Do ETFs affect underlying stocks?
How do ETFs impact stock prices? Questions sometimes arise about whether ETFs influence the prices of the stocks they hold. In short, the majority of ETF activity doesn't affect the market prices of underlying stocks.
Exchange-traded funds work like this: The fund provider owns the underlying assets, designs a fund to track their performance and then sells shares in that fund to investors. Shareholders own a portion of an ETF, but they don't own the underlying assets in the fund.
The result of too many ETFs on the market is that some will have lower trading volumes than others. If you're invested in an ETF with a lower trading volume, you may not as easily buy and sell shares as you would in one with a higher volume.
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.
As a result, trading activity in the underlying securities is linked through common ETF ownership, leading to simultaneous trading in these securities. This in turn, is associated with correlated demand for the liquidity of these securities, and therefore, greater commonality in liquidity between them.
You can retire as a millionaire with either ETF
Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders roughly a decade ago that any investor who owns a large, diversified basket of stocks via an S&P index fund is "bound to do well" over time. He was right. It's possible to retire as a millionaire by investing in VOO or IVV.
Stock-picking offers an advantage over exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when there is a wide dispersion of returns from the mean. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer advantages over stocks when the return from stocks in the sector has a narrow dispersion around the mean.
An investor may have difficulties selling when the ETF is thinly traded, which means it trades at low volume and often high volatility. This can be seen in the difference between what an investor will pay for an ETF (the bid) and the price it can be sold for (the ask).
Because of their wide array of holdings, ETFs provide the benefits of diversification, including lower risk and less volatility, which often makes a fund safer to own than an individual stock. An ETF's return depends on what it's invested in.
Unlike a managed fund, an ETF does not aim to beat the index, but to match its performance, giving you potentially more predictable returns.
Is it bad to invest in too many ETFs?
Too much diversification can dilute performance
Adding new ETFs to a portfolio that includes this Energy ETF would decrease its performance. Since the allocation to the Energy ETF will naturally decrease - and so will its contribution to the total portfolio return.
Should you invest in ETFs? Since ETFs offer built-in diversification and don't require large amounts of capital in order to invest in a range of stocks, they are a good way to get started. You can trade them like stocks while also enjoying a diversified portfolio.
ETFs may close due to lack of investor interest or poor returns. For investors, the easiest way to exit an ETF investment is to sell it on the open market. Liquidation of ETFs is strictly regulated; when an ETF closes, any remaining shareholders will receive a payout based on what they had invested in the ETF.
With a physical ETF, the ETF provider attempts to track an index by buying the underlying assets of the index with the same weight as in the index, in order to mirror its rise and fall (full replication). If the ETF provider only invests in a selection of the assets, this is called sampling.
Because leveraged single-stock ETFs in particular amplify the effect of price movements of the underlying individual stocks, investors holding these funds will experience even greater volatility and risk than investors who hold the underlying stock itself.
An ETF should always be at least as liquid as its underlying holdings. The primary market (i.e., the buying and selling of an ETF's portfolio of securities to support the creation and redemption process) determines the product's minimum liquidity level.
Constantly Trading
One of the biggest reasons Ramsey cautions investors about ETFs is that they are so easy to move in and out of. Unlike traditional mutual funds, which can only be bought or sold once per day, you can buy or sell an ETF on the open market just like an individual stock at any time the market is open.
Warren Buffet's 2013 letter explains the 90/10 rule—put 90% of assets in S&P 500 index funds and the other 10% in short-term government bonds.
Buffett's favorite ETF
portfolio: the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO). Both are index ETFs that track the S&P 500.
Hold ETFs throughout your working life. Hold ETFs as long as you can, give compound interest time to work for you. Sell ETFs to fund your retirement. Don't sell ETFs during a market crash.
Is it OK to hold ETF long-term?
Finding the best long-term ETFs can help reward you if you buy and hold, allowing you to compound your money over time. Even small differences in returns, just a few percent annually, can create an amazing improvement in your total wealth.
How long should you keep ETFs? It depends on your investment goals and how long you want to stay invested in ETFs. While a long-term ETF holding for more than three years can get you better returns, short-term returns can also be more for some ETFs.
The securities that underlie the funds are held by a custodian, not by Vanguard. Vanguard is paid by the funds to provide administration and other services. If Vanguard ever did go bankrupt, the funds would not be affected and would simply hire another firm to provide these services.
| Exchange-traded fund (ticker) | Assets under management | Yield |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard 500 Index ETF (VOO) | $406.2 billion | 1.4% |
| Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) | $75.6 billion | 1.9% |
| Vanguard U.S. Quality Factor ETF (VFQY) | $298.0 million | 1.4% |
| SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM) | $6.1 billion | 0.0% |
The choice comes down to what you value most. If you prefer the flexibility of trading intraday and favor lower expense ratios in most instances, go with ETFs. If you worry about the impact of commissions and spreads, go with mutual funds.
