Six weeks ago, on 07/03/08 to be exact, I announced that we had created two new Industry Groups: Market(ETFs-Long)and Market(ETFs-Short). The following week, 07/11/08, I wrote an essay called, "ETF Classifications," in which I described how we had classified all the ETFs into seven additional Industry Groups. While this move received considerable praise, I wasn't sure I was satisfied with the results. So now we have classified all 686 ETFs in our database into 36 Industry Groups, and I think it's marvelous.

To see what we have done, please click on Viewers on the Main Tool Bar. Click on Sector Viewer; then double click on ETFs. Shazam, a screen with all 36 ETF Industry classifications, sorted by RT Desc, appears before your eyes. You should see ETFs(Sector\Biotech) at the top of your screen and ETFs(Commdty\Futures) at the bottom. So Biotech is hot and Commodity Futures are not.

Double click on the Industry column header. Whalaa, the 36 Industry classifications are now sorted alphabetically from A to Z with ETFs(Commdty\Futures) at the top of the list and ETFs(Short) at the bottom. This allows you to find a specific class of ETFs in a jiffy. For example, if you want to play the currency markets, just double click on ETFs (Currency\Country). Like magic, WisdomTreeIndRp, ICN, appears at the top of your screen. So what currency are we dealing with here? Click on News at the top of your screen. Bingo, you're in Yahoo!Finance and you can see we're dealing with the Indian Rupee. Click on Profile for more details.

If you want to see what the world markets are doing, simply find the ETFs(Foreign\Country) Industry Group and double click on it. Presto, 42 country ETFs appear on the screen, sorted by VST Desc. Wow, only one country ETF, has a 'B' rating, the iShares MSCI Turkey Fund, TUR, and at the bottom of the list is the iShares MSCI Belgium Fund, EWZ, who is getting crushed with an RT of only 0.56. So stock markets around the world are getting pounded.

OK, please close the ETFs(Foreign\Country) and right click on the row labeled ETFs at the bottom of your "Industries in Sector" screen. In the pop up window which appears, please click on "View Stocks in Business Sector." Open sesame, all 686 ETFs now appear on your screen, ranked by VST Desc, with PwrShsDBGldSht, DZZ, at the top. Now click on Layout at the top of your screen. On the right hand side, scroll down the box until you find Industry. Click on Industry; then click on Move Up, and move Industry up as high as it will go. Click OK. Hocus pocus, now the Industry classifications appear right next to the Company and Symbol columns. Wow!

I can immediately see that the top ranked ETF is in the ETFs(Short) Industry Group. And I thought the market was going up! Yes, it is, but large parts of it are going down. Fifteen of the top twenty-three ETFs, ranked by VST Desc., are in the ETFs(Short) Industry Group. You must remember that these stocks represent Contra Funds and they go up when the price of the asset they represent goes down. Sure enough, DZZ, is designed to reflect the inverse performance of a gold index and the price of gold has been falling like a lead balloon. DZZ is a hot stock right now, but keep your eye on it. It won't be that way forever.

Note that the fifth stock from the top is Healthshrs Emrg, HHJ. I can see that it's in the ETFs(Specialty\Disease) group, but what does Emrg, have to do with a disease? Click on Analysis at the top of the screen. The Business description says that the Fund's objective is to track the performance of the HealthShares Emerging Cancer Index, which includes biotechnology companies that have been identified as "emerging cancer" companies. OK, I've got it. Please close the Stock Analysis window.

Double click on the Company column header. Abrakadabra, all the ETFs are sorted alphabetically from A to Z. Isn't that great? Now, I can quickly see the entire array of ETFs by name, symbol and classification. Now I quickly know what I'm looking at without going to a lot of trouble. It's like magic, ETF Magic.

P.S. If you layout your Viewer as suggested above, you will also see the Industry Groups on all your other screens. I like that.