ETF Beginners Should Start Here

July 30, 2008 at 6:00 am by Tom Lydon      Bookmark and Share

Are you a novice to exchange traded fund (ETF) investing?

If you would like to build an all-ETF portfolio, there are some things to consider.

We had a conversation with Katy Marquardt for U.S. News & World Report about it.

  • Diversification: As a new investor, this is a must-have for a portfolio. Given that we’ve had a decline in the market, it is a good time to get in. We encourage large, mid, small and international ETFs. From a diversification standpoint there is Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) which offers quick and easy allocation. The underlying index has a bit of everything.
  • Do not over-allocate domestically: Remember that the world’s market-cap is two-thirds that outside the United States. As U.S. investors, we tend to do a vast majority of allocation domestically, because it’s what we know. We should be looking more internationally. Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US (VEU) gives just international stocks in the index.

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  • Once Vanguard launched their all-world ETF (VT), I was expecting to see fewer recommendations/mentions of the VTI/VEU combo, as VT, as a single purchase, achieves market cap weighted international diversification.

    Is there a reason it wasn't mentioned here? (Am I missing something?)
  • Tom Lydon
    Hi Matt,

    Because the All-World was only launched this month, and we like to keep an eye on the 200 DMA, there's more of a track record with the other two. That's why we chose to focus on them.

    There's no real reason we left it out, it's just simply because it hasn't been around very long. As it establishes a track record, it might turn up more in discussions, though!
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