Plenty of Flavor in Tiny Batch of New ETFs

Only three new offerings entered the exchange-traded fund world last week, but as a group, they offer a wide variety of flavors.

The Direxion Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares (NASDAQ:QQQE) offers a new twist on a familiar taste. Unlike the popular PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ:QQQ) and many other index ETFs that are weighted by market capitalization, the QQQE�s holdings are equally weighted, at 1% for each of the index’s 100 members. And the fund can be rebalanced should the index’s members change.

By equally weighting its holdings, the ETF won�t be as susceptible to large losses in any particular stock. This is more of a risk for funds like the QQQ, for instance, in which Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) makes up more than 18% of the ETF’s holdings. Also, smaller-cap companies’ performance will provide more oomph than they would in a cap-weighted fund. The downside? You won�t see huge benefits from great single-stock performances, either.

Investors should view QQQE as a more diverse, stable play on the Nasdaq 100�s biggest sectors — information technology (49%), consumer discretionary (23%) and health care (16%) — at a reasonable 0.35% expense ratio.

UBS (NYSE:UBS) launched the ETRACS Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Dow Jones International Real Estate ETN (NYSE:RWXL), a mouthful of a leveraged ETN that focuses on real estate investment trusts from across the world (minus the U.S.). The country allocations aren�t particularly lopsided, with Australia (17.9%), Japan (17.2%), the U.K. (11.5%), Hong Kong (10.4%) and Canada (10.2%) among the best-represented.

REITs are revered for the large amount of income they provide, and RWXL not only offers double the return of its underlying index, but double cash distributions of the note�s holdings. However, that same leveraging also adds an element of risk, as any losses will be magnified. RWXL charges 0.6% in expenses.

The Market Vectors Indonesia Small-Cap ETF (NYSE:IDXJ) is a fairly niche play on small companies either located in the Oceania country or that get most of their revenues from it. More than 55% of the ETF�s weightings belong to the top 10 holdings — but the fund still is fairly balanced, considering the remaining 45% is spread among just 16 other stocks. Almost 40% of the fund is in financials, with industrials, energy and consumer staples making up significant portions, too. Fees come to 0.61%.

Including last week’s addition to the ETF investing world, 80 new funds have been brought to market in 2012, with nine launching in March. The previous week�s batch of ETFs included a number of income-focused funds.

Kyle Woodley is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Follow him on Twitter at @KyleWoodley.