Exchange-traded funds ETFs take the benefits of mutual fund investing to the next level. ETFs can offer lower operating costs than traditional open-end funds, flexible trading, greater transparency, and better tax efficiency in taxable accounts. There are drawbacks, however, including trading costs and learning complexities of the product. Most informed financial experts agree that the pluses of ETFs overshadow the minuses by a sizable margin.

The 4 most prominent advantages are trading flexibility, portfolio diversification and risk management, lower costs, and tax benefits. Trading flexibility Traditional open-end mutual fund shares are traded only once per day after the markets close. All trading is done with the mutual fund company that issues the shares. Investors must wait until the end of the day when the fund net asset value NAV is announced before knowing what price they paid for new shares when buying that day and the price they will receive for shares they sold that day.

Once-per-day trading is fine for most long-term investors, but some people require greater flexibility. ETFs are bought and sold during the day when the markets are open. The pricing of ETF shares is continuous during normal exchange hours.

Share prices vary throughout the day, based mainly on the changing intraday value of the underlying assets in the fund. ETF investors know within moments how much they paid to buy shares and how much they received after selling. The nearly instantaneous trading of ETF shares makes intraday management of a portfolio a snap. It is easy to move money between specific asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, or commodities.

Investors can efficiently get their allocation into the investments they want in an hour and then change their allocation in the next hour. That is not generally recommended, but it can be done. Making changes to traditional open-end mutual funds is more challenging and can take several days.

First, there is typically a pm Eastern standard time cutoff for placing open-end share trades. That means you do not know what the NAV price will be at the end of the day. It is impossible to know exactly how much you will receive when selling shares of one open-end fund or know how much you should buy of another open-end fund. The trade order flexibility of ETFs also gives investors the benefit of making timely investment decisions and placing orders in a variety of ways.

Investing in ETF shares has all the trade combinations of investing in common stocks, including limit orders and stop-limit orders. ETFs can also be purchased on margin by borrowing money from a broker. Every brokerage firm has tutorials on trade order types and requirements for borrowing on margin. Short selling is also available to ETF investors. Shorting entails borrowing securities from your brokerage firm and simultaneously selling those securities on the market.

The hope is that the price of the borrowed securities will drop and you can buy them back at a lower price at a later time. Portfolio diversification and risk management Investors may wish to quickly gain portfolio exposure to specific sectors, styles, industries, or countries but do not have expertise in those areas.

Given the wide variety of sector, style, industry, and country categories available, ETF shares may be able to provide an investor easy exposure to a specific desired market segment. ETFs are now traded on virtually every major asset class, commodity, and currency in the world.

Note If you're considering having your money automatically go into an investment payment plan, be sure that you won't incur a penalty fee for discontinuing your distributions at any time. The Cons of Investing in Stock Mutual Funds Lack of Ownership: When investing in a stock mutual fund, you are a participant in the fund but do not own any individual stocks. Conversely, investors who buy shares of a company's stock own a stake in the company, whether it makes or loses money.

With stock funds, there's a lack of control, meaning a professional money manager is doing the buying and selling. If turnover is high, there could be tax implications for taxable accounts. If you prefer to own a specific stock, such as Amazon or Apple, and want voting rights in the company, you'll want to buy the stock.

Costs: There are management costs involved with investing in a mutual fund that are passed on to the investor. If you buy individual stocks, you'll pay to buy the stock, but you shouldn't pay another fee until you sell the stock.

Stock funds can charge load fees , which can be charged on every purchase or sale of the fund. These fees can add up if the fund's turnover is high. Mutual funds also have ongoing fees that are subtracted from the fund returns—expressed as an expense ratio , which is a percentage of assets. Choice Overload: If you decide to invest in a stock mutual fund, you may find more stock funds to choose from than individual stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Some investors may feel overwhelmed with all of the mutual fund choices and could have a hard time choosing one. Be prepared to spend time and resources sifting through the variety of stock funds available. Read the prospectus of any stock mutual funds in which you're thinking of investing. Note You should be able to easily find a fee structure for any mutual fund in which you're choosing to invest.

LinkedIn Vikki Velasquez is a researcher and writer who has managed, coordinated, and directed various community and nonprofit organizations.

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There are two different mutual fund structures — one allows you to go in and out at any time. The other one is locked in for years. Make sure to ask your financial advisor which type you are investing in. Wasted Cash. Because people occasionally want to withdraw their mutual funds, there must always be funds available — in cash — for payouts.

That amount of cash is better off sitting in your bank account. Mutual Fund Charges. Mutual funds charge fees when you redeem your money. This is a percentage of what it costs to run the fund. Buying Individual Stocks Versus Investing in Mutual Funds As a newer investor, you should also be aware that you can save some research time by investing in mutual funds instead of individual stocks.

Mutual funds contain a mix and diversity of stocks in which you will spread out one investment into many small blocks of shares. Mutual funds and ETFs exchange traded funds have been available since the mids mutual funds and early s ETFs , attracting billions of investment dollars. An easy way for investors to diversify their portfolio without doing extensive research on individual companies and stocks, they are attractive to the casual or, perish the thought, lazy investor.

You should understand, however, that few of these funds have outperformed the market in general. One of the many reasons that funds cannot beat the markets is because of the obvious expenses that they have. They buy ads in magazines and on TV. They have large legal and accounting expenses.

And they have to mail you your statements every month. Always learn about these fees before you decide which mutual fund is best for you. In most cases, these fees reduce your return by 0. As with anything in the stock market: there are no guarantees. There are certainly pros and cons when it comes to mutual funds. Mutual funds are based on stocks and other investments that can go up or down. Contrary to what the ads seem to suggest, performance is not guaranteed with a mutual fund.

All we have is past performance to make our decisions. On the other hand, just because a mutual fund loses money one year does not mean it will lose money every year. If you have absolutely no stomach for risk, then maybe stay away from mutual funds.

After all, investing in a mutual fund is way less risky than going for a single stock. The stock markets of the world are a wonderful opportunity to increase your wealth. However, you must bring your brain and knowledge with you when you enter these waters. Our Putting Your Money in the Market course will help you with that. Less Cost for Bulk Transactions Buying mutual funds involves processing fee and other charges. Some of these charges are fixed and others are variable calculated as a percentage of the investment value.

Thus an investor can save on the fixed charges if they buy in bulk in one go. If they invest in multiple stages, the fixed cost will have to be borne each and every time. Cost Efficiency A mutual fund can charge load and expenses to the investors. An investor should know the following concepts; Entry Load — Charges to be paid while buying a mutual fund Exit Load — Charges to be paid while selling a mutual fund Pre-Exit Load — Charges to be paid while selling a mutual fund before the specified time Expense Ratio — Ratio of expense to fund value There are many mutual funds which have zero load and low expense ratios.

An investor should compare and factor in these charges of similar mutual funds before investing. Invest in Smaller Denominations Investments in mutual funds can be made as low as Rs. Thus, an investor does not need to make a big investment every time they decide to invest money.

They can make bigger lump sum investments as and when money is available and keep investing small on a normal basis. Quick and Painless Process Investing in a mutual fund is a quick and painless process. These days it is very easy to identify and pick the mutual fund most suited to an investor. Maintaining the funds does not take much time of an investor. Automated Payments Many people forget to make investments on time due to forgetfulness. This might lead to various issues depending on the investment tool involved.

Investment in a mutual fund can be automated with standing instructions from your bank account. Investors also have an option to allow their fund house or agent to send reminders through SMS and email regarding their investment due date Safety People are always sceptical of investment tools which are new to them. Giving away their hard-earned money is always a difficult task when they do not know the legal aspects of something.

An investor can check the genuineness of fund houses and asset managers through SEBI. They also have a grievance redressal mechanism for investors who face issues. Systematic or One-Time Investment An investor can plan their investment in a mutual fund based on their current budget and income level. They can either invest systematically through a SIP systematic investment plan at fixed intervals or they can make a lump sum investment.

Costs to Manage the Mutual Fund The fund house has to incur various expenses while maintaining a mutual fund, mainly the salaries of the fund manager and analysts. All expenses of the mutual fund are included while calculating the expense ratio of a mutual fund. This money comes from the money the investors have put in and a greater expense ratio is no guarantee of a better performing mutual fund.

Lock-in Periods Lock-in periods are periods for which you cannot sell your investment in a mutual fund and if you do sell, the pre-exit charges can be high. Mutual funds with lock-in periods always keep a certain portion of the fund in cash to pay out pre-existing investors. This portion does not earn any returns for the investors and is basically dead money for the duration of the lock-in period.

There are many mutual funds with lock-in periods of 5 to 8 years and an investor should consider this very highly before investing in such mutual funds. Dilution One of the main advantages of mutual funds is diversification under which the fund manager invests the money of the mutual fund into various instruments.

However, this also leads to dilution as diversification leads to averaging out of your return on investment. A mutual fund investor is never going to match the return on investment of the best performing stock in the market. Comparison of Mutual Funds with Other Investment Tools Mutual funds are one of the various investment tools available to people, the others being equity, bonds, provident fund, bank deposits, etc.

All these options have a different risk factor, a rate of return, lock-in period and costs. An investor should decide the make-up of their personal investment portfolio after considering all the above-listed factors. Along with these factors, the investor should also consider their own financial ability and financial goals. Let us compare mutual funds with the other major investment tools available to get a better idea of where mutual funds stand.

People might question that why should an investor not invest directly in the equity market. An important factor that makes mutual fund an attractive option is that experts manage it.

Advantages and disadvantages of mutual fund investing grafik saham mbto forex

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