It’s Mutual Fund Monday again, and I thought that I’d do something a little different this week. Rather than focus on a single fund or concept about funds, I’m focusing on a topic and sharing some of the interesting posts I’ve found on other blogs recently about that topic. The topic: ETFs.

ETFs, or exchange traded funds, first became available to investors in 1993 and have since evolved from being simple index trackers to being full blown portfolios or hedge funds of their own. There’s much mistaken knowledge about ETFs and much confusion. Hopefully these posts will help set you straight on ETFs. Even if you think you know all about them, there is probably a thing or two you didn’t know.

How to Choose ETFs for Your Portfolio from Oblivious Investor is a great place to start when beginning to add ETFs to your portfolio. He examines the usual suspects in regards to the important factors of an ETF, like expense ratio and which index it tracks; but he also covers some lesser known or often overlooked factors like the Bid/Ask Spread of the fund.

Not sure about ETFs, or too sure about them? Be sure to check out Ten Myths About ETF Investing from ETFdb before you make another decision about ETFs

Do you think Charles Schwab Might be the Best Choice for Passive Investors? Steadfast Finances does, and he explains why as well as why you should care. Very interesting post..

Lastly in our ETF posts this week is a post by Dividend Tree in which he reminds us of one of the single most important details about Investing in ETFs – Know What You are Investing In. Some of this is related I think to the 10 myths of ETFs from ETFdb above. Many investors think all ETFs are created the same and they invest in what the name suggests, but Dividend Tree shows that this is not always true.

• Mutual Fund Monday - 5 Things To Watch When Choosing A Fund. Picking a mutual fund can be a daunting task, but here are 5 things to look for that I hope will help make the process a little easier. This is part of my weekly Mutual Fund Monday post feature. If you find this interesting or helpful, please read more. 1.......
• Mutual Fund Monday: Morningstar Announces their Choice for Fund Managers of the Decade. These managers were chosen by Morningstar as the best of the decade because the "deftly steered investors through good times and bad". That's saying something. Investing in the '80's and 90's was pretty clear cut, but the 1st decade of the 21st century was anything but easy. As with the......
• Mutual Fund Share Class Comparison Gets Easier. Investors who own shares of mutual funds are probably familiar with the 3 most common classes of shares: A, B, and C. But recent market conditions have led over 400 mutual funds to eliminate class B shares form their offerings. The reason for the elimination is cost. It simply costs......
• When it Comes to Investing, Simplicity Rules. There was a time when only the wealthy and well connected could invest in the stock market. Then IRAs and 401(k) plans ushered in a new era of the "common man" investor. Flash forward a bit more, to the Internet age, and we have a grand democratization of the stock......
• Mutual Fund Monday: The Biggest Lies Mutual Fund Companies Tell. Chuck Jaffe at MarketWatch has a great piece that I thought I'd share for my (semi) weekly Mutual Fund Monday post this week. His article lists 7 ways that fund companies manipulate their stats to trick investors. It's all quite legal, since much of it depends on your the viewpoint......

• Index Funds 101 The most significant invention in the 20th century as far as investing goes is mutual funds, at least if you are a small individual investor with modest means. Thanks to mutual funds, the benefits associated with large scale international capital markets are now capable of being taken advantage by more......
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It’s the end of July, and that means it’s time for a roundup of investing news, tips and general info from around the blogosphere!

ETFs.

• The ETF DataBase has a great post detailing the history of the ETF industry by way of 25 people who helped create it. Read The ETF Hall of Fame: 25 People Who Revolutionized the ETF Industry

• 76 ETFs For Foreign Stock Exposure from Bradley Johnson’s Personal Finance And Investing blog is an exhaustive listing of foreign ETFs broken down by single country, Region and more!

Investing Tips and Techniques.

• Trend Technician has a great post about why you shouldn’t Trade Without a “Stop”.

• The Amateur Financier provides a wonderful breakdown of Risk Management Strategies.

• Wise Money Matters gives a quick and handy breakdown of various types of stocks (not growth, value or large cap, small cap either) in What are the different types of stocks?

Warnings and Reminders.

• Moolanomy has a great reminder that sometimes Stock Volatility Kills.

• AllFinancialMatters reminds us (graphically) that Not All S&P 500 Index Mutual Funds Are Created Equal!

• Beware Target-Date Funds! Target-date funds were supposed to be the ultimate idiot-proof investment vehicle for retirement savings. The idea is that asset allocation is the single most important factor in determining investing success, and most people get it wrong. Many others never even try because they find the concept too daunting. Many people......
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