Nano ETF

The nanotechnology arena is far too narrow an area for me to invest in through an ETF. Yes, while there is great promise in nanotechnology, the investment rewards are not yet guaranteed and the road ahead is likely to be a bumpy one.

An article by Palash Ghosh of Investment Advisor puts the technology behind this new movement in perspective with this description:

"To understand the dimensions, consider that one nanometer is equal to about one one-billionth of a meter, or 1/75,000th of the diameter of a single human hair. At this level, materials exhibit properties that reflect quantum physics. Many nano-scaled products, from tiny robots or micro-machines to nano-particles that could help clean the environment, may have unprecedented positive effects on human activity."

I'd rather take the bigger picture approach and let the benefits to society and industry that nanotechnology will deliver to permeate through my other holdings. Plus, with my diversified ETF portfolio, I'm likely to capture some of gains since both large and small companies that are involved with nanotechnology are represented in the ETFs I have chosen.

However, for those of you that are interested in holding a nano ETF, there's one from PowerShares. It's relatively new having been introduced in October 2005 and seems to focus on small-cap companies ($25 million is the average market cap) with a few large-cap value stocks thrown in to the mix. The more popular holdings include HP, Toyota, General Electric, Intel, and IBM which as I wrote above are all represented in the other market-cap and region based ETFs I prefer.