Five Equal-Weight ETFs Your Broker Forgot To Mention

There is something to be said for equal-weight ETFs and there is something to be said against these funds, which are part of one of the faster growing corners of the ETF universe. In the past year, the Rydex S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF RSP has outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 Trust SPY by a slim margin, but as Benzinga has noted recently, Rydex equal-weight offerings tracking the materials and technology sectors have lagged the recent performances of comparable traditional ETFs. Still, the concept behind equal-weight equity-based ETFs is a compelling one. After all, one of the allures of ETFs is gaining exposure to multiple stocks through one fund and no one likes the nasty surprise of finding out their ETF is excessively weighted to just one or two stocks. When the market bounces back, these five equal-weight ETFs that your broker probably forgot to tell you about could be worth taking a look at. 1) Rydex MSCI Emerging Markets Equal Weight ETF EWEM: EWEM made its debut in December 2008 as the equal-weight rival to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund EEM and the Vanguard MSIC Emerging Markets ETF VWO. Admittedly, EWEM as lagged its more popular rivals, but EWEM offers less exposure to Brazil, something that could prove beneficial in the back half of 2011. 2) ALPS Equal Sector Weight ETF EQL: This one really flies under the radar and its broken chart indicates better value can be had by waiting to initiate new positions. That said, EQL takes a unique fund of funds type of approach by combining all nine of the large-cap SPDR ETFs into one fund. Weights range from 10.57% to 11.65%. If you want to own all the SPDRs, EQL might be the best way to do that. 3) Global X SuperDividend ETF SDIV: SDIV is still less than two months old, but Global X found the right combination of dividend payers and the equal-weight approach with this ETF. Home to 100 stocks, each receiving a weight of 1%, SDIV has accumulated over $30 million in assets under management and maintains decent liquidity at nearly 108,000 shares per day. The only knock here is the ETF is trading near a new low as of this writing. Still, SDIV is a sound idea in a cooperative market and may be offering some value here. 4) Rydex S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF RCD: Yes, it is hard to advocate discretionary ETFs of any variety in this environment of high unemployment and slack economic growth, but if discretionary names get a boost, investors would do well to remember that RCD has slightly outperformed the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR XLY recently. 5) Rydex S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF RYU: There is no shame in playing some defense these days and utilities are one way to do that. The shame would be opting for the Utilities Select Sector SPDR XLU over RYU because the latter has sharply outpaced the former over the past year.