A Compendium of ETF Resources

Exchange Traded Funds are continuing to explode in popularity - the 52 new ETFs created during 2010 in Canada accounted for 28% of new listings on the TSX. Canada is part of a worldwide phenomenon. The worldwide growth of ETFs was only momentarily interrupted by the 2008 crash as the chart below from a TSX presentation dramatically shows. Assets and trading volumes are rising accordingly.


ETFs have many strengths and good points, but not all ETFs are necessarily good or appropriate for individual investors. Along with the proliferation of ETFs, there is a proliferation of online content about them. To save readers time and effort to track down good information on ETFs, we offer a compendium of resources that we believe can help.

Canadian ETF Providers

• iShares Canada - largest provider with broad range of cap-weighted index funds - including the most popular ETF in Canada the S&P / TSX 60 Index (XIU) - along with growing numbers of sector funds and foreign funds, many with currency hedging
  
• BMO Financial Group - a series of sector and sub-sector specialized funds, using features such as equal weighting, currency hedging, target maturity, income-orientation
• Claymore Canada - fundamental weight index trackers plus range of sector and income-oriented funds and a few portfolio funds
• Horizons AlphaPro and BetaPro - the place for actively-managed, leveraged, inverse and other strategy funds
  

US ETF Providers
The following are only the biggest (by assets) providers in the USA. There are many others - we counted 42 total ETF providers in one list.

• iShares
• Vanguard - lowest fees across many categories of ETFs
  
• State Street Global Advisors - issuers of the original S&P 500 tracker (symbol: SPY), which is the largest ETF anywhere with $96 billion in assets
• ProShares
  
• Invesco PowerShares
• Wisdom Tree
• Rydex / SGI
  

Articles, News, Analysis, Research

• IndexUniverse - content ranges from the highly practical to the theoretical
  
• EDHEC Risk Institute - leading edge, advanced research
• Independent Investor - comparison of mutual funds and ETFs (free registration required)
• Altruista.com (USA) - links to reading material on ETFs and a good article ETFs vs Mutual Funds
  
• Seeking Alpha - general content as well as occasional head-to-head assessment of individual ETFs
  

Model Portfolios - basic, passive ETF portfolios to get started

• Finiki's Portfolio Design and Construction guidelines
  
• Canadian Couch Potato - six choices of varying complexity for different objectives
• Simple Portfolios - previous post with eight portfolios from various sources
  
• Efficient Market Canada
• Three Dimensional Portfolio - from Rob Carrick Globe and Mail financial columnist
  

Portals, Search and Filtering Tools, Quotes, Comparison Data
Most of these sites also include ETF basics - what they are, how they work, how they can serve the individual investor. Wikipedia has an entry on ETFs with basic information.

• TMX Money - website of the Toronto Stock Exchange for individual investors
• IndexUniverse - US ETFs only; good site for rigorous, detailed, even-handed content
  
• ETF Guide - US ETFs only
• ETFdb - US ETFs only
• Morningstar - USA and Canada
  
• Stock Encyclopedia - quick navigation by category of ETF with links to provider websites
  
• Globe Investor
• NYSE Euronext
• NASDAQ
• AMEX
• Discount Brokers - most brokers have special content on ETFs
  

Canadian Taxes

• TaxTips.ca

Books

• The New Investment Frontier III by Howard Atkinson and Donna Green - dated but the basics are still valid and it is the only Canadian book on ETFs
  
• All About Asset Allocation by Richard Ferri
  

Discussion Forums - Ask questions, likely someone will know the answer

• Financial Webring
• Canadian Money Forum
  
• Blogs - Canadian Capitalist, Canadian Couch Potato, CanadianFinancialDIY, Canadian Business - Larry Macdonald, WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com - Preet Banerjee
  

As always, we may have missed some good resources - if we have, post a comment as other readers would no doubt also like to know what you do. Happy and productive reading to all!

Disclaimer: this post is my opinion only and should not be construed as investment advice. Readers should be aware that the above comments are not an investment recommendation. The sources' accuracy is not guaranteed and the article may not interpret their quality correctly. Do your homework before making any decisions and consider consulting a professional advisor.