What are the top three ETFs?
Market risk
The single biggest risk in ETFs is market risk. Like a mutual fund or a closed-end fund, ETFs are only an investment vehicle—a wrapper for their underlying investment. So if you buy an S&P 500 ETF and the S&P 500 goes down 50%, nothing about how cheap, tax efficient, or transparent an ETF is will help you.
| ETF | Assets Under Management | Expense Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) | $70 billion | 0.10% |
| VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) | $16.3 billion | 0.35% |
| Invesco S&P MidCap Momentum ETF (XMMO) | $1.6 billion | 0.34% |
| SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) | $1.8 billion | 0.35% |
- WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ)
- Simplify Interest Rate Hedge ETF (PFIX)
- VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH)
- Amplify U.S. Alternative Harvest ETF (MJUS)
- AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis ETF (MSOS)
- YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (NVDY)
- ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO)
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)
- Source: Vanguard: Data current as of April 2, 2024. Data is intended for informational purposes only.
- Total Bond Market ETF (BND)
- Total International Bond ETF (BNDX)
- Total International Stock ETF (VXUS)
- Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
- iShares (BlackRock): $2.59 trillion.
- Vanguard: $2.36 trillion.
- SPDR (State Street): $1.22 trillion.
- Invesco: $454.78 billion.
- Charles Schwab: $320.21 billion3.
| Symbol | Name | Avg Daily Share Volume (3mo) |
|---|---|---|
| SPY | SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 73,766,125 |
| TQQQ | ProShares UltraPro QQQ | 72,500,852 |
| SOXL | Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares | 71,334,227 |
| XLF | Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund | 47,533,277 |
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO -0.6%) ...
- Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM -0.17%) ...
- Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ -0.73%) ...
- iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT -0.61%) ...
- Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP 0.37%)
Market risk
The single biggest risk in ETFs is market risk. Like a mutual fund or a closed-end fund, ETFs are only an investment vehicle—a wrapper for their underlying investment. So if you buy an S&P 500 ETF and the S&P 500 goes down 50%, nothing about how cheap, tax efficient, or transparent an ETF is will help you.
| Symbol | ETF Name | 10y Chg 4-2-24 |
|---|---|---|
| XNTK | SPDR NYSE Technology ETF | 457% |
| QTEC | FT Nasdaq 100-Technology Sector ETF | 452% |
| QQQ | Invesco Nasdaq 100 Trust ETF | 452% |
| IGV | iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF | 425% |
| | Ticker | ETF Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GBTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Trust |
| 2 | SMH | VanEck Semiconductors ETF |
| 3 | XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund |
| 4 | IXN | iShares Global Tech ETF |
How long should you hold an ETF?
Holding an ETF for longer than a year may get you a more favorable capital gains tax rate when you sell your investment.
Experts agree that for most personal investors, a portfolio comprising 5 to 10 ETFs is perfect in terms of diversification.
You expose your portfolio to much higher risk with sector ETFs, so you should use them sparingly, but investing 5% to 10% of your total portfolio assets may be appropriate. If you want to be highly conservative, don't use these at all.
Vanguard is the world's second-largest investment company or brokerage firm, offering a range of active and passive options, as well as a competitive fee structure and other attractive selling points. BlackRock, Inc. is the world's largest investment firm and asset manager.
This ranking presents the largest providers of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the United States as of September 11, 2023, by assets under management (AUM). At that time, BlackRock proved to be the largest ETFs provider, with managed assets amounting to approximately 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars.
| Exchange-traded fund (ticker) | Assets under management | Yield |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard 500 Index ETF (VOO) | $431.7 billion | 1.4% |
| Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) | $78.2 billion | 1.8% |
| Vanguard U.S. Quality Factor ETF (VFQY) | $324.3 million | 1.3% |
| SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM) | $6.8 billion | 0.0% |
Mutual funds and ETFs may hold stocks, bonds, or commodities. Both can track indexes, but ETFs tend to be more cost-effective and liquid since they trade on exchanges like shares of stock. Mutual funds can offer active management and greater regulatory oversight at a higher cost and only allow transactions once daily.
The largest Aggressive ETF is the iShares Core Aggressive Allocation ETF AOA with $1.86B in assets. In the last trailing year, the best-performing Aggressive ETF was AOA at 17.32%. The most recent ETF launched in the Aggressive space was the iShares ESG Aware Aggressive Allocation ETF EAOA on 06/12/20.
For instance, some ETFs may come with fees, others might stray from the value of the underlying asset, ETFs are not always optimized for taxes, and of course — like any investment — ETFs also come with risk.
Is it safe to put all your money in an ETF?
ETFs can be safe investments if used correctly, offering diversification and flexibility. Indexed ETFs, tracking specific indexes like the S&P 500, are generally safe and tend to gain value over time. Leveraged ETFs can be used to amplify returns, but they can be riskier due to increased volatility.
For most individual investors, ETFs represent an ideal type of asset with which to build a diversified portfolio. In addition, ETFs tend to have much lower expense ratios compared to actively managed funds, can be more tax-efficient, and offer the option to immediately reinvest dividends.
Leveraged ETF prices tend to decay over time, and triple leverage will tend to decay at a faster rate than 2x leverage. As a result, they can tend toward zero.
ETFs have several advantages for investors considering this vehicle. The 4 most prominent advantages are trading flexibility, portfolio diversification and risk management, lower costs versus like mutual funds, and potential tax benefits.
Before purchasing an ETF there are five factors to take into account 1) performance of the ETF 2) the underlying index of the ETF 3) the ETF's structure 4) when and how to trade the ETF and 5) the total cost of the ETF.
