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Investing

ADRE vs. VWO

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As far as emerging markets go, which is the best bet? This post looks at two exchange: traded funds ADRE and VWO.

BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index ETF (ADRE) follows the Bank of New York’s Emerging Markets ADR Index.

American Deposit Receipts (ADR) represent ownership in the shares of foreign companies trading on US markets. This is how many foreign company stocks trade on US exchanges. ADR’s enable US investors to buy non-US shares without without going international and without switching currencies. The Bank of New York is the biggest issuer of ADR’s.

Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) (VIPERs) follows the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Maybe it’s the investing style or the turnover rate (3% for ADRE vs. 26% for Vanguard!) or the countries covered, but ADRE beat VWO over the last couple years. Vanguard is definitely more diversified (866 stocks) vs. 50, yet offers the same low expense ratio (.3%).

It’s a tough choice, the safety of (VWO) 866 stocks vs. the low turnover of BLDRS. Between the two, I’m leaning more towards ADRE, just because I like to hold onto good finds. Maybe I’m wrong, still new to this. Feel free to comment.


Investing

Index Funds vs. ETF’s

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I’ve really been looking into ETF’s and Index Funds. If these guys can beat most professional investors, and do so at lower fees, why wouldn’t someone choose them? There are some index funds for real estate, international value stocks, and all sorts of domestic stocks.

My biggest question is whether to invest via mutual funds (index funds) or as a stock (ETF – exchage traded fund).

Taxes and commission fees are the greatest issues: index funds automatically reinvest dividends into the fund. Not sure if ETF’s do so. Other issue is taxes; does one have an advantage over the other? Not sure.

A few I’m looking at: JKL, JKF, JKI, EFV, ITF, VGSIX, and the DFA value group (like DTMIX)

Ideally I’m thinking of a split ratio of real estate, domestic value, and international value stocks. A bit aggressive? Maybe. I’d also like to put in a portion using the little blue book method as well. The two companies I chose 10 months ago, (fdg, and dlx), are up 50% so far. Running a few more sets over this month, to be sure.

Any answers/comments?

Investing

Money Magazines

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Around six months ago, I signed up for a couple magazines through a bizrate offer: Kiplinger’s, Entrepreneur, and PC Mag. Each cost me three bucks for the year or half year. I’ve also found a treasure in our office: Revenue.

Of all these magazines, Kiplinger’s is simply amazing. There’s just so much interesting information. Even for someone who doesn’t know a thing about investing, this magazine has so much interesting information. A couple issues ago they had an article about the best stock analytics firms, how they work, who uses them, etc. They also have lots of neat little tables (which you could fine on Yahoo or Google Finance, or in Morningstar (which I joined thanks to the magazine)). I hav almost no time to read these days, but at home, this is my favorite bathroom read.

Next comes Entrepreneur. This is an interesting magazine, and it has lots of short quick articles, but my favorite is the Kiyosaki column in the back. This magazine focuses more on building your own business rather than investing, something that I’m still a little farther away from as I do my best to help my company grow. It’s interesting, but given a choice, I like Kiplinger’s a little more.

Next is PC Mag. This is a completely different field, and the magazine is super cheap (even without the discount) and comes the most often (Entrepreneur comes the least often). I flip through and every once in a while find some cool articles, but mostly this magazine has reviews of gadgets and software, which is cool, but not as deep as Kiplinger’s. The new look is nice, but aside from some of the technology news, it’s more a browsing kind of mag rather than deep learning and reading.

Finally, I recently discovered Revenue. It’s a magazine on search engine marketing. The thing I love about this guy is that its ads are almost as good as its articles. So much interesting information. It blows my mind. Definitely up there with Kiplinger’s, if not higher.

I should put good links to subscribing to these, but I’m dead tired. I’ll edit the post once I find a good deal. I can’t find the BizRate offer I got these from, and don’t know who offers the Revenue one. In any case though, next time you’re at Barn’s or Borders check them out. Also if you have recommendations let me know.