What is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)

An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is traded on stock exchanges.  This type of fund is similar to stock, and holds assets at about the same price as the net asset value.  

The first ETF in the business was introduced in the early 1990s and were called Spiders (SPY).  This ETF tracked the S&P 500 index.  The Qubes (QQQQ) came a few years later and this tracked the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq. Some of the biggest players in the ETF market today include State Street Global Advisors, Barclay’s Global Fund Advisors and Vanguard.  Of course there are many types of ETFs, and they can track everything from the United States stock market to just parts of the stock market, like large or small stocks or specific industries.  ETFs even track foreign markets, individual countries, and commodities.

 There are hundreds of ETFs to choose [...]