Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Investor: A Tool for DIY Investors

Investment Help

If you are seeking investment help, look at the video here on my services. If you are seeking a different approach to managing your assets, you have landed at the right spot. I am a fee-only advisor registered in the State of Maryland, charge less than half the going rate for investment management, and seek to teach individuals how to manage their own assets using low-cost indexed exchange traded funds. Please call or email me if interested in further details. My website is at http://www.rwinvestmentstrategies.com. If you are new to investing, take a look at the "DIY Investor Newbie" posts here by typing "newbie" in the search box above to the left. These take you through the basics of what you need to know in getting started on doing your own investing.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Tool for DIY Investors - Schwab ETF Select List

There are now thousands of ETFs, and they are proliferating almost faster than stink bugs. The challenge today is how to select among all the ETFs available.

One approach is to use, or at least start with, the Schwab ETF Select List. This list highlights the best ETF for each category, according to Schwab, based on wide ranging criteria, including "...assets under management, length of track record, trading volume, bid-ask spread, tracking error of the ETF to its underlying index....." The investor considering this resource should read the one-page write up of the selection process. DIY Investor and the working guy carrying all the tools, likes the fact that the list "...excludes leveraged ETFs, inverse ETFs, ETNs, actively managed
ETFs, muni bond ETFs with underlying holdings subject to AMT, and unmanaged baskets of securities."

Source: Schwab

How would a DIY investor use this list? Suppose, for example, after the recent events in Japan, you were interested in seeking a Japan ETF. One way to proceed would be to pull up the 2-page Select List and look at the "International Equity ETFs" shown on the left. CLICK TO ENLARGE. Immediately, you find a Japan ETF, EWJ, and see its expense ratio and whether it has a trading commission.

Test question: How fast can you find Schwab's recommended ETF for the telecommunications sector?

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Charles Schwab. The information in this post is for educational purposes only.