No matter how long you've been trading stocks or how new you are, there's a popular option that might be a good fit for your portfolio. It combines the stability of well-known companies with the growth potential of new companies you may not have heard of yet. It also has other benefits, such as being cheap and a good way to save money on taxes.
QQQ is the trade name for the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock (NASDAQ: QQQQ). QQQ is an exchange traded fund, which is a type of investment product (ETF). It is the most actively traded listed stock in the U.S., with an average of 99.7 million shares traded every day.
Active investors like that trading a basket of stocks in a single transaction is easy and gives them a lot of options. Long-term investors like that the fund is made up of the 100 largest non-financial companies on the NASDAQ and is spread out across different industries. With the purchase of a single stock, the investment covers a wide range of fields, such as computer hardware and software, telecommunications retail and wholesale trade, biotechnology, and transportation.
Also, QQQ can be bought with 401(k) and IRA funds, which makes it a good choice for a buy-and-hold investment strategy. And because QQQ shows how all of these companies are doing as a whole, the effect of price changes caused by one company is another reason why it is attractive.
Buying directly
Investors who buy the same dollar amount of shares at regular intervals can now buy directly into an ETF like QQQ. QQQDirect is a cheap online service for investing that lets you buy one plan of QQQ per month for free. With QQQDirect's AutoVest Schedule, you can invest as little as $10 per month in this dollar-based, fractional-share service.
"NASDAQ has been a big part of making America more equal, and QQQDirect is another way to make it easier for people to own stocks," said John Jacobs, CEO of NASDAQ Global Funds. "Dollar-cost-average investors who buy one share of QQQ will own a portfolio of industry-leading NASDAQ companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, and Dell."
John Markese, president of the American Association of Individual Investors, said, "We think this new service gives investors more ways to make good investment decisions" (AAII). "As a supporter of investor education and empowerment, AAII sees the launch of QQQDirect as a new, low-cost way for people to put sound investing principles into practise."
