Earlier this month, Schwab (SCHW) launched a few ETFs that will allow its clients to trade commission free, creating a nice diversified vehicle for dollar cost averaging. The move may pressure other firms to offer commission free ETFs in the future, but so far it hasn’t happened.
Currently Schwab offers 4 ETFs and has plans to offer additional ETFs later this year. They are:
Schwab US Broad Market ETF (SCHB) Schwab US Large Cap ETF (SCHX) Schwab US Small Cap ETF (SCHA) Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF)
I don’t expect the 4 ETF’s to gain much popularity outside of Schwab because they are generic and compete with more liquid and established ETF’s, but it looks like they provide decent liquidity already with all of them trading an average of about 100K shares a day or more. They plan to add large cap growth, large cap value, international small cap and and an emerging market ETF in a few weeks. I think if they stick to more general ETF’s and don’t try to specialize too much, they’ll continue to do well with their ETFs. It’s a smart move from Schwab and appears to be paying off already.
Every once in awhile I like to check in with ETFConnect.com to get ETF holding percentages, NAV, descriptions and other information. Take a look at any ETF Resources page and you’ll likely see the site listed as the best of the best. Surprisingly, it’s vanished and been replaced by CEFConnect which focuses exclusively on closed end funds. It isn’t surprising that Nuveen, which owned ETFConnect, and provides CEF funds, has set up a site exclusively focused on CEF’s, but the fact they have killed a very popular, authority site for ETF investing site is stupidity at its finest. The conflict of interest is understandable as a CEF provider, but it could have been sold for a substantial sum to another company. Perhaps that is in the works behind the scenes, but for now I’ll have to try and scour the web for similar info. Most of the info will be easy to find elsewhere, but what I really liked about ETFConnect was the chart showing how the ETF/CEF traded compared to its NAV. If anyone has found another site that offers something similar, I’d love to know!