Exchange-traded fundshave become one of the most popular
investment vehicles during their relatively brief history.
Now, though, one
major discount brokeris preparing to offer ETFs in a way
that few have seen before: free of charge.
Morenew ETFs? Yawn
Charles Schwab (Nasdaq: SCHW) recently
announced that its investment management arm would introduce
eight new ETFs. That by itself is nothing special. All sorts
of money management companies -- from ETF industry giants
like
Barclays (NYSE: BCS) Global Investors and
State Street (NYSE: STT) Global Advisors, to
newcomers like
bond-guru company Pimco-- have given investors a steady
stream of new ETFs to choose from.
In addition, Schwab's ETFs don't exactly add much to the
universe of investments already available. The four ETFs that
started trading yesterday include a large-cap fund, a
small-cap fund, a broad-market fund that includes both
large-cap and small-cap stocks, and an international fund.
Here's a quick rundown of the new ETFs:
Fund
Expense Ratio
Top Holdings Include
Schwab US Broad Market ETF
0.08%
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM)
Schwab US Large-Cap ETF
0.08%
ExxonMobil
Schwab US Small-Cap ETF
0.15%
Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI),
Aeropostale
Schwab International Equity ETF
0.15%
HSBC (NYSE: HBC),
BP (NYSE: BP)
Source: Schwab.
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