How much of my portfolio should be in ETFs?
"A newer investor with a modest portfolio may like the ease at which to acquire ETFs (trades like an equity) and the low-cost aspect of the investment. ETFs can provide an easy way to be diversified and as such, the investor may want to have 75% or more of the portfolio in ETFs."
You expose your portfolio to much higher risk with sector ETFs, so you should use them sparingly, but investing 5% to 10% of your total portfolio assets may be appropriate. If you want to be highly conservative, don't use these at all.
Experts agree that for most personal investors, a portfolio comprising 5 to 10 ETFs is perfect in terms of diversification.
Generally speaking, fewer than 10 ETFs are likely enough to diversify your portfolio, but this will vary depending on your financial goals, ranging from retirement savings to income generation.
For example, a typical balanced ETF might invest in a target allocation of roughly 60% stocks and 40% bonds.
It's relatively simple: You add up all of your investments, and withdraw 4% of that total during your first year of retirement. In subsequent years, you adjust the dollar amount you withdraw to account for inflation.
Level of Assets: An ETF should have a minimum level of assets, with a common threshold being at least $10 million. An ETF with assets below this threshold is likely to have a limited degree of investor interest, which translates into poor liquidity and wide spreads.
SPY, VOO and IVV are among the most popular S&P 500 ETFs. These three S&P 500 ETFs are quite similar, but may sometimes diverge in terms of costs or daily returns. Investors generally only need one S&P 500 ETF.
What Is a Balanced Fund? A balanced ETF—also known as an asset allocation ETF—is a fund of funds that owns two or more different types of assets. Most commonly they hold a selection of stock and bond funds, with fixed allocations to each asset class.
This investment strategy seeks total return through exposure to a diversified portfolio of primarily equity, and to a lesser extent, fixed income asset classes with a target allocation of 70% equities and 30% fixed income. Target allocations can vary +/-5%.
How long should you hold an ETF?
Similarly, you should consider holding those ETFs with gains past their first anniversary to take advantage of the lower long-term capital gains tax rates. ETFs that invest in currencies, metals, and futures do not follow the general tax rules.
Key Takeaways. ETFs are less risky than individual stocks because they are diversified funds. Their investors also benefit from very low fees. Still, there are unique risks to some ETFs, including a lack of diversification and tax exposure.
For instance, some ETFs may come with fees, others might stray from the value of the underlying asset, ETFs are not always optimized for taxes, and of course — like any investment — ETFs also come with risk.
ETFs can be a great investment for long-term investors and those with shorter-term time horizons. They can be especially valuable to beginning investors. That's because they won't require the time, effort, and experience needed to research individual stocks.
Compare the market price to the NAV to determine if the ETF is trading at a premium or discount to its NAV. If the market price is higher than the NAV, the ETF is trading at a premium. If the NAV is lower than the price, the ETF is trading at a discount.
Two funds that have outperformed the S&P 500 and more than doubled in value in the past five years are the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) and the Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG). Here's a look at why these funds have done so well, and whether you should consider adding them to your portfolio.
Market risk
The single biggest risk in ETFs is market risk. Like a mutual fund or a closed-end fund, ETFs are only an investment vehicle—a wrapper for their underlying investment. So if you buy an S&P 500 ETF and the S&P 500 goes down 50%, nothing about how cheap, tax efficient, or transparent an ETF is will help you.
Specifically, a fund is prohibited from: acquiring more than 3% of a registered investment company's shares (the “3% Limit”); investing more than 5% of its assets in a single registered investment company (the “5% Limit”); or. investing more than 10% of its assets in registered investment companies (the “10% Limit”).
One simple rule of thumb I tend to adopt is going by the 4-3-2-1 ratios to budgeting. This ratio allocates 40% of your income towards expenses, 30% towards housing, 20% towards savings and investments and 10% towards insurance.
All products need to be large enough that they are able to build a diversified portfolio that will track its index closely. For equity ETFs tracking well known indices such as the FTSE 100, the minimum is in the low millions.
How much should I diversify my portfolio?
“Most research suggests the right number of stocks to hold in a diversified portfolio is 25 to 30 companies,” adds Jonathan Thomas, private wealth advisor at LVW Advisors. “Owning significantly fewer is considered speculation and any more is over-diversification.
Diversification: A well-diversified portfolio should include ETFs that cover different asset classes (stocks, bonds, commodities, etc.), sectors, industries, and geographical regions. This spreads risk and reduces the impact of any single investment on the overall performance.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in February 2014 would be worth $5,971.20, or a gain of 497.12%, as of February 5, 2024, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases. Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 178.17% and gold's return of 55.50% over the same time frame.
In 1980, had you invested a mere $1,000 in what went on to become the top-performing stock of S&P 500, then you would be sitting on a cool $1.2 million today.
| Symbol | Name | 10 Year Total Returns (As of March 31, 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| PSI | Invesco Semiconductors ETF | 765.02% |
| XSD | SPDR® S&P Semiconductor ETF | 610.79% |
| XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR® ETF | 554.92% |
| IYW | iShares US Technology ETF | 542.45% |
