There are more ETFs listed in the U.S. than stocks, and more launch every month. Two funds tracking what sounds like the same index can hold different companies, charge very different fees, and drift apart by percentage points over a decade. Those differences live in prospectuses, daily holdings files, and index methodology documents almost nobody reads. The ETF Examiner reads them. We break down how a fund is built, what it actually owns, what it really costs once spreads and tax treatment are counted, and how it has performed against the funds you would realistically consider instead. Whether you are choosing your first index fund or auditing a portfolio you already hold, this is where you find out what you own.
The ETF Examiner desk is built from primary fund documentation rather than issuer marketing material. We pull the daily holdings files ETF sponsors are required to publish, prospectuses and statements of additional information, N-PORT and N-CEN filings from the SEC, annual and semiannual shareholder reports, and the index methodology documents that dictate what a fund must buy and sell. Our editors pair those with exchange data on trading spreads and premiums or discounts to net asset value, distribution and tax character notices, and our own return calculations to compare each fund against the alternatives an investor would actually weigh. Our goal is not simply to list a fund's statistics, but to show you what holding it would mean for your money.
A retiree collecting monthly distributions from a popular Nasdaq income ETF watched a Medicare surcharge quietly appear on their premium bill, and the fund's fact sheet never warned them it was coming.
SGOV's expense ratio barely registers, but that 9-basis-point bargain hides a cost most investors never calculate until it is far too late to matter.
Three years without Medicare means three years of four-figure monthly premiums hitting your account like clockwork, and most early retirees have no income strategy built to survive it.
At 73, the IRS locks in your withdrawal date and the market picks the price, which means a bad year can force you to sell quality assets at the worst possible moment. Four ETFs…
Dividend investors treat rock-bottom fees and generous yields as an either-or trade, but a small corner of the ETF market quietly breaks that rule. Three funds prove the tradeoff is a myth, and choosing…
A newer BlackRock ETF is quietly outpacing the most popular Nasdaq income fund of the past four years, at the exact same fee, and most investors holding the original have no idea it exists.
SMH delivered a jaw-dropping year, yet three semiconductor funds quietly left it in the dust by betting on corners of the chip market that most investors completely ignored.
Four ETFs promise weekly cash deposits and yields stretching past 40 percent, but the number plastered on the marketing sheet and the number that actually lands in your pocket are two very different figures.
