Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

ETF research presented by ING DIRECT Investing incorporates other types of exchange-traded products such as exchange-traded notes (ETNs).

ETF Investors: You should carefully consider an exchange-traded fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. For this and other important information please review the fund's prospectus, available from the fund sponsor or from our ETF prospectus page. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Learn more about the differences between mutual funds and ETFs.

ETFs must be bought and sold through a broker-dealer such as ING DIRECT Investing, which will involve commission expenses.  ETFs are not directly redeemable and are subject to market volatility.  When buying or selling an ETF, an investor will receive the prevailing market price.  Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against market losses.  Dividends are not guaranteed, and not all ETFs include a dividend investment objective or strategy.

Lipper Leader Ratings: Lipper Leaders Ratings for Total Return reflect funds' historical total return performance relative to peers. Ratings for Consistent Return reflect funds' historical risk-adjusted returns relative to peers. Lipper ratings for Preservation are relative, rather than absolute. Ratings for Tax Efficiency reflect funds' historical ability to postpone taxable distributions. Ratings for Expense reflect funds' expense minimization relative to peers. Lipper Leader ratings DO NOT take into account the effects of sales charges.

Funds are ranked against their Lipper peer group classifications each month for 3-, 5-, 10-year, and overall periods. These ratings are based on an equal-weighted average of percentile ranks of the five Lipper Leaders metrics. For each metric: the top 20% of funds receive a rating of ‘5’ and are named Lipper Leaders, the next 20% of funds receive a rating of ‘4’, the middle 20% of funds receive a rating of ‘3’, the next 20% of funds receive a rating of ‘2’ the lowest 20% of funds receive a rating of ‘1’. For an explanation of the methodology used to calculate them, you can visit the Lipper Leader website.

Lipper fund data supplied by Thomson Reuters.

News and headlines provided by MarketWatch. Copyright © 2012 MarketWatch, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Where does this research content come from? It’s produced by independent research and ratings providers, not affiliated with us, ING DIRECT Investing, Inc. For more, see our Research Content Disclosure. Delayed quotes: NYSE, NASDAQ and Amex - at least 15 minutes delay. BATS: BATS Exchange real-time quotes may be delayed up to 10 minutes compared to a composite real-time quote. BATS quotes include market information from outside sources that's delayed at least 15 minutes.

ShareBuilder is a service of ING DIRECT Investing, Inc. Securities products are offered by ING DIRECT Investing, Inc., a registered broker-dealer and Member FINRA/SIPC. ING Direct Investing, Inc., is a subsidiary of ING Bank, fsb. Brokerage Financial Statement

ING Bank, fsb, and its subsidiaries, including ShareBuilder Corporation, have been acquired by Capital One Financial Corporation and are no longer affiliated with ING Groep N.V. ("ING"). The trademarks ING, ING DIRECT, ING Lion, and the ING Lion logo, alone or as a part of any trademark, logo, work, or domain name are trademarks of ING and are used by permission.