The Top ETFs for a Harried October

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In the world of exchange-traded funds, October 2008 could be described as "Stock Market X-Games Month." It seems investors didn't get enough action with ETFs that merely track the market indices during the historically volatile month. Many of them apparently opted to ride the waves with leveraged funds, some of which advanced several positions in TheStreet.com Ratings monthly compilation of the 20 most popular ETFs.

In addition, a trio of internationally focused ETFs enjoyed jumps in average daily dollar volume sufficient to propel them onto the list of October's top 20 ETFs, as ranked by average daily dollar volume of trading.

Daily turnover in the leveraged and "inverse" ProShares Ultra Short S&P 500 (SDS Quote) averaged $4.8 billion in October, nearly double September's $2.5 billion. That increase in volume pushed the fund up four positions to fourth place in the top 20.

Taking the opposite side of the market as SDS, the leveraged ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSP Quote) advanced six spots to 10th place as its average daily volume rose to $3.1 billion, up from its September pace of $1.3 billion.

Speculators looking for even livelier action are advised that Direxion Funds just announced the addition of eight new "triple leveraged" ETFs. Four of the offerings will track popular market indices but will fluctuate at three times the amplitude. The other four are "3X inverse" ETFs linked to the same benchmarks but moving in the opposite directions.