The S&P 500 (^GSPC) has nearly tripled since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. Plenty of individual stocks (obviously) and exchange traded funds have gone along for the ride.
Dividend ETFs have thrived as the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates lower, forcing investors to embrace stocks as part of their income-generating plans. At the sector level, health care and consumer discretionary ETFs, just to name two groups, have offered jaw-dropping performances since the 2009 market bottom. [Sector ETF Investing: A Long-Term Perspective]
While scores of ETFs have hit strings of new all-time highs this year, some are still a long way of achieving that status. That is not to say those ETFs that have failed to reach all-time highs this year are “bad” funds.
Some have still managed to string together new 52-week highs. However, a fair amount of ETFs are still nowhere close to reclaiming the highs set prior to the global financial crisis.
Some of those funds will go under the microscope in this list in an effort to see which ETFs stand credible chances of eventually reclaiming their pre-crisis highs and which may never recapture past glory.
Ten ETFs are included here along with 2013 performance and how far away from pre-crises highs the funds are as of Friday’s close. Let’s get started with the…