ATLAS — The map of World ETFs

The FOUNDATION guide gave you the architecture: allocation, core, satellites, limits. But it left you standing in front of a shelf of dozens of products that look suspiciously alike: World here, All-World there, ACWI further along. On top of that, five different ETFs track the exact same index, from five providers, at five different costs. Which is which? And how much does the difference matter?

This guide is the map. You will meet the indices (the "originals" behind every ETF) and the houses that design them. You will learn to read their names without being misled. And you will pick up a sixty-second method for judging any product anyone recommends to you.

By the end, the shelf of dozens of products will no longer confuse you. You will know exactly what you are looking at and where each product fits.