The Big Winner in the Bear Market

[Joanne98]

Nearly everyone has suffered from the market's free fall. Everyone that is, except for one unexpected beneficiary of the collapse: the ETF industry.

Think about it: Before the bear market hit, exchange-traded funds had established a pretty strong foothold in the fund arena. As a broker-traded alternative to index mutual funds, ETFs had some fairly compelling features to offer. Top ETFs like the SPDR Trust (NYSE: SPY) became household names among investors, offering the chance to buy an S&P index fund on the open market.

But the end of the bull market brought with it a sea change in the way many investors look at their investments. And no one was better poised to take advantage of that change than the companies that produce ETFs.

Going with the latest fad
It's no coincidence that ETFs started appearing in close succession with new investing fads. When oil spiked over $100 a barrel and energy companies like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) rose to all-time highs, a host of energy ETFs were there to give shareholders vehicles tied not only to baskets of stocks but to the prices of oil and gas directly.

http://www.fool.com/investing/mutual-funds/2009/03/04/the-big-winner-in-the-bear-market.aspx