There are several factors that influence the decision of selecting an ETF for investment. Such...

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High commissions and management fees, along with taxes, can really cut into your returns.

That's where exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, come in. In today's investment world, ETFs are cheaper and more tax-friendly than mutual funds.

The average expense ratio for U.S.-listed ETFs is 0.4%, compared with 1.42% for diversified U.S. stock funds.They also give you exposure to an entire industry or market with the click of a mouse.

It's one of the reasons why exchange-traded funds are quickly becoming the investment of choice for investors seeking broad market exposure.

In fact, the number of ETFs has surged over 10-fold in the last decade.

The total number of ETFs in the market grew to 1,114 by October 2011, with assets over $1 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

And the ETF market will expand to roughly $3.1 trillion by 2016, according to projections from the Financial Research Corp. in Boston.

So if you're looking to diversify your portfolio and save money doing it, ETFs may be the way to go.

Here's a primer on how ETFs can work for you.

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CEOWORLD Magazine recently released the CEOWORLD Magazine 250 list for 2011. The software giant, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) topped the CEOWORLD Magazine 250 list, followed by five oil giants, Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM), PetroChina Company Limited (PTR), Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), BHP Billiton plc (BBL) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM). [...]

Kellogg Company (K), engaged in the manufacture and marketing of ready-to-eat cereal and convenience foods, traders wanting to establish a position in Kellogg or traders that are already holding the stock can use the bullish engulfing pattern to their advantage. Company is trading at a price 56.44, a dramatic change of +0.06 (0.12%) from its [...]

Boring times such as we are experiencing now can also be construed as interesting if you dig underneath the “nowhere” movement of the market. It's really interesting how both sides are holding massive support and resistance when the charts approach them. So many times this past week the bears banged hard on 1315, even hitting 1311 intraday. They simply could not get the job done.

Once they failed to get through enough times the bulls tried to get more aggressive and played the game of let's try to take the bears to their knees with a move over trend line resistance at 1335. No can do. Close but no ringing of the bell. You'd think both sides feel a bit frustrated with their lack of getting the job done, but that's the market we're in right now. The range has gotten tighter and tighter for sure. A simple 1.5% range on the S&P 500 between 1315 and 1335. The only two numbers that matter at all. Anything else is a waste of time worrying about it. So today we close much closer to the top of the range finishing at S&P 500 1331.

Oh so close, but we all know that close means nothing and has meant nothing for too long now to get excited about it. It makes you wonder how much fun it would if we could only get a few more points out of things and get another quick move up in the market. But you shouldn't even think about it. See it and then get excited if you're a bull, but unless you see it don't waste a moment playing off it.

Don't anticipate it. A lot of anticipating on the down side buried a lot of bearish plays for folks. If you get too excited on the long side here, one little gap down will have you feeling like a failure for running the move before it took place. Bottom line is the market is whipsawing  around haphazardly right now with no clear cut winner for the short-term. The lines in the sand are set about as clearly as they could ever be. 1315 and 1335. A fun week coming up next week as one would hope we'll finally see one of those levels get taken out with some force. See it before you act.  

Two headaches, well one and a half headaches remain for the bulls to have to overcome. The weekly charts still look poor and could do far more unwinding over time in order to work off those large negative divergences. They don't run down very quickly because of the time frame involved. Weekly's take time, although the past five weeks of overall down side action have worked off some of those divergences. Still could use quite a bit more. MACD's are down some, but still quite high and near the top. Want them down near the zero line or at least close. Right now they're quite a bit higher than that across the board on the major index charts.

On top of that weekly headache we still have a minor problem in terms of sentiment. Yes, the bull-bear spread has gone down from 41.6% to 23.6%. 23.6% is not a problem normally based on historical data. However, in this case, the bears are still only at 19.4%. Not very good at all. You want closer to 30%. It seems the market somehow needs more fear in time to bring things down and get more bulls to go bearish and more neutral folks to go bearish as well. Again, it's hard to say sentiment is a big problem at 23.6%, but I would be much happier with bears near 30%.  

One thing can't be argued and that's the fact that many index charts on the daily time frame have unwound quite a bit off the top. Most got oversold on their stochastics. When you're in a bull market and things get oversold on the daily charts on even one of the key oscillators, you usually spend some time moving higher to unwind things back up at least a little bit. That process is under way. The stochastics have crossed back up bullish, but in this environment, you have to wonder just how high they can run.

It's unlikely that we'll see them blast up to the overbought zone, meaning 80, or above, but that's always a possibility. The weekly problems we have probably mean we won't get overbought, but not impossible by any means. The MACD's have gone from well above the zero line at, or below, the zero line and RSI's have gone from 70+ to the upper 30's or low 40's when we had bottomed out a few days ago.

Now they're only back to neutral around 50. Nothing is even close to overbought as we speak, thus, we can try to break through this 1335 trend line headache for the bulls and try for one more high. Any new high would create terrible negative divergences once again on the daily and weekly charts so don't expect the market to explode out. It's not going to happen. The daily charts are still a bit more favorable for the moment, but don't forget how poor the weekly charts are.  

Just continue to be extremely patient folks. Take your time and don't put on too many plays. Be appropriate here. Recognize the risks on both sides and wait to see which number gets removed first, 1315 or 1335 S&P 500. Aggressive playing means you're playing from greed, and that won't work most of the time. So again, more than 15% exposure makes no sense to me, but of course, always do what feels right to you.

Peace,

Jack

An already tumultuous day took a terrifying turn in afternoon trading on Thursday, as several major U.S. indexes lost multiple percentage points in a matter of minutes before reclaiming big chunks of the ground lost. At 2:40 on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 415 points, putting it on pace for one ...

During the Great Recovery of the last 12 months, every sector of the U.S. and global economies have gained ground. But some industries have performed better than others, resulting in big performance gaps between various sector-specific ETFs. According to ETF Guide, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) rose 28.8% but the technology sector SPDR ...

American Funds American Mutual A (AMRMX, News, Press Releases: 23.96 -0.10 -0.42%, yield: N/A, cap: N/A, 1yr target: 0.00)- The fund seeks current income, growth of capital and conservation of principal. The fund invests primarily in common stocks of companies that are likely to participate in the growth of the American economy and whose dividends [...]

The first quarter of 2010 is officially in the books, with global equity markets calming after a rocky start to post impressive gains in March. Most ETFs finished the first quarter–a three month period many investors saw as a critical test of the recovery’s staying power–in positive territory. Of course some funds performed better than ...

Claymore, the Chicagoland issuer known for its line of themed ETFs and targeted sector funds, has launched three new ETFs based on broad market indexes maintained by Wilshire. The new funds include the Wilshire 5000 Total Market ETF (WFVK), Wilshire 45oo Completion Index ETF (WXSP), and Wilshire U.S. REIT ETF (WREI). Many investors are familiar with ...

In my Money and Markets columns I usually tell you about opportunities I see in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how you can grab them. Today I want to do something a little different: List some ETFs I think you should absolutely NOT buy! In fact, if you own any of the ETFs mentioned ...

( click to enlarge ) (GIGM) has lots of value, however the weak market is pushing the stock down. It has made a new 52 weeks low on Wednesday, but a last-minute rally helped it close at $2.78. The technical daily chart shows possible rally as K line is back above D line. Volume is shrinking ...

Although it’s too early to know for sure, Friday’s action suggests we could be seeing the earliest stages of a carry trade reversal. Remember that hedge funds and other highly leveraged institutional investors have been borrowing here in the United States at ultra-low interest rates, selling the dollar short, and using ...

With expense ratios of only 0.07%, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and the Vanguard Large Cap ETF (VV) hold the record for the lowest expense ratio among the 835 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) listed here. That would be only $70 in expenses for an investment of $100,000. Like the street merchants ...

January was the worst month for U.S. equities in history, but there was at least one exchange traded fund (ETF) that delivered a positive return when comparing total markets. The best total market performer in January is awarded to the ELEMENTS Benjamin Graham Total Market ETN (BVT) which outstripped the closest competitor by ...

Studies show that the majority of active fund managers do not outperform the markets consistently, a fact that has more investors considering exchange traded funds (ETFs) and other index products instead. One of the best ways to build a portfolio using ETFs is to begin with the core. The core is the main part of the portfolio, ...