Merrill's Change in HOLDRs Makes Them Easier to Hold

Maybe you should hold off writing off Merrill Lynch's HOLDRs.

Many of you have written to me complaining that these so-called revolutionary products -- baskets of 20 stocks within one sector that can be made as a single investment -- are nothing but a record-keeping headache, especially when a company in the HOLDR merges or distributes shares in a spinoff or some other corporate action. In these instances, you'd end up with fractional shares in your brokerage account, have to determine their cost basis and eventually pay big commission fees to unload them.

Thankfully, Merrill has heard your cries and made some changes. ...