A Look At Schwab's ETF Select List

Charles Schwab SCHW, the largest U.S. discount broker, has made its presence felt in the ETF arena in a short amount of time, garnering $3.5 billion in assets under management since entering the game in November 2009. That total is likely helped by the fact that Schwab fired one of the first shots in the ETF price war by offerings its clients commission-free trades on Schwab ETFs.

The firm published its "ETF Select List" on Wednesday, a grouping of what Schwab deems to be the best ETFs across 48 different asset classes.

To be included on the "ETF Select List, an ETF must meet certain minimum requirements for criteria such as assets under management, length of track record, trading volume, bid-ask spread, tracking errorof the ETF to its underlying index, and number of competitive market makers," Schwab said in its report.

One criticism of the Schwab ETF Select List would be that 11 of the 13 ETFs the firm issues appear across the various rankngs, though it should be noted Schwab said no one issuer could make up a third of the list, which includes nearly 50 ETFs and at least Schwab does make good on that stipulation.

Along those lines, there are plenty of SPDRs, iShares and Vanguard ETFs on the list as well along with a couple of PowerShares offerings.

Funds to garner the top rankings include the Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF SCHX U.S. equity category and the Schwab International Equity ETF SCHF in the international equity category. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF BND was the top bond ETF on the list while the sector rankings were dominated by various SPDR ETFs.