amazon.com Inc.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or subindex. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

MACY’S INC., $58.19, New York symbol M, operates 885 Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department stores. It also sells goods online. This week, the company said it would close 35 to 40 of its less profitable Macy’s stores over the next few months. In all, these outlets supply 1% of the company’s sales. It didn’t say how much it expects to pay in severance and other costs. Like most traditional retailers, Macy’s is facing intense competition from online sellers like Amazon.com, which are expanding beyond books and movies to other merchandise such as clothing, shoes and cosmetics. Specialty chains and discount retailers, like Wal-Mart and Target, are also drawing shoppers away from department stores....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $110.34 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of large U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.09%.

The $48.1-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Oracle, Home Depot, Comcast, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences and Walt Disney Co.

The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 21.8%; Health Care, 14.6%; Financials, 12.1%; Industrials, 11.5%; Consumer Goods, 9.3%; Oil and Gas, 5.0%; Materials, 1.4%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%.

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Because it’s always important to diversify beyond Canada, a look at two Vanguard ETFs that offer a low-fee way to achieve diversification.

Here are some spinoff stocks we think have gains ahead.

Hewlett-Packard Co., $29.82, symbol HPQ on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $53.7 billion; www.hp.com), plans to split into two firms:

1. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will sell computing products, like servers and analytics software, to businesses and governments. It will also offer cloud computing services and financing. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will have annual revenue of $58.4 billion and operating profits of $6 billion. Meg Whitman, Hewlett’s current chief executive officer, will become this firm’s CEO.
2. The second company, called HP Inc., will focus on the slower-growing personal computer (59% of its revenue) and printer (41%) markets. HP Inc. will have annual revenue of $57 billion and $5 billion of profits. Ms. Whitman will be its chairman.

Hewlett will hand out shares of both companies to its investors in November 2015. Shareholders will not be liable for capital gains taxes until they sell their new shares.

The company rejected a similar plan in 2011. However, Hewlett’s 2014 restructuring, which involved cutting jobs and simplifying product lines, has increased its profit margins and strengthened its balance sheet. That gives these new firms more flexibility to invest in new products and make acquisitions.

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Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. in 170 mutual funds. Vanguard, which went into business in 1975, offers low-fee index mutual funds. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds aren’t available in all provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds (ETFs) that trade on stock exchanges. We don’t recommend all of Vanguard’s ETFs, but here are two we do see as low-fee buys....

Three of our long-time recommendations recently spun off a subsidiary as separate firm. This is a great way to unlock hidden value, as studies have shown that after an initial adjustment period of a few months, spinoffs tend to outperform groups of comparable stocks for several years. Needless to say, things don’t always work out this well. Spinoffs and their parents do sometimes run into unforeseeable woes, which is why we don’t see all of these stocks as buys right now. EBAY INC. $29 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $34.8 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.9; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) launched its online auction site in September 1995 and now has 157 million users worldwide. Sellers pay fees to list and sell their goods through eBay’s websites....

NEW GOLD INC., $2.85, symbol NGD on Toronto, recently started building a mine at its 100%-owned Rainy River project in Ontario. It aims to start production in mid-2017 at an average of 325,000 ounces of gold annually over nine years (along with silver as a by-product). The company has now entered into a $175-million streaming agreement with Royal Gold (Nasdaq symbol RGLD) to help fund Rainy River (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Royal will pay $100 million at the start of the deal and the remaining $75 million when the mine is 60% complete (projected at mid-2016)....

AMAZON.COM $488.27 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 465.7 million; Market cap: $227.3 billion; No dividends paid) continues to excel in a range of businesses; its shares are now at all-time highs. The company is a major online retailer that’s growing quickly in new areas. For example, Amazon Web Services offers cloud services through 11 data centres worldwide. It accounts for just 7% of Amazon’s sales, but that’s growing at over 50% a year. However, when Amazon enters a new line of business, it’s happy to make little profit, or even lose money. This is an appropriate growth strategy. Eventually, competitors will catch up with its technology and business practices. In the meantime, it focuses on building a large and loyal clientele....

Our advice is keep it simple when you invest in ETFs. Three “plain vanilla” ETFs give you an efficient way of investing in U.S. stocks.