Exchange-traded funds are remarkably sophisticated investment vehicles. You’ll get the feel for them as we go along. But any kind of complete description can’t be attempted until we nail down a number of other things. We’re going to visit a four-story house. In the basement is finance, which lies at the foundation of any investment program. You probably don’t spend much time in the basement of your house, and we won’t spend much time with finance either.

Then, in successive floors, come the following:
? Stocks and bonds
? Indexes
? Mutual funds
? Index funds
? In the penthouse, exchange-traded funds