The 10 Best ETF Tickers

The Wall Street Journal features an astute piece today regarding the marketing value of some ETF tickers. While not as important in the big scheme of things as size or first-to-market advantage, the right ticker can at least help traders and investors remember an ETF's name and that's not a bad thing at all. Thanks to the Journal for writing about the importance of ETF tickers. We'll take it from here and rank the 10 best ETF tickers (in no particular order). Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares NUGT The Journal piece mentioned NUGT's bearish cousin, the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares DUST. That's a pretty good ticker for a bearish gold ETF, but we like NUGT better. It gets us thinking about the Golden Nugget casino. Teucrium Sugar Fund CANE This one is nothing if not straight forward. If you only saw the ticker for this ETF, chances are you'd immediately know what the fund is about. Marketing simplicity can have its advantages and that's why another Teucrium fund makes the list... Teucrium Corn Fund CORN Again, see the ticker and it's hard not to know what this ETF is about. On a more serious note, CORN is down year-to-date, but a move above $42 might make the fund worth a look. PowerShares DWA Emerging Markets Technical Leaders ETF PIE For writers, this ticker is is quite useful. For investors, the ETF is different type of emerging markets multi-country play and that may not be a bad thing. Grabbing a slice of PIE would mean a return of 10% year-to-date. IndexIQ U.S. Real Estate Small Cap ETF ROOF Not only is the IndexIQ U.S. Real Estate Small Cap ETF the first ETF devoted to small-cap real estate plays, it has the best ticker of any REIT or other real estate-related ETF out there. If ROOF's ticker isn't appealing, maybe the yield of over 6% will do the trick. PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio PBJ There might be some debate if PBJ indicates what this ETF actually does, but once you see the ETF's full name, the ticker makes perfect sense. As a conservative, risk off play PBJ also makes perfect sense. Direxion Daily Healthcare Bear 3X Shares SICK Great ticker to remember a bearish play on health care stocks. Market Vectors LatAm Aggregate Bond ETF BONO No, this ETF was not named for U2's lead singer, but when an ETF's ticker is the same as a celebrity's name, it's that much easier to remember. BONO, the ETF not the singer, is up over 5% year-to-date and there's legitimate reason to have a look at this fund. We're calling it: A Brazil ETF with the ticker "PELE." That's our idea. iShares MSCI Global Agriculture Producers Fund VEGI Considering VEGI is new and faces intense competition, the ETF is off to a fine start with more than $2.5 million in AUM in less than a week of trading. VEGI is a good ticker and appropriate for this ETF, but it's probably not as good as... Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF MOO MOO is the big steer of the agribusiness ETFs and VEGI has the enviable task trying to compete with this ETF. This has the potential to be an Ohio State/Michigan-esque ETF rivalry for investors' assets going forward, but we'll stick with MOO as the superior ticker.