September ETFs: Best and Worst Industry Performers

Quick! Would you be able to name the best performing, unleveraged, sector ETF for September?

The First Trust ISE Revere Natural Gas Fund (FCG) produced a slick 15.4%. In spite of the collapse of natural gas prices in 2009, companies engaged in exploration, storage and transportation of the commodity have nearly doubled (99% gain) off of the March lows.

The 2nd best percentage outcome? Claymore NYSE Arca Airline Fund (FAA) raked in 15.3% for the month. Continental, Delta and Southwest must have done something very unique to give this low-volume ETF the high octane jolt. (Or maybe it was the sub-$70 price on crude!)

Indeed, commodities themselves were relatively flat, including oil, nat gas, precious metals and base metals. On the other hand, the companies that mine/explore/drill for resources were some of the hottest percentage gainers on the month.

Best and Worst Sector Performers in September 2009
					% Return
First Trust ISI Revere Natural Gas (FCG)					15.4%
Claymore NYSE ArcaAirline Fund (FAA)					15.3%
Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX)					14.6%
SPDR Oil and Gas Equipment Services (XES)					13.9%
SPDR Metals and Mining (XME)					12.6%
Market Vectors Steel (SLX)					12.3%
SPDR Oil and Gas Exploration Production (XOP)					10.0%
S&P 500					3.6%
Regional Bank HOLDRS (RKH)					0.4%
First Trust Amex Biotech (FBT)					-0.3%
SPDR KBW Bank (KBE)					-0.5%
iShares DJ Health Providers (IHF)					-0.6%
SPDR Biotech (XBI)					-0.8%
SPDR Homebuilders (XHB)					-3.0%
iShares Dow Jones Home Construction (ITB)					-6.2%

Perhaps it goes without saying, but real estate demand still weighs heavy on the minds of investors. Residential prices appear to have stabilized with recent data showing 3 months of mild home appreciation in the 20 largest metro areas.

However, investors passed on SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) and DJ Home Construction (ITB) in September. They also appear leery of traditional banking, as banks in the KBW Bank Fund (KBE) and in Regional Banking (RKH) lost ground as well.

On the flip side, it doesn’t seem to matter what the spot price of aluminum, iron ore, crude oil, gold, silver or natural gas may be… the stocks of these companies keep climbing! Year-over-year, Gold Miners (GDX) and Market Vectors Steel (SLX) are up 34% and 5% respectively.

Full Disclosure: Gary Gordon, MS, CFP is the president of Pacific Park Financial, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC. The company may hold positions in the ETFs, mutual funds and/or index funds mentioned above.

Comments

[JG Savoldi:]

Our model exploits many of these temporary price dislocations where the commodity and the ETF are telling two different stories and one will inevitably prove incorrect as time passes.

The BAM model is an extremely contrarian model at turning points and these ETF's have proven to be great vehicles to exploit. An example would be the Ultra short financials last year when the majority was spooked out during short-selling rules changes.

We're doing a free real-time full access campaign on Twitter if any of you would like to follow the BAM model's predictions until October 11th.

We're calling for a 22-25% stock market crash into October 13th but we also have made public our forecasts for Bonds, USD, Crude and Gold and a few individual stocks.

Just go to our blog and click the link to the Twitter full access campaign.
baminvestor.com/blog

Oct 01 12:30 PM