Smaller diversified emerging market ETFs offer alternatives to the MSCI Index. The PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio (PXH) tracks a proprietary, fundamentals-based index and has its largest weighting in South Korea. SPDR S&P Emerging Markets (GMM) uses an index that omits South Korea and has a competitive expense ratio of 0.59%. But with average daily trading volume of 81,000 shares and 15,000 shares, respectively, they have yet to develop a sizable fan base.
Emerging market ETFs currently in registration, most of them focusing on concentrated niches within the emerging market universe, provide a glimpse of what to expect in 2010. They include an India Nifty Fifty fund from Barclays; 3X Bull and Bear Shares for China, the BRICs and Latin America from Direxion; a family of emerging market sector funds from Emerging Global Shares; and several dividend-focused emerging market ETFs from WisdomTree.