Dollar-cost averaging, or the expense of making regular investments, is becoming less of an issue for exchange traded funds (ETFs). As Joe Morris for Ignites explains, more brokerages are discounting ETF trades, or in some cases allowing free ETF trades. This drastically reduces overall trading costs for the product.

Many of these deals are available for investors with rather large amounts of savings. For example, Bank of America is promising 30 free online trades to customers who have a combined $25,000 in checking, saving and CDs.

Dollar-cost averaging has been seen as a major obstacle for ETFs, as they try to penetrate the retirement market.

However, some discount brokers are offering cheap trades even to those without big balances of money. SogoTrade is charging $1.50 per ETF trade online with $10 monthly subscription fee, or $3 trades without the subscription.

Similarly, TradeKing.com offers ETF trades of any size for $4.95. Not to mention a $2,500 balance grants customers 10 free online trades per month.