Five ETFs Beating This Bear Market

By Jim Wiandt

Want to know who's winning right now? Here are five ETFs that are holding up well against the bear.

I came across the following piece on 5 ETFs that have held up well in the bear market by someone named Gary Gordon, the ETF Expert, and someone I've not actually met. You can go to his Web site for the detailed breakdown, but here's his list:

1. The iShares Biotechnology Fund (AMEX: IBB).

2. The Merrill Lynch Broadband HOLDRs (AMEX: BDH).

3. The iShares Dow Jones Transportation Fund (NYSEArca: IYT).

4. Market Vectors Environmental Services (AMEX: EVX).

5. HealthShares Cardio Devices (NYSEArca: HHE).

Here are my comments on his list. This, like anything at either far end of the returns spectrum, is by and large a highly concentrated list. He notes that the last two have 22 and 23 equities each, for example. I did a quick lookup of the Biotech fund, which one might expect might have a decent number—and it's got 150 stocks in it. The Broadband HOLDRs, though, also only has 22 equities in the basket. And IYT only has 21! So for those of you who have been calling for the airline ETF, um, they're all in there (together with FedEx, J.B. Hunt and others). That's a nice ETF betting on the continued movement of oil to below $100.

I would also note that the HealthShares Cardio Devices ETF is one of 15 being closed on September 19, so you may not want to load up on that one right now. (Four other HealthShares will remain open).

Comments

[omooc:]

Every day, in IBD, there is a list showing the 10 best and 10 worst ETFs over different horizons (1 wk, 1 month, 3 months, etc). Reverse funds are also covered. None of the 5 ETFs listed here made the IBD list as being among the best. What is going on?

2008 Sep 11 10:18 PM