What to look for before you buy an ETN

What to look for before you buy an ETN: "Why ETNs are Riskier Than They Look
Ron Rowland | Friday, February 6, 2009 at 7:30 am


Co-editor of Weiss Research’s International ETF Trader
Mike Larson is off today, so he asked me to fill in for him. And one thing that I think Mike and I both agree on is that ETFs, or exchange traded funds, are one of the best things that ever happened for small investors.

You may already know about the advantages they have over conventional mutual funds … liquidity, low costs, transparency, diversification, and more.

What you may not know is that there is a new investment that looks a lot like an ETF but is actually a whole different species. I’m talking about ETNs: exchange traded notes.

On the surface, ETNs share many of the characteristics of ETFs. You can buy and sell them on the stock exchange throughout the day, their performance closely mirrors an index, and they give you access to specialized market niches like commodities and currencies.

However,

There is One Gigantic Difference …
An ETN Is Really a Bond!

That’s why they’re called “notes” rather than “funds.” Yet it usually doesn’t pay interest at a fixed rate, like say a Treasury bond would. Instead your “interest” is the return on a designated index...."