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 …

I need help - I want to create some technology exposure as I can see this being an area that is not subject (highly) to increasingly priced commodities, and would be an area the hedge funds move their money as they panic flee in a sector rotation.What I'm looking for is something not named Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM) or Google (GOOG).... with the following featuresNot some tiny $500M market cap company that relies on 1 huge customer who in the blink of the eye can destroy the future with 1 decision to switch to a new vendor - I'd prefer something in the $1B to $30B sizeNot a "giant" like Hewlett Packard (HPQ)Not VMWare (VMW) - I know the story and know the risksNot Garmin (GRMN) - I know the story and know the risksNot Nokia (NOK) - I know the story and ...

The Market Vectors Nuclear ETF (NLR) has taken the top position in our weekly sector rankings. The top four holdings in this ETF constitute about 10% each, and the list drops rapidly to holdings of 5% or less.

Reviewing Our Mission

Our weekly ETF Update is designed to assist both investors and traders interested in ETF’s and Sector Rotation. Before turning to the current rankings, let us undertake a review for readers new to this series.

Our Method. In this past article, we described our basic methodology and why we believe the rankings are useful for fundamental traders and technical traders alike. While we urge readers to check out the entire article, the key point is that ETF’s pose challenges and opportunities different from investment in individual stocks. The fundamentals may be more difficult to assess. Even with a good grasp on fundamental trends, there …