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choosing ETFs

I have not yet found a tool to help you pick one or more ETFs based on your outlook. I have found "screeners", which it seems to me require you to understand your outlook and how that translates into market choices, and then the screener will help you screen ETFs based on those market choices. But, is there a tool to help you jump from your outlook to one or more ETFs?

For example, E-trade asks you a series of questions, such as how soon might you want to use this money, how risk tolerant are you, etc. It then puts up pie charts, like x% bonds; y% big caps, etc. Then you toss all this away, and go to their ETF screener, and plug in different info to sort through the ETFs.

Is there a tool that takes E-trades step one, shows you pie charts, and then points you to ETFs that fit the bill?

Also, is there a tool that includes questions such as how likely do you think the recession will last x months, how do you think inflation will be in 1 year, etc? It could even give you clues as to what some brains are predicting, then let you punch in your biases.

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Reply to
Gil Faver
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FWIW, I just use a dart board: I list all the ETFs, pick a random number and zoom into the chosen ETF. Then I list other similar ETFs and look at trade volume and costs, choosing one that's easy to trade with low operating costs.

I started doing it a few years ago when the WSJ journal would compare a random portfolio with the readers' and the former beat the latter often, though not always. As I myself am a poor stock picker, the dart board has worked much better for me than when I tried to research to pick a stock.

HTH

-------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup.

Reply to
Augustine

Suppose you throw three darts, and they all fall on equity ETFs. Does that mean you put all your money in stocks? And if one dart falls on an equity ETF and the other two fall on bond ETFs, you are only 33% in stocks? I hope you don't really manage your saving in this manner.

-------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup.

Reply to
beliavsky

That's a good point and I should have been more specific.

When I amass about 100x more than the buy and sell brokerage commissions in savings (or about $2000), it's time to invest. Then I throw one "dart". Given that the majority of ETFs are equity-based and my age, it's OK for me. I do this for both Roth IRA and regular savings, not counting plain money-market savings as the emergency fund.

In my 401k, I just invest in the age-based fund.

In both cases, the average return even after this slump is over 15% per year for the past 5 years or so. I reckon I beat most professionally-managed funds.

-------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup.

Reply to
Augustine

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