Like the S&P500 except instead of 500 it's like every stock on the entire market. Or what's the ticker symbol?
Vanguard has a few broad market tracking products. VTI is a broad market (total stock market) ETF. http://seekingalpha.com/article/30316-a-guide-to-u-s-total-market-and-broad-etfs
VT - Vanguard Total Stock Worldwide VTI - Vanguard Total Stock - Domestic IYY -iShares - Domestic TMW - DJ Wilshire 5000 - Domestic The DJ Wilshire 5000 and MSCI U.S. Broad Market index both try to measure the entire stock market. http://www.msci.com/ Reference ETF sites: http://etfdb.com/ http://seekingalpha.com http://www.sectorspdr.com/ https://personal.vanguard.com/us/home
Thanks. Are they worth trading or are they just fun to watch? Or in other words, are there any reasons one shouldn't trade/invest in them?
For investing, personal choice. Vanguard Index funds and ETF's have extremely low mgmt fees... make a decent vehicle for simple investment portfolio's [doesn't need be vanguard, just an example] You can just buy the VT balanced against some bonds/bond funds... i.e. 70/30 - 60/40 depending on your age, and be done with it You can drill down a bit and build a basic diversified Vanguard ETF portfolio [arbitrary %'s for example purposes only] VTI - 35% VGK - 20% VWO - 5% VPL - 5% VNQ - 5% BND - 30% You can mix in a basket of dividend stocks, or metals, oil, water, etc... if one desire's Investing you can be as creative as you like, just perform your due diligence... Trading the individual ETF's is up to you. Caveat being is understanding how each ETF handles tax distribution, etc... [which can add up depending on how often the funds turnover their holdings] Personally, for trading, one can't beat Index futures [SPY, QQQ's if learning and need more affordable instruments], Forex, GC & CL if you like volatility, equities if you have a proven strategy, be it earnings, gaps or whatever your fancy may be... The benefit of Intraday trading is the use of leverage and volatility... PS: you have been around the block already, my reply wasn't directed at you... just thought I would share my understanding so tried to be as complete as I could... others may have a different view and can expand or correct my post as appropriate...