The proper investment vehicle selection is an important consideration in implementation of any investment strategy. Different investment vehicles have varying trade-offs. Actively managed mutual funds may have better performance, but also carry larger annual fees for that active management. ETFs and indexed mutual funds may have lower expense ratios, but they usually will also require a transaction fee when bought or sold that may partially offset the benefit of the fund’s lower expense ratio.

At Tradewinds Capital Management we recognize that varying circumstances may warrant using varying investment vehicles. Through our affiliation with Schwab Institutional, a division of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., member SIPC, we can offer our clients a full range of investment products. The investment products we utilize generally fall within the following four categories.

  • NON-TRANSACTION FEE FUNDS – are open ended mutual funds that do not charge a transaction fee for the buying or selling of the mutual fund. The investor is still subject to the annual expense of the fund and any applicable short-term trading fees.
  • TRANSACTION FEE FUNDS – are open ended mutual funds that do charge a transaction fee for the buying or selling of the mutual fund. We typically only use transaction fee funds in only large accounts where the transaction fee would be considered a de minimis expense.
  • EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS (ETF) – are closed or open ended mutual funds that trade on a tick-by-tick basis in the markets. ETFs typically have very low internal expense fees but may require a transaction fee paid to the brokerage firm when bought or sold. Unlike open ended mutual funds, where everyone receives the same end of day price, persons trading a particular ETFs during the day will most certainly receive different prices for the purchase or sale of their shares.
  • INDIVIDUAL STOCKS AND BONDS – are typically not incorporated or recommend in our investment portfolios, but we can accommodate an individual client’s requests to research, buy and/or sell any individual stock or bond.