ETF Showdown: Raging Waters

These are go-go days for commodities. Shortages or rumors about crimped supplies for corn, cotton and plenty of others have led to price spikes of unprecedented proportions. It's probably a good thing that there isn't an active water futures market, at least not yet, because perhaps the world's most precious commodity isn't as abundant as one might think.

The issue isn't so much supply as it is access to that supply as pollution, population, incomes and other demographic impact water supply, as ETF Trends recently pointed out.

And supply could become an issue. Water may cover two-thirds of the earth's surface, but that same percentage of the global population could find itself in stressed water environments in less than two decades. There's the profit potential and there's the reason why it's a good time for an ETF Showdown: H2O style.

Two of the more popular water ETFs include the PowerShares Global Water ETF PIO and the Guggenheim S&P Global Water Index ETF CGW.

Let's get down to business: Neither is cheap in terms of fees. PIO sports an expense ratio of 0.75% while CGW's is 0.65%. With almost $237 million AUM, CGW tracks 49 stocks. With $349 million AUM, PIO tracks 29 stocks.

PIO says it's global, but more than 28% of its country weight goes to the U.S. Only Japan and the U.K. also get double-digit weights. CGW makes the global claim as well as but is over 40% allocated to the U.S. with only the U.K. also getting double-digit representation.

Industrials and utilities both account for over 80% of each ETF's sector weight. Volume on both funds is fair for an obscure niche like water, though PIO is nearly 40,000 shares per day better than CGW. That said, in the past year, CGW is up over 19% while PIO is up 14%.

We hate ties in the ETF Showdown so on the basis of more holdings, lower fees and better performance, CGW is the water winner here.