Maybe ETFs are not all sweetness and light.

According to Barron's, a newly-published academic study has found that the characteristics which make it easy to trade ETF encourages investors to indulge in market-timing-- and thus lose money.

The study was written by Utpal Bhattacharya, a finance professor at Indiana University's school of business, and four other academics at Goethe University in Germany. Their report, titled The Dark Side of ETFs and Index Funds, found that "easy-to-trade index-linked securities" such as ETFs encourage users to "make bets on market phases, and they bet wrong," according to Barron's

Read more about the study in Barron's. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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