The US stock market is the largest in the world and encompasses shares in household names such as McDonald's, Disney and Facebook.It has also been an extremely strong performer in recent years. On 10 July the S&P 500 index hit a new record high above the 3,000 level, just five years after attaining the 2,000 mark.It is also the geographic market with the largest selection of London-listed exchange

One of the great success stories in investment products has been the exchange-traded fund (ETF). Making its debut in 1993 in the US, today the ETF industry is worth trillions of dollars and new products are constantly being brought to market.But what should an investor look at when choosing from the vast choice of ETFs on offer?WHAT IS YOUR EXPOSURE?The starting point when choosing an ETF is to lo

A price war among exchange-traded fund providers looks imminent as French firm Lyxor has lowered fees on 12 of its products.The firm says these ETFs will now be the cheapest in Europe with management fees of between 0.04% and 0.12%.Lyxor, the asset management arm of French bank Societe Generale, claims the products are 40% cheaper than similar products offered by its rivals.The company recently la