As with everything else, the exchange traded fund (ETF) world has its shares of winners and losers, and Charles Darwins’ philosophy of survival of the fittest prevails.

It was recently announced that Northern Trust is shutting down its NETS line of ETFs- the ETFs focused on individual countries. For those of you that don’t know, if you own an ETF that closes, you will be paid the net asset value calculated on the final trading day, which may create an unwanted taxable event.

This closing doesn’t mean it is all gloom for the ETF industry- actually it is far from it. Here is a list of some of the new players in the market, reports Roger Nusbaum of TheStreet.com

• Barclays just launched iPath S&P VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) and iPath S&P Vix Mid-Term Futures ETN (VXZ) to track the VIX.
• iShares recently launched two new bond funds, the iShares S&P/Citigroup 1-3 Year International Treasury Bond Fund (ISHG) and the iShares Barclays MBS Bond Fund (MBB).
• State Street just introduced the SPDR Barclays Capital Motgage Backed Bond ETF (MBG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital Short-Term International Treasury Bond ETF (BWZ).
• 6 ETFs have been launched by RevenueShares using a revenue-weighting strategy.

With improving technology, innovation, creativity, continuously changing market conditions and the desire of both investors and money managers to gain access to all markets and sectors, the introduction of new ETFs and the demise of “unfit” ETFs will be no stranger.

Tags: Bond ETFs, BWZ, ETNs, ISHG, MBB, MBG, Sector ETFs, VIX