If you are eligible USAA has a god deal. You can set up a mix of mutual funds, etf's, and stocks. The mutual funds are no load and the commission on stock trades isn't much. Edward Jones is expensive.
Think of an ETF as a mutual fund you trade like a stock. No waiting until the end of the day for the NAV, it's priced like any other stock and bought and sold with market, limit and stop orders because it trades like a stock.
Yes QQQ and GLD are ETF's. SPY represents the S&P 500.
