FYI: Sponsors of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continually blow our minds by announcing lower and lower fees, with expense ratios as low as 0.03%. (That’s an annual fee of a mere $3 on a $10,000 balance.)
But what if you learned that a “hidden fee” was costing you more than 1% of the sale price every time you bought and sold one of these securities?
You’d be mad as hell. But it happens every day.
I wrote in a recent column that the most popular ETFs ding you, on average, only 0.04% to 0.08% to buy and sell them. That isn’t the annual fee, it’s a cost some investors aren’t aware of called the “bid-ask spread.”
Looking beyond those popular ETFs, a study shows that some of these financial products are costing you as much as 1.39% every time you get in and out.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/some-etfs-cost-you-more-than-1-to-trade-2019-07-17/print
