8 New ETFs to Trade

NEW YORK (TheStreet Ratings) -- Month after month the list of exchange-traded funds continues to grow. Each narrow sub-category of investment classification is a candidate for its own tradable security.

To qualify for a risk-adjusted return ranking with TheStreet Ratings, new exchange-traded funds or notes must trade for a 12 full months. Eight new exchange-traded funds that began trading in December completed their first full calendar month of trading in January.

Being new, the following securities may remain thinly traded until they catch on with investors.

8. PowerShares DB US Deflation ETN (DEFL) seeks to provide exposure to month-over-month returns of the DBIQ Duration-Adjusted Deflation Index. The fund seeks to provide investors with the ability to gain exposure to US inflation expectations as implied by the difference in yields between TIPS and US Treasury bond indexes before a 0.75% expense ratio.

This ETN takes a notional short position in TIPS and a notional long position in US Treasury bonds. If the inflation protected Treasuries underperform normal Treasuries of similar maturity then these ETNs can gain value on the expectation of future deflation. In January, the fund lost 0.3%.

As these securities are exchange-traded notes, they are unsecured debt obligations of Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch (DB) subject to the credit risk of the issuer. Other important risks include no protection of principal, concentrated exposure, and the issuer's right to call the securities.