It was a difficult week for investors, almost regardless of market sector. As we have observed in our last several updates, a general deterioration in market sectors helps the investor get a good feel for the overall market. Last week we wondered whether there was anyplace to “hide”. We noted that the inverse market sectors ETF’s were showing surprising strength.

Markets versus Sectors

Most ETF investors are interested in finding the best sectors. The advantage of considering market ETF’s and their inverses — SPY and SH, DIA and DOG, QQQQ and PSQ — is the ability to compare the overall market to individual sector performance.

Sector concentrations have a higher beta — more risk and more reward. It is unusual for a play on the overall market, long or short, to have more appeal than individual sectors.

Last week’s emergence of the ETF index shorts was quite …