There may be comfort in stocking your portfolio with large and well-known exchange-traded funds such as the nation's biggest ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), or the soaring Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the 100 largest non-financial stocks traded on Nasdaq. But you may not realize that you could be paying a little extra for such comfort – or that you have another choice.
Several name-brand ETFs offer lower-cost, higher-returning clones, nicknamed "mini-mes." Although informally named after the small sidekick of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies, mini-me funds are heroes for investors, says Dan Sotiroff, a senior analyst for investment research firm Morningstar.
