10 Sectors make up the S&P 500 – the default performance benchmark of the US stock market.
% = size the Sector comprises of the S&P 500.
Tickers denote the different optionable products to trade the Sectors. Often, Index tickers need to be assigned a "$" symbol when typed into a "ticker"/"symbol" field of most trading/charting systems, e.g. $OSX.
Legend for colour of tickers used (all optionable):
European Exercise-Style Indexes listed on Philadelphia Stock Exchange, since acquired & integrated into NASDAQ (http://quotes.nasdaq.com/aspx/sectorindices.aspx)
Financials 20.77%: XLF, RKH, BKX.
Information Technology 15.45%: XLK, SMH/SWH/HHH, SOX.
Health Care 11.67%: XLV, BBH/PPH, RXS.
Industrials 11.43%: XLI, None, None.
Energy 10.79%: XLE, OIH, OSX/EPX.
Consumer Discretionary 10.20%: XLY, RTH, XRE.
Consumer Staples 9.29%: XLP, None, None.
Telecommunication Services 3.75%: None, TTH, None.
Utilities 3.51%: XLU, UTH, UTY.
Materials 3.12%: XLB, None, None.
Other notable Sectors, outside the classified 10:
Housing HGX
Defense DFX
Inverse ETFs with Double the Leverage
UltraShort ProShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are constructed to track TWICE the INVERSE of an Index/Sector's daily performance. If the Sector Index goes down 10%, using a ProShares ETF that tracks that Index, you can gain 20% (double the rate) in the opposite direction. With twice the leverage, a retailer can halve their contract size for as much action (still with as much of risk, of course) in the tracked Index; but, you will have to think inverse.
Specifically, the tickers that are optionable:
UltraShort Oil & Gas ProShares DUG: Inverse OSX/OIH – both optionable.
UltraShort Dow30 ProShares DXD: Inverse of DJIA. For options, use DJX.
UltraShort MidCap400 ProShares MZZ: Inverse of MID. For options, use IJH.
UltraShort QQQ ProShares QID: Inverse of NDX. For options use MNX or QQQQ.
UltraShort S&P500 ProShares SDS: Inverse of SPX. Or SPY/XSP.
UltraShort Russell1000 Growth ProShares SKF: Inverse of IWF – use for options.
UltraShort Real Estate ProShares SRS: Inverse of DJR. For options, use IYR.
UltraShort Russell2000 ProShares TWM: Inverse of RUT. For options, use RMN.
Confirm the Relative Strength of Inverse ETFs are in fact Trading Opposite to the Indexes they Track
If you are going to trade inversely with twice the leverage (i.e. -200%), using the UltraShort Proshares EFTs, ensure
you use the Relative Strength (RS) method to confirm the Ultrashort Proshare ETF is actually going in the opposite
direction of the Index it is tracking.
– Which means the tickers of the UltraShort ProShares ETFs need to be compared against the tickers of the Indexes
being tracked in the same Relative Strength Matrix. Click here to see the output of the matrix.