Mutual Funds — what’s not to like?

Well:

• High fees
• Lack of transparency (what are they holding)
• Trading rules (how long you have to hold them before they don’t extract a penalty)
• Only bought or sold at the end of the day
• A track record no better, and usually worse than indexes over time
• Sometimes ugly tax consequences (e.g., having the value drop considerably over time and getting stuck with a capital gains tax)