Wall Street Learns That Giving Stuff Away Is Boring
Financial firms introduced a slew of products that didn’t charge fees last year. Investors yawned.
Bloomberg, February 21, 2019
Investors care more about the other characteristics of an index fund or ETF then the slight difference between low-cost and no cost.
That is my takeaway from the fee wars that burst into view last summer.
My sense is everyone is playing catch up with Vanguard Group.
As Bloomberg Intelligence noted (via Bloomberg TV), the passive indexing giant remains the leader in low cost funds and commission-free trading. Add up all of the commission-free ETFs from Schwab, E*Trade, TD Ameritrade and Fidelity, and it totals 1596 products. That total combined fails to match Vanguard’s 1811 offerings. Similar dominance by Vanguard is seen in Fixed Income ETFs, Equity, and Smart Beta offerings.
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I originally published this at Bloomberg, February 21, 2019. All of my Bloomberg columns can be found here and here.
