Energy Funds Heat Up in May

Energy issues gained favor with traders in exchange-traded funds in May. Every such fund moved up in the rankings in the Street.com Ratings' monthly summary of the most popular ETFs, as measured by average daily dollar volume of trading.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR(XLE Quote - Cramer on XLE - Stock Picks) moved from the seventh spot in April to the number four position on the accompanying table of the 20 top ETFs in dollar value of average turnover. HOLDRs Oil Services(OIH Quote - Cramer on OIH - Stock Picks) moved from ninth in the April ranking to the seventh spot, while The United States Oil Fund(USO Quote - Cramer on USO - Stock Picks) jumped from the 19th position in April to number 12 in the rankings.

The ProShares Ultra Short Oil & Gas ETF(DUG Quote - Cramer on DUG - Stock Picks) joined the top 20 list as number 19, a promotion from the 27th position a month earlier.

Joining DUG as a new member of the top 20 was HOLDRs Retail(RTH Quote - Cramer on RTH - Stock Picks), which moved up one position from its April ranking to the 20th and final position on the list.

Displaced from the April top 20 was the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate ETF(IYR Quote - Cramer on IYR - Stock Picks), which moved down one position from its previous ranking of number 20. Also absent from the April roster is the ProShares Ultra Short Russell 2000(TWM Quote - Cramer on TWM - Stock Picks), which sank from 18th a month ago to 24th in average daily dollar volume of trading.

Interest in the largest Nasdaq-listed stocks picked up in May. Average dollar volume of trading in the PowerShares QQQ(QQQQ Quote - Cramer on QQQQ - Stock Picks), which tracks the Nasdaq-100 index, swelled from an average of $5.38 billion per day in April to $5.93 billion per session in May.

The leveraged version of the NASDAQ-100 gauge, the ProShares Ultra QQQ(QLD Quote - Cramer on QLD - Stock Picks) jumped from the number 15 position in April to the 11th spot in May while its leveraged "inverse" sibling, the ProShares Ultra Short QQQ(QID Quote - Cramer on QID - Stock Picks), eased from number eight in the April rankings to ninth in May.

Fourteen of the 20 most popular ETFs achieved positive total investment returns in May, the ProShares Ultra QQQ leading the pack with an advance of 11.94% -- virtually double the 5.93% gain of the non-leveraged PowerShares QQQ. The Ultra QQQ's mirror image fund, the ProShares Ultra Short QQQ, tumbled just about the same absolute amount as the QLD advanced. QID was the biggest loser among the most top-traded ETFs in May, off 11.41% for the month.

The estimated average daily dollar volume figures for the month are computed by multiplying each fund's average daily share turnover by the geometric mean of the fund's April and May closing prices.

MOST POPULAR ETFs IN MAY 2008
MAY 2008 RANK	PRIOR MNTH RANK	NAME, TICKER & TheStreet.com RATINGS GRADE	MAY AVG. DAILY DOLLAR VOL. ($MIL)	MAY TOTAL RET'N (%)	3-MO. TOTAL RET'N (%)
1	1	SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) B-	24,176.0	1.51	5.39
2	2	PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) C+	6,202.5	5.93	16.53
3	3	iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) C-	4,255.1	4.58	8.61
4	7	Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) A-	2,237.8	5.20	13.41
5	4	Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) C-	2,158.9	-6.95	-3.42
6	5	iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) B-	2,142.1	3.16	8.37
7	9	HOLDRS Oil Services (OIH) B	1,750.2	7.75	21.41
8	6	DIAMONDS Trust (DIA) A+	1,413.2	-1.36	3.17
9	8	ProShares Ultra Short QQQ (QID) E-	1,347.1	-11.41	-28.50
10	10	iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) B+	1,249.7	-4.15	4.80
11	15	ProShares Ultra QQQ (QLD) E	1,194.7	11.94	31.66
12	19	United States Oil Fund (USO) C+	1,190.3	11.42	28.15
13	13	iShares MSCI Brazil (EWZ) B+	1,151.5	9.88	18.81
14	11	ProShares Ultra Short S&P 500 (SDS) C	1,068.4	-2.60	-11.98
15	14	streetTRACKS Gold Shares ETF (GLD) A+	981.4	0.92	-9.08
16	12	ProShares Ultra Short Financials (SKF) C-	977.7	9.21	-7.26
17	17	SPDR Mid Cap 400 (MDY) A-	811.8	5.44	11.66
18	16	iShares MSCI EAFE (EFA) B	807.2	1.19	7.14
19	27	ProShares Ultra Short Oil & Gas (DUG) E-	638.3	-7.78	-22.03
20	21	HOLDRS Retail (RTH) C	585.7	0.30	8.21
Data as of 5/31/2008. Source: TheStreet.com Ratings & Bloomberg For an explanation of our ratings, click here.