Learning More About Folios

One of the best known providers of the folio service is FOLIOfn. Investors can learn a lot about this alternative by going to the company's Web site at www.foliofn.com.

FOLIOfn offers a large number of ready-to-go folios, including the 30 Dow stocks, a folio of the largest 50 stocks from the S&P 500, the 15 stocks in the Dow Jones Utility Average, a folio of the largest 50 stocks in the Nasdaq-100 Index, social issues folios, bond folios, ETF folios, sector folios, global folios, and more. The number of folios is very large, and most investor interests can be accommodated with one or more of these folios.

The cost of three folios, with 50 securities in a folio, is $295 per year. One folio is $14.95 per month. An investor could set up a taxable folio, an IRA, and a third position, such as another retirement account or a child's custodial account under the three folios allowed, all for the same $295 annual fee.

The fee covers 500 commission-free trades per month in FOLIOfn's twice-daily windows .

FOLIOfn is able to hold costs down by using a system called window trading . Shares are bought and sold twice a day. First, the company checks for offsetting buy and sell orders among its customers. Orders that cannot be matched in this manner are sent to dealers. The tax impact of all window trades is accounted for automatically by the FOLIOfn trading system.