Mixed economic news, with some areas of strength in the U.S., helped lessen market losses. Additionally, bargain hunters stepped in to bolster less volatile names.
In mid-September, the FOMC held off on an interest rate hike. While market’s reaction was initially positive, stocks quickly soured, reflecting investors’ unease without a definitive monetary policy change in light of potential economic weakness.
A spike in volatility triggered another major sell off in the final week of September. On the flip side, the heightened volatility fueled strong gains on the last trading session of the month.
Top performing non-leveraged ETF performers over the third quarter include CVOL up 44.3%, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX) up 33.8% and VelocityShares Daily Long VIX Short-Term ETN (NYSEArca: VIIX) up 33.5%.
At the bottom end, the worst performing non-leveraged funds this quarter include the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (NYSEArca: FCG) down 41.2%, PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio (NasdaqGM: PSCE) down 40.0% and Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSEArca: COPX) down 39.8%.
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Max Chen contributed to this article.