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August 10, 2006


The Major Drawback of Not Paying some Mutual Fund Schmuck 150 BPs a Year

This bit from this article, International ETFs Surge in Popularity After Strong Returns, made me laugh out loud:

A major drawback of exchange-traded funds, however, is that they only offer index-based investment strategies. Because of the way ETFs are structured, the funds can’t hire a money manager to pick stocks. They are instead limited to replicating stock-market returns of the country or region they are designed around.

“A major drawback,” ha!

3 Responses to “The Major Drawback of Not Paying some Mutual Fund Schmuck 150 BPs a Year”

  1. Will said:

    >>They are instead limited to replicating stock-market returns

    Limited, indeed. How many people, if they actually had any idea of the after-expenses return of their fund with its “stock-picking expert” at the helm, would give their big toe to be “limited” to a market return…

  2. C. Maoxian said:

    Will: Exactly, and if they understood their after-expense, after-tax return then they’d really start to resent the fund manager’s Mercedes and second home, lol. (Thank god most people don’t have a clue!)

  3. h. homes said:

    since most money managers underperform the big indices, it would be smart for investors to put a majority of their funds in etfs and then try to enhance that performance by selecting a couple of stocks that will out perform the etfs.

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