Oil has entered trading range

Oil has entered a trading range according to the latest INO analysis: watch video.(great educational video).

The favorite ETFs for oil are USO and UCO. We also track them live on this site.

China FXI ETF: profit up or down

Chinese stocks have taken a tumble recently due to news of government tightening. FXI is the main Chinese ETF and it has dropped.

We track all Chinese ETFs live on this site.

Below are current straddles for FXI (click to receive automated alerts), for May.

These were calculated with the free  StraddlesCalc online tool. These straddles allow an investor to profit regardless of direction, as long as the stock moves the indicated amount.

Please do your own due diligence as options can cause 100% loss.

The Iceland volcano and an ETF for the airlines sell-off

The eruption of a volcano in Iceland caused (and is still causing) major disruptions in air traffic over northern Europe. Many airlines have been affected and the industry is losing hundreds of millions each day.

FAA (click to receive alerts) is an ETF that tracks airlines:

FAA dropped over 3% in the last two days. However, FAA is made mostly of American airlines, which are no that overly by European traffic.

Airline traffic has been going up (reported by GE) and business travel has been coming back lately.

These are the top holdings and percentsges of the ETF:

AMR Corporation Common Stock	AMR	16.59
Delta Air Lines Inc. (New) Comm	DAL	15.85
Continental Airlines, Inc. Comm	CAL	15.17
Southwest Airlines Company Comm	LUV	14.64
DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA-REG	LHA	4.63
	QUBSF	4.55
UAL Corporation	UAUA	4.11
	9202	3.91
Alaska Air Group, Inc. Common S	ALK	3.87
	C6L	3.82

Lufthansa is the only European company in the top holdings.

DIA, XLF and TLT straddles to profit from sharp drops during earnings season cycles

Stock markets have taken a sharp drops around the middle of the month during earnings seasons. This was true in October 2009 and January 2010:



Will this pattern repeat itself? Since we are in the middle of earnings season again, this would be sometime next week. Investors should at least get some protection.

Below are straddles for the  DIA, XLF, and TLT ETFs for May (please click on each ETF link to receive alerts):



These were calculated with StraddlesCalc.

This is not advice. Options can cause 10% loss. Please do your due diligence.

New Biotech ETFs, leveraged, ultralong and short

For investors looking for leverage and inverse ETFs in Biotech, ProShares has just announced a couple.

The company is launching two new ETFs with leveraged and inverse exposure to the biotechnology sector, seeking to provide 200% or -200% of the return of the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index:

• Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIB)
• UltraShort Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIS)

The expense ratio is high at 0.95%. Investors should be aware that leveraged ETFs are money losing in the long term.

BIB's top holdings:

AMGEN INC COM STK	9.59%
TEVA PHARMACEUTICAL ADR	7.78%
GILEAD SCIENCES USD0.001	7.08%
CELGENE CORP COM STK	6.15%
VERTEX PHARMACEUTICAL COM	3.78%
BIOGEN IDEC INC COM STK	2.91%
DENDREON CORP COM STK NPV	2.61%
PERRIGO CO COM STK NPV	2.61%
ALEXION PHARMACEUTICAL	2.53%
GENZYME CORP COM STK	2.42%

 BIS's holdings:

NBI SWAPS	(12,007,790.78)	-	(12,627.42)
Net Other Assets / Cash	-	5,992,293.67	5,992,293.67

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Currencies remain in chaos: the best currency ETFs to buy or sell

Last week the Euro took a pounding again as the situation in Greece deteriorated. This weekend, a new $60B low interest loan was announced, and the Euro rebounded.

Currencies remain in chaos and will remain so as there is no easy fix to the current global problems. We track all currency ETFs live here.

Below are all currency ETFs orders by relative strength for short term and long term.

Short term, from most oversold to overbought:

Most oversold is JYF (Yen), followed by URR (ultra Euro). Most overbought are GBB and ICN (Indian Rupee). (Please click on links to received alerts)

Long term, from most oversold to overbought:

In the long term we also have URR as most oversold. Most overbought is CEW (Emerging markets),

Here are the ETFs and ETN names and their average trading volumes:

A currency-hedged Chinese ETF

The Chinese Yuan and the Canadian dollar are all over he news recently.

Investors using Canadian dollars have lost 18% one year. One year ago, one Canadian dollar bought 5.60 Yuans, today it buys 6.80.

Today China has announced a policy shift in its currency (NY Times):

“The Chinese government is set to announce a revision of its currency policy in the coming days that will allow greater variation in the value of its currency combined with a small but immediate jump in its value against the dollar, people with knowledge of the consensus emerging in Beijing said Thursday.”

A currency hedged ETF is BMO"s ZCH (click for alerts). It has been around since January and it has indeed gone up about 8% since then.:

This ETF has a0.65% MER.

Major sectors:

• 23% energy
• 20 telecom
• 20% IT

Returns of the top holdings:

• China Mobile: +14%
• China Life: +41%
• Petro China: +46%
• Baidu: +224%

Baidu of course benefiting from Google's troubles in China.

Performance of all Chinese ETFs

We track all Chinese ETFs live on this site. The following table shows the performance since 2009 and 2008 (if the ETF existed back then, many of them are quite new).


(Please click to enlarge)

The top performer in 2010 are CZM and CQQQ. CZM is  a 3X ETF, so it should be avoided as its performances varies wildly from the day to day and its value will be eaten way just with time. CQQQ is a technology ETF.

The worst performers are CZI and FXP. CZI is a 3X ETF, and FXP is  a 2X ETF, both to stay away from. The worst performing 1X ETF is CHIE, the energy sector.