Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of September 30, 2014

Article Excerpt

In the 1950s, some shoe stores kept a specialized x-ray machine on the sales floor. The ads on the store window said you could use the machine to check the fit on a new pair of shoes before buying them. Critics called it a gimmick to speed up shoe sales, and warned about the risk of needless exposure to x-rays. Something like this happens today in the investment business. For instance, finance industry marketers have discovered that the Exchange Traded Fund or ETF is a potent selling tool. It can attract buyers for all sorts of investments that would otherwise have little chance of success. Our first question this week provides an example. The selling proposition is that you can make a lot of money by copying the trades of billionaires, AND doing so through an ETF framework to cut your expenses to the bone. Adding the cost-cutting appeal of the second feature draws investor attention away from risk of the ETF’s trading…