Is it OK to hold ETF long term?
Nearly all leveraged ETFs come with a prominent warning in their prospectus: they are not designed for long-term holding. The combination of leverage, market volatility, and an unfavorable sequence of returns can lead to disastrous outcomes.
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.
For most ETFs, selling after less than a year is taxed as a short-term capital gain. ETFs held for longer than a year are taxed as long-term gains. If you sell an ETF, and buy the same (or a substantially similar) ETF after less than 30 days, you may be subject to the wash sale rule.
Lower dividend yield
Some ETFs pay dividends, but investors may receive higher returns on specific securities, such as stocks with large dividends. That's partly because ETFs track a broader market and therefore have lower yields on average.
The top reasons for closing an ETF are a lack of investor interest and a limited amount of assets. For example, investors may avoid an ETF because it is too narrowly-focused, too complex, too costly, or has a poor return on investment.
The choice comes down to what you value most. If you prefer the flexibility of trading intraday and favor lower expense ratios in most instances, go with ETFs. If you worry about the impact of commissions and spreads, go with mutual funds.
Stock-picking offers an advantage over exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when there is a wide dispersion of returns from the mean. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer advantages over stocks when the return from stocks in the sector has a narrow dispersion around the mean.
Visit your My NerdWallet Settings page to see all the writers you're following. RDIV and SPYD have some of the highest yields of any high-dividend ETF. It's possible to live off the income from high-dividend ETFs, but it may take some planning.
Q: How does the wash sale rule work? If you sell a security at a loss and buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 calendar days before or after the sale, you won't be able to take a loss for that security on your current-year tax return.
At least once a year, funds must pass on any net gains they've realized. As a fund shareholder, you could be on the hook for taxes on gains even if you haven't sold any of your shares.
Why is an ETF not a good investment?
ETFs are subject to market fluctuation and the risks of their underlying investments. ETFs are subject to management fees and other expenses. Unlike mutual funds, ETF shares are bought and sold at market price, which may be higher or lower than their NAV, and are not individually redeemed from the fund.
ETFs are most often linked to a benchmarking index, meaning that they are often not designed to outperform that index. Investors looking for this type of outperformance (which also, of course, carries added risks) should perhaps look to other opportunities.
Theoretically, for exotic ETFs, yes — but as a practical matter highly unlikely. And for broad market ETFs that track something like the S&P 500 Index the probability of going to zero is, well, about zero. Every stock in the index would have to go to zero.
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.
Key Takeaways. Investors looking to weather a recession can use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as one way to reduce risk through diversification. ETFs that specialize in consumer staples and non-cyclicals outperformed the broader market during the Great Recession and are likely to persevere in future downturns.
Since the job of most ETFs is to track an index, we can assess an ETF's efficiency by weighing the fee rate the fund charges against how well it “tracks”—or replicates the performance of—its index. ETFs that charge low fees and track their indexes tightly are highly efficient and do their job well.
Experts agree that for most personal investors, a portfolio comprising 5 to 10 ETFs is perfect in terms of diversification.
The Bottom Line. Exchange-traded funds represent a cost-effective way to gain exposure to a broad basket of securities with a limited budget. Investors can build a portfolio that holds one, many, or only ETFs.
| Ticker | Fund name | 5-year return |
|---|---|---|
| SOXX | iShares Semiconductor ETF | 30.70% |
| XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund | 24.57% |
| IYW | iShares U.S. Technology ETF | 24.09% |
| FTEC | Fidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETF | 22.79% |
A single ETF can contain dozens or hundreds of different stocks, or bonds or almost anything else considered an investable asset. Since ETFs are more diversified, they tend to have a lower risk level than stocks.
Are ETFs more risky than stocks?
ETFs are less risky than individual stocks because they are diversified funds. Their investors also benefit from very low fees.
| Name | Ticker | 10-year annualized return |
|---|---|---|
| Invesco QQQ Trust | (QQQ) | 18.07% |
| iShares Russell Top 200 Growth | (IWY) | 16.80 |
| Schwab US Large-Cap Growth | (SCHG) | 15.63 |
| Vanguard Mega Cap Growth | (MGK) | 15.57 |
Investing in the stock market is one of the most effective ways to generate long-term wealth, and you don't need to be an experienced investor to make a lot of money. In fact, it's possible to retire a millionaire with next to no effort through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Once you have $1 million in assets, you can look seriously at living entirely off the returns of a portfolio. After all, the S&P 500 alone averages 10% returns per year. Setting aside taxes and down-year investment portfolio management, a $1 million index fund could provide $100,000 annually.
The Bottom Line
Investors who buy index funds will not lose all of their investment. That's because they're investments buoyed by hundreds or thousands of underlying securities. As such, they're highly diversified, making it almost impossible for them to reach a value of zero.
