For many certified financial planners (CFPs), its easy to sell clients on the advantages of exchange traded funds (ETFs). Since ETFs are essentially mutual funds that trade like stocks, they offer investors a useful hybrid that provides for increased flexibility and transparency while avoiding many of the drawbacks of other alternatives.

With one simple transaction, CFPs can arrange for their investors to gain exposure to the performance of a whole market or market segment (such as the kind that can be provided by an emerging market ETF) that they desire. However, its important for the professionals who manage accounts for their clients to have the most advanced tools at their fingertips so that they can build their clients trust and confidence.

When selecting and trading ETFs, CFPs need to take into account many factors, as market and product innovations continually cause market shifts. And since ETFs simply track a given index without regard to its investment potential, CFPs need to always be able to provide clients with current information on the outlook so they can offer timely recommendations that help investors adjust to ever-changing market fundamentals. Thats why the ETF Research Center can be a valuable asset to financial planners and investment advisers, one that provides them with the tools to best use their skills and expertise to make expert assessments.

The investment tools offered by ETF Research Center

With the ETF Research Center, investment professionals gain a number of tools that help them use their expertise to select the best ETFs for their clients. For example, with Fund Focus, subscribers can analyze the fundamentals and investment merit of an ETF simply and easily, in addition to basic information such as top holdings, sector and geographic balance, and historical performance. This detailed look under the hood can help CFPs distinguish between two seemingly similar funds that, in reality, offer very different investment potential.

Similarly, with Portfolio Builder, CFPs who enroll in the premium service can build and monitor all-ETF portfolios for clients. The services Fund Finder allows for investment professionals to find ETFs using the same sort of investment-related criteria as they use with stock screeners (such as growth and valuation metrics), while its Hedge Finder can help users locate ETFs that hold a particular stock, thereby letting CFPs quickly find the best funds to hedge single-stock positions, which can be especially helpful for when stocks in the news are around events such as earnings announcements.

Crafting a trading strategy with ETF Research Center

In addition to the tools offered by ETF Research Center that allow for CFPs to assess and select the best ETFs, the database offers investment professionals industry information gleaned from years of analysis. For instance, CFPs who are new to ETF trading gain the ability to access ETF Research Centers extensive newsletter archives, with strategy and trading ideas from ETF experts.

Using the expertise of the professionals at ETF Research Center, even experienced ETF traders can benefit from an analysis of investment merit statistics, earnings trajectories and other in-depth research that can provide them with the ability to look at the current market in a new light.

Making the most of ETF trading with ETF Research Center

Since ETF Research Center offers tiered access to its research, CFPs can access only the programs they need, without paying for advanced services. With a basic subscription, users can access full search capabilities, look through a list of exchange traded funds, gain unrestricted access to the Fund Focus tool and export search results and charts that they can then examine at their convenience.

Industry professionals, however, may benefit the most from premium features such as ETF Research Centers Portfolio Builder tool. By looking at ETF metrics in a familiar, disciplined manner based on investment merit, CFPs can examine how the fundamentals of the underlying portfolio holdings impact the overall value and potential of an ETF, and compare this to alternatives, giving CFPs the tools they need to make the very informed selections putting their knowledge and experience to maximum use.