Customer Reviews

The Exchange-Traded Funds Manual

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gary Gastineau, a managing director at Nuveen Investments and the author of The Options Manual (1988), has written the most detailed account available in print of open-ended exchange-traded funds: how they work, what are their distinctive characteristics, who trades them (largely, specialists, market makers, and hedge funds), who owns them (largely, brokerage firms clearing and carrying the ETF shares for specialists, market makers, or hedge funds), and what are their advantages and disadvantages over other sorts of investment for various investors.

This is no gripping page-turner, in the league of Jack Schwager's "Wizards" series. But it doesn't need to be. Mr. Gastineau's manual is directed chiefly at investment advisers and financial planners as a reference volume, and it serves that purpose quite well. Advisers and planners, and of course their clients, face a bewildering variety of issues pertaining to these relatively new vehicles-issues of tax efficiency, risk management, trading costs and spreads, etc. In many offices, this book will be a welcome aid in sorting out all of that.

As a consultant to the industry, if you are going to buy one book on ETFs, this is it. Written in a clear and concise manner, this book addresses the needs of institutional investors and professionals alike.

This is not a manual for practitioners, or for ordinary people interested in ETFs. It is a discussion of the authors views of ETFs, and why they are generally superior to other investment vehicles.

A bit long. And it's too expensive.

Two stars.

not much to say, they cover me completly, i have read almost 6 ETF book an that was one of the best. I think that emphasize much in legal issues but is something that all the other books are short view

It is clear that the author is an expert in this subject, but the book is not very readible, (ex: many of the sentences exceed 6 lines). It took me a very long time to finally finish reading the thing, my favorite was the last chapter when he compared ETFs against conventional mutual funds.

Unless you work for a firm that constructs ETFs for a living, (iShares, Vanguard, WisdomTree, etc.) then recommend that you not purchase this book,
Jim

Exchange Traded Funds are simply the biggest development for the average retail investor in the past decade. No more need to pay huge fees for opaque mutual funds/unit trusts. Just go to an exchange, buy the fund and hey presto you can track indices and have total price transparency for as long as the exchange is open.

I championed ETFs in my book "Capital Market Revolution" and I am delighted to see that ETF pioneer Gary Gastineau has produced a terrific, comprehensive book on every aspect of Exchange Traded Funds.

If you have any questions about ETFs, they will be answered by this book...

Patrick L Young
author "Capital Market Revolution"
CEO, erivatives.com