Personal Investment Notes

Everyone needs utilities. Here is a list of utility funds.

Utility Funds

IDU – Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Sector Index Fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Index. 0.48% expense ratio.

XLU – The fund invests in companies involved in water and electrical power and natural gas distribution industries. 0.24% expense ratio.

UTH – Utilities HOLDRS. The trust holds shares of common stock issued by specified companies that, when initially selected, were involved in the utilities industry. No expense ratio.

VPU – Vanguard Utilities (ETF). The fund seeks to track the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Utilities Index, an index of stocks of large, medium-size, and small U.S. companies within the utilities sector. 0.25% expense ratio.

A smattering of fixed income index funds.

Fixed Income Index Funds

AGG – Aggregate Bond Fund (ETF). Emulates the total United States investment-grade bond market as defined by the Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate index. 0.20% expense ratio.

BND – Vanguard Total Bond Market (ETF). Emulates Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index. 0.10% expense ratio.

CSJ – ETF. Emulates Lehman Brothers 1-3 Year U.S. Credit index. 0.20% expense ratio.

IEF – iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund (ETF). Tracks intermediate-term sector of the U.S. Treasury market. The Index measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 7 years and less than 10 years. 0.15% expense ratio.

LQD – ETF. Tracks U.S. investment-grade corporate bond market as defined by the iBoxx $ Liquid Investment-Grade index. 0.15% expense ratio.

TIP – iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund. Tracks inflation-protected sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers U.S. TIPS index. 0.20% expense ratio.

Gold Stocks

ABX – Barrick Gold Corp.
AEM – Agnico-Eagle Mines, Ltd.
AUY – Yamana Gold
GG – Goldcorp, Inc.
GFI – Gold Fields, Ltd.
JAG – Jaguar Mining
NEM – Newmont Mining Corp.
AU – AngloGold Ashanti, Ltd.

Gold Index Funds

GLD – Gold Trust (ETF). Tracks the price of gold bullion. 0.40% expense ratio

GDX – Gold Miners (ETF). 0.55% expense ratio

IAU – Comex Gold Trust (ETF). The Fund seeks to correspond generally to the day-to-day movement of the price of gold bullion. The objective of the Trust is for the value to reflect at any given time the price of gold owned by the Trust at that time less the expenses and liabilities of the Trust. 0.40% expense ratio.

Here is a list of nuclear power index funds:

Nuclear Power Index Funds

• NLR – Nuclear Fund (ETF). Emulates the DAXglobal Nuclear Energy Index. 0.65% expense ratio.
• NUCL – S&P Global Nuclear Index Fund (ETF). Emulates the S&P Global Nuclear Energy Index. 0.48% expense ratio.
• PKN – WNA Nuclear Energy Index (ETF). Emulates the WNA Nuclear Energy Index. 0.75% expense ratio.

External Resources

Website for WNA nuclear energy index. Explains the rational behind the index, its components, and other nuclear power related information.

A list of REIT index funds and ETFs

REIT Index Funds

VNQ – (ETF) Vanguard REIT Index. Emulates Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US REIT Index. 0.12% expense ratio.
RWR – (ETF) Emulates Dow Jones Wilshire REIT index. 0.25% expense ratio.
IYR – (ETF) Emulates Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate index. 0.48% expense ratio.
ICF – (ETF) Emulates Cohen & Steers Realty Majors index. 0.35% expense ratio.

A list of oil and gas stocks and index funds.

Oil and Gas Index Funds

DIG – ETF that emulates Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas index. 0.95% expense ratio.

UGA – U.S. Gasoline Fund (ETF). The investment objective of the Fund is to have the changes in percentage terms of the net asset value that reflect the changes in percentage terms of the price of gasoline. 0.60% expense ratio.

A list of companies who are involved in solar power, both commercial and residential. Also included are relevant index funds.

Individual Solar Stocks

CSIQ – Canadian solar
CSUN – China Sunergy co.
ENER – Energy conversion devices
ESLR – Evergreen solar
FSLR – First solar
JASO – JA Solar
LDK – LDK solar co.
SOL – ReneSola
SOLF – Solarfun Power Holdings, Ltd.
SOLR – GT Solar International, Inc.
SPWRA – Sunpower corp
SRWRF.PK – Solar World AG
STP – Suntech power holdings
TSL – Trina solar
WFR – MEMC electronic materials
YGE – Yingli Green Energy

Solar Index Funds

KWT – Market vectors solar energy ETF. Emulates Ardour Solar Energy Index. 0.65% expense ratio.
TAN – Claymore/Mac Global solar energy ETF. Emulates MAC global solar index. 0.65% expense ratio.

Preferred Stock Indices

PFF – iShares preferred stock index ETF fund. Emulates the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index. 0.48% expense ratio.

PGX – Powershares preferred stock index ETF fund. Emulates the Merrill Lynch Fixed Rate Preferred Securities index. 0.50% expense ratio.

PGF – Powershares financial preferred stock index ETF fund. Emulates the Wachovia Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial Index. 0.70% expense ratio.

Due Diligence

See what the top holdings of the funds are. Most issuers of preferred stock are financial companies. Also, check out the expense ratio. The income may have qualified dividend income in addition to regular dividend income. Also, some income may be return of principal.

Here’s a chart that shows what certain asset groups have done over the same time period in the face of nearly a 43% loss in the Dow Jones (since its peak of around 14,100 to a low of about 8,175). Dividend reinvestments are not included. Also, some of the other indices have swung more over a different period of time because they are not 100% correlated to the Dow Jones index.

The point of this chart is to think about the loss tolerance one can take. Individual stocks and bonds can lose even more than 43%. I believe most people cannot stomach the stock loss, though they like the gains.

I tried to pick broad asset classes. I left out foreign stock investing because they are more volatile than the U.S.