ETF Onslaught Only Beginning

In other words, they're taking Cramer's advice and looking for good stocks that also happen to be uncovered by Wall Street. I'm betting this ETF would get his OK after all.

Sector Funds

Cramer also knocked sector funds in the same July article. Again, I have to disagree.

Sector funds (or similar unit investment trusts, which provide static portfolios for a finite period of time) are used all the time for a very specific reason: they allow advisors to give clients sector exposure without having to be experts on all stocks in the group themselves.

Should a broker be A) sorting through the biotech sector in search of that one winning stock, or B) helping investors gain such exposure through a related sector fund?

I don't think there is a right answer to that question, but sector funds are of use to the thousands of financial consultants who believe B is the right choice.

Over the last decade, for example, regional bank portfolios were a great way to gain exposure to the broad trend of industry consolidation.

And in recent years, commodity mutual funds provided average investors good exposure to a sector that might have otherwise been difficult to access.

Sector funds and ETFs -- embrace them!