Posted on May 29, 2009 - by Jay

Analysing ETFs

Photo by kevindooley

It came as a pleasant surprise how SGX had expanded its portfolio of ETFs to 30 from a pathetic 10 when I was looking at it a couple of years ago. Recently, the biggest distributor Lyxor (Soc Gen), announced a further 5 ETFs to be listed. Looking at this trend, one can expect the no. of ETFs to go to 50 in the next 1-2 years, providing retail investors an inexpensive way to diversify and invest globally.

http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/marketplace/mp-en/products/securities_products/etfs
This link provides a lot of info on the ETFs listed on SGX

At this juncture, I thought it would be good to post something about this investment product which might be one of the most important factor to help one achieve a 8%pa long term rate of return. Here are a few things I thought one should look at.

1. Expense ratio
Needless to say, this is probably the first thing to check. SGX listed ETFs have expense ratios ranging from 0.4-0.9%, which is kind of expensive compared to those in the US (as low as 0.2%) but much cheaper than unit trusts at 1.5% sales charge and 1% management fee. Well Singaporeans always get short-changed, so just live with it.

2. Market maker
Some ETFs listed way back in 2001-2002 has zero trades for the past 8 years without market makers which I think resulted in their failure. Now it’s impossible to buy or sell them as there are no buyers or sellers! Even though its a listed product. Then came Lyxor with its market maker (basically some execution party and ensures you can buy or sell the ETF even when there is no counterparty) and viola, ETFs took off and Lyxor now has 50% market share of all ETFs listed in Singapore.

3. Spread
Even though there is a market maker and trades get executed, some times we need to pay attention to the spread. My rule of thumb is that if the spread is more than 1%, then it’s a huge transaction cost. It is not something that you can change though. My greatest concern would be that if I hold this ETF for 10 years or more when the whole world has lost interest in it, will the spread balloon? Meaning I can’t sell it. I have no answer at this point. Enlightened parties, pls share! Read more…

Related posts:

1. Concerns on ETFs
2. Be Careful of Leveraged and Inverse ETFs
3. United FTSE/Xinhua China A50 ETF – Getting access to A Shares