Dion's Friday ETF Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Welcome to Don Dion's Daily ETF Winners and Losers. Be sure to stop by each day to get a feel of who's winning and who's losing when it comes to ETFs.

Winners

iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) +8.5%

This shouldn't be a surprise. The volatility in the market since April means that for the past several weeks, VXX is often on the list of daily winners and losers. The gains today are impressive, but VXX is still more than 10% below its May high even though the S&P 500 Index is near its May low, as VIX Index is still well below the highs we saw last month.

United States Natural Gas (UNG) +1.4%

For a long time, UNG could not catch a break. The fund suffered from contango that left it down considerably in the past year, even though the price of natural gas was flat. Although it's far too early to call a reversal, the fund has bounced recently, along with natural gas prices. UNG is up about 20% since May 20.

Since natural gas fell in isolation from oil and other commodities, it may also be able to rally in isolation. It's too early to say whether this is a trend or just a bounce, but if investors want to play natural gas, First Trust ISE Revere Natural Gas (FCG) is the better choice.

iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +2.3%

This is probably the most conservative contrarian play for investors expecting stocks to drop. The long dated bonds are more sensitive to changes in interest rates because a greater portion of the total return comes from interest payments.

Losers

iShares MSCI Australia (EWA) -4.9%

The Australian dollar is getting clobbered and CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA) is down 2.2%, close to half of the losses in EWA. Hard assets are taking it on the chin today, with top EWA holdings BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RTP) down 6% and 5%.

iShares MSCI Austria (EWO) -6.7%

A second front has opened in the European sovereign debt crisis. The euro is getting tattooed today because of concerns that Eastern Europe is another weak link in the chain. Hungarian political leaders said the previous government lied about state finances and the country is in a Greek-like situation, although it says it can avoid a crisis.

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