And is reinvesting gains from an ETF to your retirement account the best way or is there something else that's a better strategy?

Does anyone know of a good site that will allow me to find Canadian index funds available? And, is there a site that will allow me to compare funds offered by different institutions?

If you're sued and lose, can they take your IRA?

That was the question a reader posed on one of my older posts. Here's the question from J. Brown:

"The majority of my assets are in retirement accounts (IRA's, specifically). I used to have an umbrella policy, but was told that if I were sued, the money in my IRA could not be looked at to satisfy any judgment. Is this true? Where can I go to find additional info on this?"

Let me say at the outset that I am no stock trader and I am only an investor for the long term (over 1 year). After reviewing the results of the various market index funds (DOW Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ, etc.) and seeing that the movement of each one mirrors the other, why wouldn't I just invest in one rather than a variety of them? Sure they may be slightly off of each other but basically the same general movement up or down. It doesn't seem that diversification is as important when investing in the overall market as it is when investing in a portfolio of individual stocks. Am I missing something here?

Rolling over a sizable ($200k+) traditional IRA from a previous employer and don't have much time to pick investments. Found a collection of 12 ETFs that result in much more diversity than just the S&P 500 (small vs large; international vs US; value vs growth). Not interested yet in bonds since I still have 20+ years until retirement. Figure the ETFs will minimize annual expenses vs mutual funds. I do plan to rebalance annually using a discount broker and review prospectus information. My question is if this all seems reasonable or if I'm missing something about ETFs or good portfolio management practices in general that I should reconsider before I dive in.

The "buy and hold" folks have for many years said that the stock market averages a 7% return annually, and to keep investing in a diversified portfolio of mutual funds representing stocks and some bonds. But many investors following this strategy lost 30 - 45% of their retirement portfolio value in the last six months as the recession pummeled both stock and bond values. Should US investors be looking somewhere other than mutual funds to grow their retirement savings?

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but these mutual funds seem extremely high-yielding, even over long periods, and make American stocks and funds look nearly pointless in comparison. I don't mind the risk involved, and would likely purchase shares of a diversified fund or several different regional funds. What do you think of these funds, and is there anything else I should be aware of?

So I understand the risks of ETFs in terms of the market going up or down, but are there any other risks related to the company issuing them? For example most banks have insurance (CDID in Canada and an equivalent in the U.S.) to cover savings accounts if the institution goes under. Obviously a long shot, but if Barclays (that owns iShares I believe), goes under, what happens to my ETF stock? Is it still safe if the underlying investments are still OK?

If mutual funds use most of the capital gains and dividends of their portfolios to make distributions to investors, why does the fund's net asset value (NAV) increase over time? It seems that distributing these gains would cause the NAV to remain steady, or to decrease.

I started out with two mutual funds. When I transferred them to a new investment company those two funds were used to buy three new mutual funds. This year I sold all three funds. I'm using turbo tax and I understand how to report the three I sold but I really lost on how to report the first two I had and never actually got any cash for. There were no gains or losses on them so I'm not sure how to enter the information. Help!

eternal student answered:
They are both Treasury bonds but one is inflation protected the other is not. Therefore, they are subject to different set of factors that drive their volatility.

When watching an ETF (e.g., VTI) via yahoo finance during the day - the price is changing. Is it because

A)the holdings of the fund change in value OR
B)demand/offering play a role in the price.

The B option seems very odd to me. Is a price of an ETF affected by market demand? (on Thursday 10am vs. Thursday 10:15am?

I find ETF management fees to be as low as the cheapest mutual fund, are more convenient to buy and sell (no forms to fill) and much easier to figure out what they are investing in. Their name often makes this perfectly clear. Also there is no active manager to mess things up with his incompetence. The only thing mutual funds do better is communicating with their investors.

It seems as though a well researched oil and/or natural gas ETF would serve one's portfolio very well as a long-term investment. Am I missing something with this?

Considering the iShares Lehman 10-20 Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLH)

I am looking at this ETF SIH, it sounds good in theory but I noticed it has hardly any volume. I heard somewhere that ETFs hold their price based on supply and demand just like a stock, in that case shouldn't I be worried that there is not much volume?

Also, when an ETF price is fluctuating, is it moving from two sources? i.e. the underlying individual stocks and the traders bidding for the ETF. If so how do these two competing elements work out?