Beginner's guide to ETFs

Hi guys,

Having done some initial research, I'm looking to begin my trading career by investing in ETFs.

They seem to offer the liquidity, low transaction costs and diversified risk that I'm after.

Before I take the plunge, however, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on any aspects of what I'm about to do: including the platform I should use, which ETFs I should invest in etc.

I'm still unclear as to how I go about buying ETFs, which shows I'm probably not it in a position to get going!

By way of background, I will initially be investing a small amount until I get comfortable with the process. If all goes well, I would like to start managing all my assets to avoid paying my fund manager's costly commission fees! I'm of the school of thought that unless you have exceptional skills or knowledge, you can't beat the market long term.

Thanks in advance for any help.

You shouldn't invest in anything at all without knowing for yourself, is this a lul thread? Dunno how much you have to play with but I can't see much point in ETF or stocks with less than 10G and even then it will be a long road to a decent profit but what do I know as I reckon 100,000 is more like the capital needed to make anything decent from stocks & ETFS while being able to trade according to a plan with risk reward mm all set out an that, unless you find the next smack donalds or microsoft invest you full ten g then wait ten years and be a millionaire!
All the best

Thanks for your thoughts LK.

I would initially be investing about 10G and would then increase it if all goes well and I get comfortable with how it works.

If I didn't opt for ETFs, what would you suggest?

I am not looking to actively trade, more a buy and hold style.

Sorry for the ****ty post to start off, buy and hold and all that jazz is over my head, maybe look at value investing and look into what buffet does, also P/E and all that, I read a bit about this type of trading in Neatest Little Guide to Stock Investing and he gives a template of what to look for when buying and holding, seems relevant to what you wanna know, was gunna suggest mister charts thread but if you don wanna be active then there would be no point, so my 100k suggestion may be a bit out of proportion as I think mr c uses less but I am clueless as I kinda gave up trying to learn out from here a while ago.
Good luck though, hope you find what you are looking for

ETF's trade like any other stock, you buy and sell them through a broker in the same way. My advice would be to stick with Physical replicating ETF's and avoid synthetic (swap based), leveraged (2x, 3x) or inverse ETF's.

It might be a good idea to trade index ETF's like the ishares (ISF) which replicates the FTSE100, I say this because many discussions in this forum are about the performance of indices. There are also Physical Gold and Silver ETF's (precious metals are becoming popular).

Thanks New Trader.

I've now signed up to OptionsXpress where there are a bundle of ETFs. On the back of your recommendation, I hunted down (but haven't yet bought) some Barclay's Ishares titled:

iShares MSCI United Kingdom Index

which seem to have exposure to the FTSE 100 companies.

There do, however, seem to be many more options. I chose Barclay's ishares purely because of the reputable name. Is it worth hunting around some more?

I like iShares because the majority of their ETF's are physical and replicate rather than optimise an index. If you are interested in commodities then take a look at etf securities:

http://www.etfsecurities.com/

They do physical precious metals and physical industrial metals.

http://www.etfsecurities.com/en/secu...l_exposure.asp

What is a "lul thread"?