IWM

Going to be watching IWM tomorrow for a possible Cup-n-Handle breakout...

Healthcare

IHF; iShares Healthcare ETF is perking up (perhaps a strategic play in case the Democrats win the White House??). This ETF has top holdings such as AET, HUM, WLP, and CI, that have seen recovery moves of late.

Rotation

The charts pretty much speak for themselves. Using these ETFs as a general representation of sector performance, many of the big names that have been in play for the past few months are breaking down below their 200 EMAs.
There's MOO, Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (main holdings include BG, MOS, MON, POT). Or, you can check out DBA.KOL, Market Vectors Coal ETF (top holdings include WLT, CNX, MEE, ACI).
SLX, Market Vectors Steel ETF (top holdings include X, MTL, RIO, MT)IYT, iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average is in limbo at the moment, but might be good if Oil continues to the downside (top holdings of BNI, CSX, FDX, NSC, JBLU, CAL)
And then there's PBE, PowerShares Biotech ETF (top holdings being ABI, DNA, GILD, WAT)

KOL

Market Vector's Coal ETF. KOL shook off it's overbought bias and reclaimed it's 20-day EMA.

watching

PBW is a clean energy ETF with solar holdings that we all have on our watchlists.SLX is a steel ETF that might be a good play this week as we saw some big moves today in AKS, RS, MTL (bullish hammer after capitulation?), X, MT, et al..

Dollar Index

This is a follow-up to my post yesterday regarding the U.S. Dollar index. It's beginning to look like a bearish flag formation taking shape (following the H&S pattern). Being that I don't have a forex account, nor a futures account, to take a position in this set-up I'm left trying to figure out other ways to take advantage of what might be a measured move to the downside for the U.S. Dollar Index. Here's what I came up with; First a chart of the current U.S. Dollar Index position:Some vehicles to look into for a play on futures or forex are available through such places as invescopowershares. The first is DBV; it "is comprised of currency futures contracts on certain G10 currencies and is designed to exploit the trend that currencies associated with relatively high interest rates, on average, tend to rise in value relative to currencies associated with relatively low interest rates." Looks like a potential break-out candidate.There's also UDN; "designed to replicate the performance of being short the US Dollar" against a basket of currencies like that of the U.S. Dollar Index.
Not as much bang for your buck as directly playing futures or forex (I really have to open one account or the other), but a viable option. If I come across any other options I'll update this post with them.

DUG

As the price of oil rises, so has the ETF DUG (Ultra-Short Oil & Gas) recently. Check out the information included on seekingalpha.com, which also shows a chart representing the drop in U.S. & Global oil demand.Check out the ETF for USO also which seems to be looking kinda toppy with that hanging man, followed by an inside doji bar, and a momentum divergence.

Oil v. Gold

Is Oil about to roll over, or primed to go higher? Check out the chart for the price of oil (in blue, as represented by the USO ETF) compared to that of gold (in yellow, as represented by the GLD ETF). Gold sure fell out of favor quickly, ending a tight price correlation that has held strong for a while there.

A Year in Review

Over at ETFtrends they reflect on their 2007 ETF predictions. Not too shabby of an 80% correct rate. What they got right: Global ETFs outperform domestic ones, the draw to ETFs will continue to be huge (that was kind of a no-brainer), Emerging markets ETFs a big draw, ETFs in retirement accounts getting closer to being a reality, Ultra-short ETFs a popular play, Mutual Funds feeling more heat to perform.
What they got wrong: Fidelity didn't join in the fray, and Actively managed ETFs weren't exaclty a dud.
At any rate, ETFtrends is a good site to cull ideas out of. I'll have to see what they have on their radar for 2008.

Deceptive ETF's

From SeekingAlpha; something to keep in mind is their synopsis of the Q's and other ETF's. Particularly with the weighting methodology - The Q's do not mirror the tech sector. "Only 65% of the fund is devoted to technology, with the rest tied up in healthcare, consumer discretionary and more." Also, "Microsoft (MSFT) is twice as large a company as Apple (AAPL) ($346 billion vs. $164 billion), but Apple has twice the weight of Microsoft in the index (12.3% vs. 6.5%). The fund is also very concentrated in its largest holdings, with 46% of the fund in the top 10 holdings."
Using EPP to get exposure in the Asian markets. However, "As of September 30, 65.4% of the fund was in Australian stocks, with a further 1.5% in New Zealand. Only one-third of the fund was in what most of us consider Asia: 20.9% in Hong Kong and 11.3% in Singapore." Perhaps a better ETF to gain exposure in Asia is their recommendation of GMF.
The Emerging Europe ETF GUR; "As of September 30, the fund had a 58% weight in Russia, compared with 13.5% in Poland, 12.6% in Turkey, 7% in Hungary and 5% in the Czech Republic. Missing entirely are Poland, the fast-growing Baltic states like Finland and Estonia, and places like Austria, Croatia and Bulgaria."
So, knowing the weighting and coverage of these ETFs perhaps one can position their hedges/investments with more concise accuracy.