Coming Soon!  Look for my new book Exchange Traded Funds Investing For Beginners – How To Buy Your First ETF And Grow Your Money.  Below is a free sample chapter and preview for you.

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Simply put, a fund is just a bunch of stocks you can invest in with one purchase, instead of having to go out and buy them all individually.

For example, when you invest in the stock market you can do it a number of ways.  One way, of course, is to just go out and buy an individual stock.  For example, you could buy some Microsoft stock, if you were interested in investing in technology.

But there’s another way too.  And that would be to buy a stock fund, which is a basket of many different company stocks.  In this case, since you were interested in investing in technology, you might buy a technology fund made up of different technology stocks like Microsoft, Apple, IBM and others.

So that’s what a fund is, really.  It’s a predefined, pre-bought group of stocks you can invest in.  So when you buy a fund, you get a piece of ownership into all of those different stocks in one fell swoop.  Otherwise, you would have to go out and buy them individually, one company’s stock at a time.

And one of the benefits of owning all of those different stocks in a fund is reduced risk.  That’s because they provide you with built in diversification.  That is to say, if one of the stocks is down, like Apple, then Microsoft and IBM might both be up.  So they kind of cancel out the loss that Apple is having.

Like we said, this concept, and funds, has been around for some time.

But we’re going to look at a specific type of fund, called an Exchange Traded Fund (or ETF for short).  ETF’s are one of my favorite types of funds to invest in, as opposed to the more traditional funds (like mutual funds).

So let’s look at how these ETFs got started, and what’s different about them that makes them so popular.

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So that’s the preview.  The book will be released in just a couple of months.  In the meantime, you might be interested in my book Stock Investing for Beginners – How To Buy Your First Stock And Grow Your Money.  It’s been well received, with over 2000 5-Star reader reviews.

Here’s what one reader had to say…

I FINALLY understand stocks!! - 5 Stars

This book is a work of genius!!! I tried to get into stocks years ago and none of the references for beginners I came across made any sense, so I gave up. I decided to give it another try and some references captured the very basics like “what is a stock?” “why is investing important?” but after that sent me for a loop again.

I decided not to give up again and that’s what led me to this book.  John Roberts simplifies EVERYTHING! He puts in a relative perspective so you can understand it better. Like saying an exchange is basically an auction. He relates something unfamiliar to something familiar so you can grasp it better. It helps a lot to be put this way.

And I love that he centers the book solely on stocks. Other references start throwing in bonds and funds when you barely understood stocks to begin with, making you twice as confused.

I also love that he reiterates some important points because sometimes I’ll forget something and wind up going back and try to read it again, but he brings up the points again to make it easier to stick. And being new to the stock market I need that reminder.

Upon reading this book, I was finally able to get a stockbroker account and begin investing with confidence. Something I never thought I could do. I can’t wait to read his other books!” – I. Espinosa

Many thanks for their good review, and if it piqued your interest, you can view Stock Investing For Beginners for free right here.

All the best – John Roberts