etfdb.com contains a tool to find which ETF can be used to replace mutual funds you may be condidering. Fidelity Select Technology FBIOX has 30 ETSs listed as being similar. In looking at the 30, the best two are PBE and XBI both of which performed just about the same as FBIOX over the last couple of months. The advantage of the ETF is that you can buy or sell it at any time the market is open, have a stop loss order to limit losses, and do not have to contend with Fidelity’s stupid rules on round trip trades. However, if you buy or sell an ETF you have to pay a commission – Fidelity changes me $8. Fidelity Select Automotive has 20 ETFs which are similar, but only 4 are performing as well as FSAVX. Most ETFs are still fixed portfolios, however as more managed ETFs are offered I expect they will perform better. I imagine Fidelity has not offered ETFs which match their mutual funds because they make more money on mutual funds. One of the more interesting ETFs is TBAR. This is an ETF which invests in GLD (gold) but switches to Tbills when GLD is below its 200 day moving average. At finance.yahoo.com you can view a chart of TBAR and compare it to GLD. TBAR is less then 2 years old and GLD has not done much on the up side in the last two years. It will be interesting to watch.
I could repeat the same comments I made last week except refering to JapanSmallerCompanies this week. JapanSmallerCompanies has 14 ETFs which etfdb.com are alternatives. The best two of these are JPP and SCJ, neither preformed as well as JapanSmallerCompanies
The sum of the deviations (617,839,997) is up for the last two weeks – time to invest.
The DJ Wilshire 5000 index is above its 50 day moving average and the average is increasing – time to invest. Both trends are up – time to invest.
My current investments:
SAutomotive has a price of $54.55, a sell price $51.82, a relative rank of 04, and is a hold.
SBiotechnology has a price of $174.72, a sell price 165.98, a relative rank of 01, and is a hold.
JapanSmallerCompanies has a price of $13.96, a sell price TBD, a relative rank of 02, and is a buy.
My portfolio changes this weekend:
IRA #1 – None
IRA #2 – Invest 20% in JapanSmallerCompanies
My portfolio market exposure after this weekend’s changes
IRA #1 – 100% invested
IRA #2 – 60% invested