New Alt Energy, Africa ETFs Disappoint in October

Both alternative energy and Africa represent fertile terrain for investment growth -- or so reasoned some exchange-traded fund managers earlier this year. But new ETFs focusing on those themes have yet to pay off.

The accompanying table of five recently created ETFs targeting the realm of alternative energy and two with investments in Africa and the Middle East shows that the new offerings have yet to break out from the pack during the depressing autumn of 2008.

With more than 800 ETFs now competing for investor attention, new offerings by the industry usually reflect what money managers consider the new "trendy" areas of the investment milieu. As often as not, by the time the investment fashion police identify an area as "the next new thing," the investment trend has peaked and investors find themselves dressed in last year's portfolio trappings. ...