Exchange-Traded Funds For Dummies

Superb! This book is a "must read" for every investor from absolute beginner to intermediate/advanced level. I am 54 years old. Having no experience with investing (except maybe CD's and money market), I decided about a year ago to roll half of my employer defined contribution plan money (as an in-service withdrawal) to an IRA. My employer of 25 years has done a wonderful job in investing, but I wanted to take a shot at investing myself. I bought several books on the subject and did research on the internet. I found myself coming back to "ETF for Dummies" the most (and another book in the series, "Asset Allocation for Dummies"). The second edition of "ETF for Dummies" is updated to feature the latest ETF products and strategies. Many new ETF's included in this book have been added to the market since the first edition. You will need no prior knowledge to fully understand the concepts. A little mathematical ability (high school level) will help but is not needed. The book has 4 main sections: 1) The ABC's of ETF's, 2) Building the stock (equity) side of your portfolio, 3) Adding Bonds, REIT's and other ETF's to your portfolio, and 4) Putting it all together. I love the sample portfolios which range from the simplest of the simple to the more complicated. The portfolios shown on P. 261 consist of only 6 ETF's in different proportions to put together a high quality, all ETF portfolio for the aggressive, middle of the road and conservative investor. I reference this page often. The book is up to date in giving tips on bond investing in this historically low yield environment. The book stresses the importance of rebalancing and gives detailed instruction on this. The absolute beginner can turn to page 261, pick one of the 3 portfolios mentioned above and be an instant "expert" on investing. Find a good brokerage house and read about rebalancing (all in this book) and you are in business. If you are not investing in a tax-advantaged account such as an IRA, you may need to do additional reading from this book. "ETF for Dummies" also has many items for those who may have more time and the inclination to do more. For example, p. 269 gives a chart entitled "Dividing up the pie either conservatively or aggressively by industry sector" using information provided by State Street Global Advisors. The chart shows each sector (such as Technology and Healthcare) and a percent of US stocks to invest in each sector to be considered conservative or aggressive. For example, 0% for Technology is conservative and 18% is aggressive. You can look at your own portfolio and see where you fall for each sector. If you want, you can use linear interpolations and weight each sector to come up with a single score for your portfolio: 0-% being very conservative, 100+% being very aggressive. My portfolio scored 57.3%. A similar calculation on the Wilshire 5000 gives 60.5%. In the end, I make sure my portfolio is consistent with ALL the ideas in "ETF for Dummies" and "Asset Allocation for Dummies". If it isn't, I know I need to make corrections.

This is a good read for those interested in ETFs. It covers the background and context a potential investor needs to understand the pros/cons of Exchange Traded Funds versus other investment vehicles like mutual funds or stocks. Dummies is very well presented and includes a number of options to put together various portfolios based on investor interest/life stage. Very good review of the players, history and differences among the rapidly expanding ETF world. VERY importantly the author spells out for even novice consumers what to look for in cost structure so they can understand how NOT to be taken advantage of - which can happen easily in the financial world.

I've been in the ETF 'game' for awhile now and have read quite a number of books on investings, ETFs, finance, and the whole lot. As always, the Dummy series does an excellent job in explaining what might be complicated for some folks in an understandable and fun way. The author does a superb job with cutting through the bull of the bear n' bull pundits and giving you very real and very good advice. This should be your first book to read if you are considering ETFs - then you can take on more detailed and convoluted volumes. Good job!

I just finished the kindle version of this book. I have been a stock market, mutual fund and very recently a ETF investor for about 35 years. I have read over a 100 investment books. This was one of my very favorites. While I have a good working knowledge of of investing I didn't know as much as I would like about ETF's. I've been a Vanguard mutual fund indexer for over 10 years and with the help of this book I now have a very diversified ETF portfolio. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about ETF's and even those who own a few, but would like a better knowledge of investing (especially indexing) in general and ETF's in particular. One last point, investment books can be very complicated and dry. Not this one Mr Wild is not only a great teacher, but very funny as well.

Entertaining and well structured guide for ETF investing. The book is surprisingly comprehensive and has proven to be a terrific resource for me. The author's pragmatic and realistic approach is refreshing in a sea of infomercial-style material. If you are interested in realistic investing practices using low cost vehicles - Russell Wild lays it out for you in readable terms that will help you move forward confidently. Great book for the person or family that is moving from saver to investor.

This book (I have both the Kindle and Paper Back) is my new buddy. I actually take it with me to Starbucks , to bed, to chit chats with my buddies.....but more importantly is why? This ETF for Dummies is John Bogle's "Common Sense Investing" and Benjamin Graham's "Intelligent Investing" synthesized into one enjoyable read plus much much more!! The other reviews describe the details. I simply like THE STYLE of presentation! The book is like having the stock broker on the phone when ever I wish , when I need guidance or a definition or an explanation as to the strategy and vocabulary of Wall Street. Russell writes as if it is a phone conversation with his client. The best part is there is NO HUSTLE. There definitely is with my Broker. So I look things up , get solid portfolio plans and options and I can call him back by lifting up the book and looking at the glossary, index or table of contents to get back in conversation with Russell. Russell tells me , hey , you want to get complicated here is where to look. Complicated is not in this book , but you have all the references to get further details clearly printed in this book. The Kindle Edition allows me to immediately go to sites on the web he is referencing or even to ETF's I wish to look up while I am reading, without going over to my computer. Way Cool!!!

For someone, without a lot of knowledge about investing, this book was great! Wild did recommend Investing for Dummies be read first and I did that - it was very helpful as well. If you want to take charge of your investments and stop paying crazy high management fees to 'financial planners' that are nothing more than sales people - I have had two such financial planners - then this book is for you. I am Canadian, so I am now reading Wild's Canadian version of the book. It was not out when I read this book, or I would have simply read the Canadian version. Be prepared to do a lot of work and really think about this book while you are reading it - for me it was not a book that I read before bed - it was more a book that I read with pen and paper in hand. But it is well worth it!

This book does not delve into how etfs are created or any other type of technical knowledge pertaining to them. What this book is rather, an elementary writing on what etfs are, how they compare to mutual funds, basic categories of securities and some basic investing concepts. Although I was disappointed, that was only because I was hoping more a more thorough discourse on the technical features. My disappointment does not weigh negatively on the quality of the investment advice as most of it is sound although the writing style can be hard to take serious at times and it makes you wonder whether reading it in its entirety will make you any more suave an investor. All in all, I guess what do you expect from a "for dummies" book?