hol4

Hello,

I am a 20 something so my current portfolio consists of low-cost, no load, mutual funds with heavy stock holdings. When ETF's became the "it" item on Wall St., I figured they would fizzle out in a couple months. However, they are still being preached by many as great investments due to super low costs, and tax efficiency.

I am left scratching my head because if you take the simplest, most basic chart (I use yahoo) and compare a popular broad market ETF (I used SPY and Vangaurd's VTI) to low-cost, no load mutual funds (FAIRX, DODFX, RYVPX, CGMFX, etc.), the no-load, low-cost mutual funds always OBLITERATE the ETF's (I'm looking at ranges over 2 years, since I have a long-term perspective).

If you compare both said market-broad ETF's from inception they actually lose out against the DOW as a whole.

So, why would anyone in their 20's, 30's, and even 40's ever invest in ETF's (sector play aside). If they want a piece of the broad market, no-load mutual funds with a good manager seem to be the best bet, unless I'm totally mising something obvious here? Thanks much.