization is making the world a smaller place. That's bad for investors. The problem is that as the world comes together, so do the returns you get from U.S. and international exposure. In the first half of 2008, for instance, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (
SPXS&P 500 Index
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SPX) fell 12.7%, the MSCI EAFE Index fell 13.8% and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 16.4%. Where's diversification when you need it?
On the frontier. The recent debut of frontier market ETFs means investors can gain exposure to formerly off-limits markets such as Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Colombia. These countries exist outside the wave of globalization, with economies driven more by local factors than by what's happening in New York or Hong Kong.
The Claymore/BNY Mellon Frontier Markets ETF (
FRNclaymore etf trust 2 clay/bny etf
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FRN) was first-to-market, but you can get more targeted exposure from funds like the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio (
PMNApowershares etf trust ii mena frntr etf
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PMNA) or the Market Vectors Gulf States ETF (
MESmarket vectors etf tr gulf sts etf
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MES) .
3. Currencies
Anyone who has followed the soap opera story of the U.S. dollar in recent years realizes there are opportunities in currencies. In fact, currencies are one of the hottest corners of the ETF market. More than 30 currency-focused ETFs and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are now available, and assets in those funds have more than doubled in the past year to top $6 billion.
These ETFs offer exposure to everything from the euro to the yen, the Mexican peso, the Chinese yuan and the Brazilian real. In a straight currency fund -- the largest of which is the Rydex Euro Currency Trust (
FXEcurrencyshares euro tr euro shs
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FXE) -- you get exposure to both the currency return and the interest rate of the local market.
4. Commodities
By now, most every investor knows about commodities, and probably has some socked away in their portfolio. The sector's huge returns over recent years, coupled with its famously low relationship to the stock market, means that commodities have emerged as a legitimate asset class.
With ETFs and ETNs, you can get exposure to commodities for much less than you can with mutual funds, and in a less complicated way than the traditional path of using futures or options. The iPath Dow Jones -- AIG Commodity Index Total Return ETN (
DJPiPath Dow Jones AIG Commodity Index Total Return ETN
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DJP) provides exposure to the broad-based DJ-AIG commodity index for a fee of 0.75% per year; most traditional mutual funds charge multiples of that.
5. Institutional strategies
The next wave of growth in the ETF industry will involve fund companies bringing institutional trading strategies to the retail market. There are already ETNs tracking "130/30" and "buy/write" strategies, and whole suite of "hedge fund replication" products are slated to come to market soon.
These kinds of funds aren't right for every investor -- and it remains to be seen if they'll deliver on their promises -- but they do bear watching.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/five-etfs-people-hate-etfs/story.aspx?guid={E71FC508-E35C-4080-B2DA-13EA0005A6BD}&dist=msr_2
Another link to do some more reading:
http://www.businessweek.com/investo...an=investing_investing+index+page_top+stories
Do your homework but these are some alternatives................
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