Second Quarter ETF Update: Winners & Losers

Another quarter has come and gone, the dust has settled, and now its time to see who made our top ten best and worst ETFs year to date. To avoid duplication, we’ve eliminated the lesser known ETFs that essentially track the same assets as the more popular issues, as well as funds with built in leverage.

As you can probably imagine, the top ten list was saturated with energy and commodity related names. The best overall performer was the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) which is now up over 75% for the year. Rounding out the bottom of the top performers was the iPath DJ AIG Copper ETN (JJC) which is up almost 29% for the year.

Best Performers Year to Date:
1) 75.1% - United States Natural Gas AMEX:UNG
2) 56.1% - PowerShares DB Energy AMEX:DBE
3) 51.0% - United States Oil AMEX:USO
4) 44.3% - PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund AMEX:DBC
5) 42.1% - iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust NYSE:GSG
6) 36.5% - SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Prod AMEX:XOP
7) 34.1% - SPDR S&P Metals & Mining AMEX:XME
8) 31.5% - iShares Dow Jones US Oil & Gas Ex Index NYSE:IEO
9) 29.3% - ELEMENTS Rogers Intl Commodity ETN AMEX:RJI
10) 28.9% - iPath DJ AIG Copper TR Sub-Idx ETN NYSE:JJC

This year’s dogs are a different story, and surprisingly quite a diverse group. The worst performer, was the iPath MSCI India Index ETN (INP) which is sporting a solid -47% return year to date. Following close behind at -35% and -33% were the iShares DJ Broker-Dealers (IAI) and the KBW Capital Markets (KCE), respectively. Loaded with solar names, PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy posted the 6th worst performance, followed by iShares DJ US Healthcare Provider, both losing roughly 30% this year. By far the most popular name on both lists, the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) claimed the 8th spot on the worst list, losing a little over 29% of its value this year.


Worst Performers Year to Date
1) -47.4% - iPath MSCI India Index ETN NYSE:INP
2) -34.9% - iShares Dow Jones US Broker-Dealers NYSE:IAI
3) -32.8% - KBW Capital Markets ETF AMEX:KCE
4) -32.6% - Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate NYSE:TAO
5) -31.8% - PowerShares HighYield Dividend Achievers AMEX:PEY
6) -30.5% - PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy AMEX:PBW
7) -29.7% - iShares Dow Jones US Healthcare Provider NYSE:IHF
8) -29.2% - Financial Select Sector SPDR AMEX:XLF
9) -29.1% - PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China AMEX:PGJ
10) -28.5% - HealthShares Ophthalmology NYSE:HHZ

Our top ten best and worst lists were created using data pulled from Morningstar