Whether it’s at the grocery store, the mall or the gas station, a penny saved truly is a penny earned. The same is true when it comes to your investments, where keeping costs low can help you reach your goals sooner. Even small fees can have a big impact on your portfolio because not only is your balance reduced by the fee, you also lose any return you would have earned on the money used to pay the fee.

ETFs are widely available commission free on most online brokerage accounts and through investment professionals. You can also purchase directly through Fidelity, where iShares ETFs trade commission-free online.

When it comes to owning ETFs, a key element to consider is the Total Expense Ratio (TER), which represents the total cost of holding an ETF for one year. These costs consist primarily of management fees and additional fund expenses, such as trading fees, legal fees, auditor fees, and other operational expenses.

The primary goal of investing is typically to generate the highest possible return for the lowest risk. Diversification might be able to help you obtain this balance. By spreading investments across asset classes, geographies and sectors, investors may lower their risks as the poor performance of one investment could be offset by stronger performance in another, and vice versa.

Index ETFs generally seek to track indexes that are comprised of many individual securities, helping to spread the risk and reduce the impact of price swings in any one security. Although this does not eliminate risk entirely, the diversified structure of ETFs has the potential to improve the risk-adjusted return of your portfolio.

The deep liquidity of ETFs — the speed with which they can be bought and sold — comes from the markets on which they are traded. ETFs trade on exchanges and investors can buy or sell throughout the trading day, just like stocks.

And just like stocks, you can buy and sell ETFs in a variety of ways:

• Market orders execute as soon as possible at the best price available at the time. Market orders are best used when it’s more important to make sure the trade gets executed vs. the specific price.
• Limit or stop-limit orders mitigate the impact of intraday price swings by giving you more control over the price to buy or sell. Limit orders are particularly helpful in volatile markets but can expire if your price target isn’t met, meaning there’s no guarantee the trade will get done.
• Stop loss orders are triggered when the price of a security falls below a specific level. Stop orders can help protect your gains and limit your losses but trades may be delayed, especially in times of market stress.
  The ease of trading ETFs gives investors more control over when and how they trade. This liquidity feature is one of the key benefits of owning ETFs, particularly when compared to mutual funds. Just make sure your order type is consistent with your goals