ETF Prime Podcast

Listen to The ETF Store Show every Saturday at 4pm on KCMO Talk Radio 710AM as we cover everything you need to know about Exchange Traded Funds and the world of investing.

On our most recent radio broadcast, to close out 2011, we discussed a recent article from etfdb.com titled “Ten Reasons ETFs Are Better than Mutual Funds”.  We covered quite a bit of ground on our radio show in the second half of 2011 and we thought this article did an excellent job of summarizing many of the key points we’ve continued to emphasize.

As we head into 2012, we would encourage all investors to think about these benefits in terms of their own portfolios and ask themselves if they’re taking advantage of these benefits.  If not, why?  If your advisor still has you invested in actively managed mutual funds, present them with this list and ask them to explain the reasoning.  Ask them if they get a kickback to put you in actively managed mutual funds.  You may not like what you hear.

Listen to the full show here.

Listen to The ETF Store Show every Saturday at 4pm on KCMO Talk Radio 710AM as we cover everything you need to know about Exchange Traded Funds and the world of investing.

On our most recent radio broadcast, we explained another timely, year-end topic – tax loss harvesting.  ETFs are an excellent investment tool to implement various strategies to take advantage of an area of the federal tax code that allows investors to use losses on investments to reduce their income and therefore, lower the amount they pay in taxes.  We explained several ways that investors can take advantage of ETFs to swap out of underperforming mutual funds or stocks and lower their tax bills at the same time.

Speaking of underperforming mutual funds, we also spent some time discussing a recent article on thestreet.com titled “13 Fund Managers Who Lost Among the Most Money”, which drove home the point on just how badly mutual funds are underperforming this year.  The article was full of statistics that should alarm even the most ardent mutual fund supporters including that 72% of the 261 large cap core mutual funds were underperforming their indices and a staggering 84% of large-cap growth mutual funds were underperforming.  And what’s worse for mutual fund investors is that they’re paying exorbitant fees for this underperformance.  It makes sense then, as the article pointed out, that Goldman Sachs predicts there will be $125 billion dollars in equity mutual fund redemptions, while ETFs will see $100 billion dollars in new purchases in 2012.  Why invest in expensive mutual funds that can’t deliver benchmark returns when you have low cost ETFs available that can?

Listen to the full show here.

Listen to The ETF Store Show every Saturday at 4pm on KCMO Talk Radio 710AM as we cover everything you need to know about Exchange Traded Funds and the world of investing.

On our most recent radio show, we discussed the latest on the debt crisis in Europe and some ETFs with European exposure that may be impacted including VGK (Vanguard MSCI Europe ETF), EWG (iShares MSCI Germany Index ETF), EWQ (ishares MSCI France Index ETF), and EWI (ishares MSCI Italy Index ETF).

We also spent some time focusing on a timely, year-end topic – capital gain distributions.  This is the time of the year where if you own mutual funds, you may be getting some bad news in the mail in the form of taxable capital gain distributions.  With ETFs, in addition to typically being much cheaper and offering more investment options than actively managed mutual funds, they can also be much more tax efficient due to their minimal capital gain distributions.

Finally, we delved into some of your questions, including emerging market ETFs to consider and how easy it is to work with The ETF Store.

Listen to the full show here.

Listen to The ETF Store Show every Saturday at 4pm on KCMO Talk Radio 710AM as we cover everything you need to know about Exchange Traded Funds and the world of investing.

On our most recent radio broadcast, we delved into a wide range of ETFs, including Retail ETFs, Airline ETFs, Agriculture ETFs, and even ETFs that move up or down based on the level of volatility in the markets.  We discussed the key news and data driving this diverse group of ETFs and whether they may be worth looking at for your portfolio.

In addition, we explained a less talked about benefit of ETFs – the ability to sell calls on ETFs as a way to generate additional income in your portfolio.  In this low interest rate environment and with markets oscillating within a fairly defined trading range, selling calls can be a good way to boost your portfolio returns.  Strategies involving buying or selling calls and puts is simply not an option with mutual funds.

Listen to the full show here.