@article {Sauter16, author = {Gus Sauter}, title = {Investment Opportunities Abound with Exchange-Traded Funds}, volume = {2001}, number = {1}, pages = {16--22}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Institutional Investor Journals Umbrella}, abstract = {In 1976, Vanguard introduced the first index mutual fund for individual investors. The new offering{\textemdash}Vanguard 500 Index Fund{\textemdash}was met not only with widespread skepticism, but downright derision. {\textquotedblleft}Index Funds an idea whose time has passed{\textquotedblright} declared a headline of an article appearing in Pensions \& Investments. An article in Financial World brandished an equally blunt, but more succinct title: {\textquotedblleft}Marketing Mediocrity.{\textquotedblright} The fund was far from a commercial success, too. It mustered a meager $11 million in its initial underwriting, far short of its $150 million target. Now, fast forward some 17 years to the introduction of a new index product{\textemdash}the exchange-traded fund or ETF. The first of these investment hybrids was the Standard \& Poor{\textquoteright}s Depositary Receipt or SPDR. The SPDR is a unit investment trust based on the S\&P 500; its shares began trading on the American Stock Exchange in 1993. The new vehicle offered the inherent advantages of indexing (low costs, broad diversification, and tax efficiency), along with the continuous pricing and trading flexibility of an individual stock. It, too, did not gain immediate acceptance in the marketplace.}, URL = {https://guides.pm-research.com/content/2001/1/16}, eprint = {https://guides.pm-research.com/content/2001/1/16.full.pdf}, journal = {ETFs and Indexing} }