5 ETFs That Have Bucked The Downtrend (& October's Worst 5 ETFs)

5 ETFs That Have Bucked The Downtrend (and October's Worst 5 ETFs)

There are a few different recent key pivot points for the broad market, the intra-day high on September 18th being the most obvious one -- but we'll look at October's month-to-date (MTD) data for this quick screen.  Looking at pure sector play optionable ETFs (without overlap) that trade over 100k average daily volume (no Inverse or Ultra, etc):

Baseline:  S&P 500 ETF (SPX) (SPY) down -6.57% MTD

Gainers

1.  Option Volatility - iPath VIX Futures ETF (VXX) = +41.36% MTD 

2.  Treasury Bonds - iShares Treasury Bond (TLT) = +8.62% MTD

3.  Agriculture - PowerShares Agriculture ETF (DBA) = +3.18% MTD

4.  REITs - iShares Cohen & Steers REIT (ICF) = +2.19% MTD

5.  Preferred Stock - PowerShres Preferred ETF (PGX) = +1.05% MTD

And now the worst bloodletters:

Losers

1.  Greece - Global X Greece 20 ETF (GREK) = -24.56% MTD 

2.  Solar - Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN) = -22.04% MTD

3.  Oil & Gas Equipment - SPDR Oil & Gas Equipment & Services (XES) = -20.86% MTD

4.  Metals & Mining - SPDR Metals and Mining ETF (XME) = -19.88% MTD

5.  Uranium - Global X Uranium ETF (URA) = -19.06% MTD

No big surprise to see Option Implied Volatility at the top of the list.  Also other 'flight to safety' yield areas like Treasury Bonds, Preferred Stock, REITs.  But notable that Gold (GLD) and other related metals aren't on the list of the biggest October gainers.

On the downside list, several Energy-related plays, even those that seemingly shouldn't be directly correlated to the big Crude Oil (USO) selloff, such as Solar and Uranium.

by Moby Waller
co-Portfolio Manager, ETFTRADR & Rapid Options Income
BigTrends.com
1-800-244-8736