Rydex Investments today announced the launch of a family of exchange traded funds (ETFs) based on the S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices®. The nine equal weight sector ETFs trade on the American Stock Exchange. The new ETFs seek to provide investors with full exposure to the following sectors: consumer discretionary (Amex: RCD); consumer staples (Amex: RHS); energy (Amex: RYE); financial services (Amex: RYF); healthcare (Amex: RGI); industrial (Amex: RGI); basic materials (Amex: RYT); technology (Amex: RTM); and utilities (Amex: RYU).

Unlike capitalization-weighted funds, which give more weight to the largest stocks within an index, Rydex S&P® Equal Weight Sector ETFs divide all stocks equally regardless of market capitalization in an attempt to give a more accurate representation of a given sector. Rydex uses equal weighting to help avoid single-stock risk, provide more exposure to smaller sector stocks and potentially improve the new ETFs' chances of outperforming their cap-weighted peers. For example, in the consumer staples sector, Proctor & Gamble Co. represents 17.31% of its relevant index versus just 2.59% in the equal-weight version, which mitigates the dominance of a few large stocks.

"Although the comparative returns and volatilities of the weighting methods might differ during market cycles, we've seen that, over time, equal weighting tends to outperform cap weighting," says Tim Meyer, ETF business line manager at Rydex Investments. "We believe investors who are looking for true exposure to a sector versus overexposure to a handful of stocks will appreciate the equal-weight methodology behind Rydex S&P Equal Weight Sector ETFs."

To maintain their equal weightings, the new Rydex ETFs rely on disciplined quarterly rebalancing, which may promote greater internal diversification and a relatively higher exposure to value stocks.

"The S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices combine an equal-weighted methodology, preferred by some investors, with the familiarity of the S&P 500 universe," says Robert Shakotko, managing director at Standard & Poor's Index Services. "They provide an alternative index measure of sector performance that will serve the increasing number of sector investors in the U.S. equity marketplace."

The introduction of Rydex S&P Equal Weight Sector ETFs marks the expansion of Rydex's ETF product lineup to two dozen, with the firm's ETF assets now approaching $3 billion. Rydex's flagship ETF, Rydex S&P Equal Weight ETF (AMEX RSP), pioneered the concept of equal weighting in 2003. As of September 30, 2006, RSP has attracted more than $1.6 billion in assets, and has delivered a return of 19.15% versus 13.81% for the S&P 500® since the fund's inception on April 24, 2003.