5 Best Non-Leveraged ETFs Since March 2009 (THD, IDX, RPV)

Not only is today the anniversary of the passing of legendary rapper Notorious BIG, it's the third anniversary of the March 9, 2009 market bottom as called by the late, great CNBC anchor Mark Haines. Let's just say listening to Haines was a profitable move. The stock winners since the March 2009 have been explored so let's examine the top ETF performers since the March 2009 bottom. The screen we ran predictably turned up plenty of leveraged ETFs, but we took those out of the mix because they're not supposed to be long-term trading vehicles and three years is a long time. Of the five members of this list, one is definitely a surprise and it's the... PowerShares Financial Preferred ETF PGF The PowerShares Financial Preferred ETF was barely keeping its head above $6 on March 9, 2009. Today, the ETF will close flirting with $18. Bank dividends have kind of started to come back, but still leave something to be desired. Investors apparently know this as PGF has swelled to almost $1.6 billion in assets under management and even with a strong 2012 performance, the ETF's yield is still almost 7%. Market Vectors Indonesia Index ETF IDX Read this space enough and you'll realize we're fans of the Indonesia investment thesis. Our analysis made us remember that Market Vectors was quite daring in introducing this ETF in January 2009 as global financial markets were edging toward to the abyss. And that analysis also made us remember that on March 9, 2009, IDX was below $8. It's a tad below $30 today, but in April 2011, the ETF was trading over $34 and we believe there's still upside here. Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF RZV Now the Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value, RZV sported the Rydex brand until recently. RZV just celebrated its sixth birthday and can proudly say it has almost quadrupled over the past three years. What we're left wondering about is how many investors actually went along for the ride. Obviously, an ETF's assets under management number is fluid, but as of March 8, 2012, RZV had less than $77 million in AUM. Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF RPV Another old Rydex turned Guggenheim ETF makes the list with a three-year run that exceeds 250%. And this is another where we're forced to wonder just how many folks took advantage of the stellar returns. Today, RPV trades less than 35,000 shares per day and has almost $85 million in AUM. The AUM number is a tad lower than we'd like to see with a six-year old ETF. iShares MSCI Thailand Investable Market Index Fund THD It should not be surprising that THD is the second-best performing emerging markets ETF since the March 2009 bottom. What may surprise some investors is just how impressive this performance has been. Consider the following: Since 2010, Thailand has dealt with political instability, rampant criticism about its rate of inflation, an emerging markets sell off in 2011 and at least one natural disaster. Even with all that, THD is up over 260% in the past three years. Better yet, there's still money to to be made here.