Exchange-Traded Funds For Dummies
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There isn’t a single investment offered by Van Eck that your grandfather ever heard of, never mind invested in! All 35 Market Vectors ETFs offered by Van Eck Global are in “alternative” asset classes.

You won’t be investing in Procter & Gamble or McDonalds, but rather in, well, the names of a few of the ETFs will give it away . . . There’s the Market Vectors Uranium & Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR), and the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF), for example.

Van Eck’s niche seems to be finding small segments of the market, be they small industry sectors or out-of-the-way foreign markets, that no other providers thought to capitalize on. In other words, if you can’t slice and dice the market into enough fragments using Invesco PowerShares, you always have Van Eck.

There’s a reason to use alternative investments, for sure, but they should not be used haphazardly. It would be wise not to use Van Eck ETFs for the core of your portfolio, but perhaps for the periphery. Just make sure you have a good reason for sending your money to such exotic places.

For more information, call 800-826-5444 or visit Van Eck's website.

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Russell Wild, MBA, an expert on index investing, is a fee-only financial planner and investment advisor and the principal of Global Portfolios. He is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen nonfiction books.

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