One of the most important considerations in trading is liquidity, and Moby Waller of BigTrends.com offers a list of the ETFs with the highest trading volumes in the market today.
A couple of years ago, we analyzed the most popular exchange traded funds by average daily trading volume.
One important factor to our list is we’ve stripped out all of the inverse, ultra, bear, etc. ETFs to find only the “pure” sector and index plays.
Here is an update to that list for August 2013:
Most Actively Traded ETFs Table
Click to Enlarge
Note the dominance of iShares and SPDRs in the above list.
Most of the names of the list are the same as two years ago, but the order has shuffled around quite a bit.
One notable ETF that has dropped off the popular list is US Natural Gas (UNG). Another one that failed to make the new list is iShares Taiwan (EWT).
New notable additions to the list include MarketVectors Gold Miners (GDX), iShares Real Estate (IYR), Utilities SPDR (XLU), and Consumer Staples SPDR (XLP).
Big movers up on the list include Japan ETF (EWJ) and VIX Volatility ETF (VXX).
Note that the main DJIA ETF (SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA) once again didn’t even make the Top 20 here.
Always be sure to check the holdings and expense fees (as well as bid/ask spreads and option liquidity) of an ETF you are considering investing in or trading. Yahoo! Finance is a good easy source for Top 10 Holdings information, for example.
Moby Waller, Co-Portfolio Manager, ETF Tradr Program, BigTrends.com
