It was one year ago today that the complete capitulation of retail and institutional investors alike ended and on March 10, 2009, the money started pouring in again. During that time, virtually all asset classes rocketed up with annual gains that haven’t been seen in decades. For investors savvy enough to either stay the course or time the bottom, the realized triple digit gains in numerous ETFs.
I selected several top performing ETFs from various sectors, countries and included leveraged ETFs as well. Note that leveraged ETFs only perform well during a sustained trend like what we saw from the bottoms and over long periods of time with just mild or low volatility, they lose money on both the long and short side due to daily rebalancing decay (explained here in Leveraged ETF Decay)
Biggest Winners Overall (all leveraged)
Symbol | % Return | ETF Name
FAS 542 Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares
MWJ 472 Direxion Daily Mid Cap Bull 3X Shares
EDC 439 Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bull 3X Shares
TNA 432 Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares
TYH 399 Direxion Daily Technology Bull 3X Shares
RFL 375 Rydex 2x S&P Select Sector Financial
DZK 326 Direxion Daily Dev Mkts Bull 3X Shrs
BGU 325 Direxion Daily Large Cap Bull 3X Shares
UYG 319 Ultra Financials ProShares
UYM 315 Ultra Basic Materials ProShares
Biggest Winners with No Leverage
PGF 257 PowerShares Financial Preferred
RWW 181 RevenueShares Financials
PFF 180 iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
KIE 166 SPDR KBW Insurance
KBE 165 SPDR KBW Bank Financial
RYF 164 Rydex S&P Equal Weight Financials
PSP 160 PowerShares Listed Private Equity
RTL 160 iShares FTSE NAREIT Retail Cp Idx
XLF 152 Financial Select Sector SPDR
FIO 146 iShares FTSE NAREIT Industrl/Offc Cp Idx
PGX 140 PowerShares Preferred
IYR 129 iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate
IAK 129 iShares Dow Jones US Insurance
Biggest Winners by Country
RSX 179 Market Vectors Russia ETF
TUR 178 iShares MSCI Turkey Invest Mkt Index
INP 160 iPath MSCI India Index ETN
GXG 137 Global X/InterBolsa FTSE Colombia 20 ETF
EWX 131 SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Small Cap
EWW 128 iShares MSCI Mexico Investable Mkt Idx
GML 125 SPDR S&P Emerging Latin America
EWA 125 iShares MSCI Australia Index
EWZ 123 iShares MSCI Brazil Index
BKF 114 iShares MSCI BRIC Index
EPP 114 iShares MSCI Pacific ex-Japan
EWS 113 iShares MSCI Singapore Index
ILF 111 iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index
VWO 107 Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF
EZA 106 iShares MSCI South Africa Index
Biggest Winners by Commodity
KOL 228 Market Vectors Coal ETF
SLX 182 Market Vectors Steel ETF
PKOL 178 PowerShares Global Coal
XME 158 SPDR S&P Metals & Mining
FXZ 151 First Trust Materials AlphaDEX
CUT 145 Claymore/Beacon Global Timber Index
IRV 99 SPDR S&P International Materials Sector
Biggest Losers (All Leveraged)
ERY -81 Direxion Daily Energy Bear 3X Shares
SJL -82 UltraShort Russell MidCap Val ProShares
SJH -83 UltraShort Russell2000 Value ProShares
EEV -83 UltraShort MSCI Emerging Mkts ProShares
SMN -86 UltraShort Basic Materials ProShares
BGZ -86 Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares
DPK -88 Direxion Daily Dev Mkts Bear 3X Shrs
TYP -89 Direxion Daily Technology Bear 3X Shares
MWN -92 Direxion Daily Mid Cap Bear 3X Shares
SKF -92 UltraShort Financials ProShares
TZA -93 Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares
SRS -93 UltraShort Real Estate ProShares
EDZ -94 Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares
RFN -94 Rydex Inverse 2x S&P Select Sector Fincl
FAZ -99 Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares
You’ll note the biggest losers of the bunch were all leveraged ETFs, in many cases, going to almost -100% returns. For this reason and in anticipation for more of a plateau instead of another 60% move from here, I’ve been shorting leveraged ETF pairs with astounding results.
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What a nice read and reference. I never would have guessed mid caps would be leading small caps.
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