Oxford Club’s Alexander Green says making the switch from mutual funds to ETFs can save thousands in taxes and expenses. Changing funds now can also help psychologically, by locking this year’s huge losses in the past. Alex lists eight ETFs that can “help turn market lemons into lemonade.”

This from Investment U:

With the stock market’s historic drop this year, some investors have fled to cash. Others are cautiously buying. Most, however, are sitting on their hands.

They shouldn’t be.

Even if you lack the cash - or the willpower - to buy into this market, there is still a very smart move you can make: switch.

Switch from your poor-performing, high-cost, tax-inefficient stock and bond mutual funds to index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

It’s a very smart move. Here’s why…

Why Choose Exchange Traded Funds Over Mutual Funds?

Compared to exchange traded funds, most mutual funds are

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Exchange Traded Funds: An Investment Move You Need to Make…

by Alexander Green, Chairman, Investment U Investment Director, The Oxford Club Monday, November 24, 2008: Issue #891

With the stock market’s historic drop this year, some investors have fled to cash. Others are cautiously buying. Most, however, are sitting on their hands.

They shouldn’t be.

Even if you lack the cash - or the willpower - to buy into this market, there is still a very smart move you can make: switch.

Switch from your poor-performing, high-cost, tax-inefficient stock and bond mutual funds to index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

It’s a very smart move. Here’s why…

Why Choose Exchange Traded Funds Over Mutual Funds?

Compared to exchange traded funds, most mutual funds are a lousy deal, here’s why:

Each year more than three-quarters of them fail to match the performance of their benchmarks.

 

Many are loaded with front-end or back-end loads, 12b-1 fees, ...

Jim Wiandt and I have been engaged in a debate over which matters more: style or sector.

Actually, it's not much of a debate. Right now, I -think-it's fair to say that we both agree that sectors are driving market performance much more than style.  One needed look further than Financials for proof of that.

With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to look at the way sector and style interact, with a simple look at the sector breakdown in each of the nine sector style boxes.

To make my analysis easier, I'm using exchange-traded funds as proxies for the different style boxes. One of the great things about ETFs is that providers have invested huge amounts of money into their Web sites, and they make loads of data available for free to investors.

I'm using the S&P-based style box ETFs from iShares for my analysis, although

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Market consolidation continues as AMEX and NYSE merge, shuffling some issues and creating different platforms for individual investors. 

While many Americans may be moving in with relatives as a result of the housing crisis, the 38 Vanguard exchange-traded funds are set to begin rooming, listing and trading together, due to the acquisition of the American Stock Exchange by NYSE Arca.

The consolidation of all Vanguard ETF trading on NYSE Arca will commence this Friday morning.

There are already four Vanguard ETFs—Vanguard Mega Cap 300 ETF, Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Growth ETF, Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Value ETF and Vanguard Total World Stock ETF—trading on the NYSE Arca.

There have been many recent "housekeeping" moves in the ETF market as a result of the acquisition of AMEX by NYSE Arca. In at least one respect, the move of the AMEX-listed ETFs to NYSE Arca represents an important historical footnote for the

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