All of this talk about health care reform… and yet, very little talk about health care as a profitable sector for investors. I have discussed the extremely impressive run for biotechnology throughout the bear market, however. (See “Biotech ETFs Lift Portfolios Higher Than Broad-Based Health Care ETFs and/or “Pharma ETFs, Biotech ETFs Are Benefiting From Swine and Politics.”)

The biotech bonanza aside, the dramatic collapse of Lehman (LEHMQ.PK) did not spell doom for Healthcare ETF enthusiasts. In fact, many Healthcare ETFs are better off today than they were 1 year ago.

Are you one of the millions without health care? The Obama administration has made revamping the health care industry. But what would such an overhaul ultimately mean for related ETFs?

On June 17, Democratic leaders in Congress began to push for a measure that will require all Americans to get medical insurance, forcing insurers to accept all patients and ending tax breaks for employer-paid health benefits, report Nicole Gaouette and Laura Litvan for Bloomberg. President Barack Obama has pressed the need for a health-care overhaul as a top domestic priority and said it’s a “moral imperative” to extend coverage to the 46 million Americans who are uninsured.

Monday, however, saw a number of these funds with high volume, perhaps signaling an increasing interest. Below is the list of AlphaDEX funds for which I have sufficient data to calculate the majority of these parameters, sorted by the number of millions of dollars they have traded this past month.

The Day / Avg. Week $ field indicates the percentage of the past week's average dollar volume that was traded in the prior session. As you can see, seven of these AlphaDEX funds saw dollar liquidity at over 200% above average. Though these funds exemplify the diversity and opportunity that ETFs can bring to the market, until reasonable liquidities are present, most investors will hesitate to take non-trivial positions.

Roger Nusbaum submits: A new slew of ETFs:

• First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX Fund (FXD)
• First Trust Consumer Staples AlphaDEX Fund (FXG)
• First Trust Energy AlphaDEX Fund (FXN)
• First Trust Financials AlphaDEX Fund (FXO)
• First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund (FXH)
• First Trust Industrials AlphaDEX Fund (FXR)
• First Trust Materials AlphaDEX Fund (FXZ)
• First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund (FXL)
• First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (FXU)
• First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund (FEX)
• First Trust Mid Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund (FNX)
• First Trust Small Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund (FYX)
• First Trust Large Cap Growth Opportunities AlphaDEX Fund (FTC)
• First Trust Large Cap Value Opportunities AlphaDEX Fund (FTA)
• First Trust Multi Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund (FAD)
• First Trust Multi Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (FAB)
• First Trust S&P REIT Index Fund (FRI)

I will check out the sector funds and the small cap value.

And not just the 500th … the industry roared past the 500 mark, to 515, as seventeen new ETFs from First Trust launched on the American Stock Exchange. Sixteen of those funds make up First Trust’s new “AlphaDEX” family of ETFs, which use quantitative strategies in an attempt to beat the market. They are:

The American Stock Exchange [Amex] announced Thursday the launch of 17 new First Trust ETFs. Sixteen of the new funds track the performance of so-called 'enhanced' indexes managed by Amex or Standard and Poors that select stocks using a proprietary, rules-based AlphaDEX fundamental stock methodology. These ETFs include three core funds (large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap), large- and mixed-cap growth and value funds, and nine sector funds (consumer discretionary, staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, materials, tech, utilities). The 17th fund is the First Trust S&P REIT Index Fund [FRI], which tracks the S&P REIT composite index. Goldman Sachs, Susquehanna, and Kellogg will split specialist duties on the funds.

A spokeman for First Trust explained that this process incorporates a rigorous discipline that attempts to minimize style tilt, eliminate “noise” and deliver a consistent story.

Global Healthcare, Pharma and Biotech ETFs
iShares S&P Global Healthcare Sector Index Fund (IXJ)

First Trust AlphaDEX Sector ETFs
First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX Fund (FXD)
First Trust Consumer Staples AlphaDEX Fund (FXG)
First Trust Energy AlphaDEX Fund (FXN)
First Trust Financials AlphaDEX Fund (FXO)
First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund (FXH)
First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX Fund (FXR)
First Trust Materials AlphaDEX Fund (FXZ)
First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund (FXL)
First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (FXU)