120 New ETFs Debut So Far in 2008

NO DOUBT MANY investors have a hard time keeping up with the breakneck pace of the exchange-traded-fund industry. Last year a new offering was launched almost every working day. ETFs can be volatile, swinging in price as speculators make day-to-day bets. And there is a lot of money at stake. About 700 ETFs — and their close siblings exchange traded notes — hold just under $600 billion, a tally double what it was just two years ago.

While that pace has subsided a bit this year as the broader economy has slowed down, the ETF and ETN industries nevertheless continue to attract money and launch additional offerings. So, as the first half of 2008 comes to a close we thought it was a perfect time to look back at some of the more noteworthy new offerings that were introduced to investors during the last two quarters. Consider it our way of putting on the brakes so you can catch up with whatever might have fallen off your radar screen.

According to Lipper about 120 new ETFs and ETNs hit the market during the first six months of this year. That's comparable to the same time period during 2007, but that's only because of a few major launches by PowerShares, Rydex, iPath and Northern Trust. If it wasn't for those four fund families the tally would've been almost cut in half. (Northern Trust was the most active with 15 NETS ETFs hitting the market.) The industry also experienced one of its first rounds of liquidations. Products carrying the Claymore, XTF, Adelante and MacroShares brand names closed their doors. We expect that trend to continue as the competition for dollars increases and trading volume becomes more important to investors of every stripe.

The new offerings spanned a wide range of investing strategies, including funds focused on commodities, currencies and emerging markets, and leveraged and short funds. It was evident that many fund families were trying to round out their lineups before their competitors beat them to market. And it looks like that race will continue. There are dozens of more funds that are in registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Below we look at four categories of funds that made their debuts in the first half of 2008.

PowerShares soon followed up that effort with four actively managed funds of its own. The PowerShares Active Alpha Multi-Cap fund (PQZ) uses a proprietary formula to amass a portfolio of 50 stocks that range in size all the way down to as small as $400 million. Every week the management team can switch out a trio of stocks. PowerShares Active Mega-Cap (PMA) tries to beat the results of the Russell Top 200 index by overweighting stocks with strong growth stories. The last two funds, PowerShares Active AlphaQ (PQY) and PowerShares Low Duration (PLK), focus on Nasdaq stocks and fixed-income products, respectively. Click here to see our stock on these funds.

While those launches were greeted with much fanfare, not many advisers have poured money into these funds. Indeed, during our interviews, financial pros were taking a wait-and-see attitude. "They are taking a relatively simple concept and turning it upside-down with these funds," says Lance Alston, president of JWA Financial Group in Dallas. Of course, sentiment like that could change once these funds have some performance records under their belts.