AAII.com: Comprehensive Guide to ETFs

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AAII Special Feature

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional index mutual funds. These passively managed portfolios of securities track an index, but trade on an exchange just like an individual stock. What are the available ETFs and where can you get data on them?

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AAII has recently updated their annual guide that gathers this information together in one master list. The comprehensive guide covers over 150 exchange-traded funds that track almost every index imaginable, including Dow Jones, S&P, Russell, Fortune, and Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes. The ETFs range from the broad-based to single sectors, REITs, domestic and international, and even fixed income.

Access this list on our Web site and you have a wealth of information at your fingertips to get you started. The ETFs are grouped by type and each ETF includes a link to AAII’s quote service so that you can see its current price and other trading data. In addition, you can download an Excel version of the complete ETF table to manipulate the information as you wish.

For further analysis, click on the on-line resources link and connect directly to Web sites that offer in-depth data on ETFs as well as access to prospectuses and other fund reports.

Visit the Special Reports area of AAII.com to take advantage of this updated feature. Or, go directly to the “Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds

Participate in AAII Member Surveys

Voice your opinion on the market and your resulting portfolio allocation in our Community area of AAII.com.

Sentiment Survey
Where does the AAII community think the market is going? Find out with the Sentiment Survey. You can also place your own vote each week by choosing among bullish, bearish, or neutral. Members are only able to vote one time during any weekly period.

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The Sentiment Survey results are calculated on a weekly basis and posted each Thursday morning. If you wish to receive the Sentiment Survey results, Computerized Investing subscribers can sign up for the free, biweekly CI E-mail, which covers popular investment- and finance-related Web sites, news related to computerized and on-line investing, and investment shareware downloads. You can subscribe to the CI E-mail by clicking on the yellow “Free Newsletter Update for CI Subscribers” button on the right-hand side of the Computerized Investing home page at www.aaii.com/ci.

Results for the past several weeks are also available or, for a glimpse further back, historical results back to 1987 can be downloaded as an Excel file. (Click on Past Results & Downloads.)

History shows us that more times than not the market will go against the majority. Extremely bullish levels of sentiment often come after strong market run-ups when investors are fully invested in the market. Even if they are bullish about the future, investors at this point have limited additional resources to invest. By following market sentiment indicators, you may be able to pick out market tops and bottoms. In other words, investor sentiment may be used as a contrarian indicator for the overall market. The article, “Using Investor Sentiment as a Contrarian Indicator,” which appeared in the September/October 2004 issue of Computerized Investing, discusses the ways in which you might be able to use the AAII Sentiment Survey to predict the direction of the overall market. This article is accessible on-line at the Computerized Investing area of the AAII Web site.

Asset Allocation Survey
Where is your money invested and how do your choices stack up against the AAII community?

The Asset Allocation Survey is calculated on a monthly basis and posted on the first day of the month. Members are only able to vote one time during any monthly period; no personally identifying questions are asked. Results show the percentage change from the prior month for each category. To view average portfolio allocations over time, historical results can also be downloaded as an Excel file.

The AAII Member Surveys are published in Barron’s and at AAII.com.



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