20 Most Popular ETFs of November

The enhanced trading interest in the top 20 underscores potential liquidity issues within the ETF universe. The most popular five ETFs generated 54.9% of total daily average dollar volume of the entire ETF population in November. For the top 10 funds, it was 67.4% of the total; for the top 20, it was 82.5%; and the most popular 50 ETFs generated 93.6% of total average daily dollar volume for the entire investment category.

The biggest 50% of ETFs, measured by average daily dollar turnover, accounted for 99.91% of the total for all 793 funds for which November daily average dollar volume is available. In other words, the 396 least-popular ETFs generated only 0.09% of all ETF daily average dollar volume of trading.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY Quote) outdistanced all other ETFs in daily average dollar volume of trading. It changed hands in November at a daily average pace of $42.99 billion, off from its October pace of $53.4 billion. Its top holdings include blue-chip stocks like Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote), General Electric (GE Quote), AT&T (T Quote) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote).

SPY tumbled 16.52% in September and now sits 32.74% down for 2008 to date.

The second most popular ETF in September was the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ Quote), whose top holdings, in addition to Mircrosoft, include Apple (AAPL Quote), Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) and Google (GOOG Quote).

The Diamonds Trust (DIA Quote) remained in the top five in terms of average daily dollar volume.

MOST POPULAR ETFs IN NOVEMBER 2008 NOV. 2008 RANK PRIOR MONTH RANK NAME (TICKER), TheStreet.com RATINGS GRADE NOV. AVG. DAILY DOLLAR VOL. ($MIL) NOV. TOTAL RET'N (%) YR.-TO-DATE TOTAL RET'N (%) 1 1 SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), C+ 42,987.9 -6.96 -37.42 2 2 PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ), C- 6,378.8 -11.46 -43.03 3 4 ProShares Ultra Short S&P 500, (SDS) B- 5,321.7 -16.64 77.05 4 3 iShares Russell 2000 (IWM), C 4,424.9 -11.93 -37.17 5 5 DIAMONDS Trust (DIA), B 3,949.5 -5.16 -31.77 6 8 ProShares Ultra Short QQQ (QID), C+ 3,693.1 -13.02 94.99 7 11 iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM), D+ 3,660.9 -9.75 -53.68 8 9 ProShares Ultra Short Financials (SKF), C 3,542.0 -13.38 42.73 9 6 Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), C- 3,389.7 -18.48 -55.14 10 7 Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE), C+ 3,051.0 -2.18 -36.09 11 10 ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSO), D 2,318.7 -16.98 -67.61 12 12 ProShares Ultra QQQ (QLD), D- 1,613.8 -23.98 -73.34 13 17 iShares MSCI EAFE (EFA), C+ 1,590.8 -6.37 -45.85 14 13 streetTRACKS Gold Trust ETF (GLD), B+ 1,546.9 12.57 -2.61 15 18 iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI), C 1,525.8 5.68 -52.61 16 20 iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate (IYR), C- 1,246.4 -21.55 -47.45 17 15 HOLDRS Oil Services (OIH), D+ 1,224.3 -12.62 -53.59 18 21 ProShares Ultra Short Russell 2000 (TWM), A 1,106.1 -16.26 57.30 19 16 SPDR Mid Cap 400 (MDY), C 1,073.5 -9.49 -39.14 20 14 ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG), D- 1,019.9 -26.91 -85.30 Data as of 11/30/2008. Source: TheStreet.com Ratings & Bloomberg For more information, check out an explanation of our ratings.