BRIC (Emerging Markets) ETF

BKF - iShares MSCI BRIC Index Fund focuses on Brazil, Russia, India and China by attempting to track the performance of MSCI BRIC index.  BKF began trading right before the big downturn with an inception date of November 12, 2007 at a time when BRIC mania and soaring commodity prices were the only game in town.

Annual Total Expense Ratio = .72% (72 Basis Points)

Recently net assets were $1.12 Billion with average daily trading volume of 170,000 shares making it much less active than EEM or VWO. This could be due to the fact that BKF hasn't outperformed it's larger more well known counterparts. In fact, the chart below shows that BKF has actually slightly underperformed EEM since inception.

BKF Performance Since Inception Vs. EEM

Chart begins first trading date of BKF - November 12, 2007

New Frontier ETF

FRN - Guggenheim / BNY Mellon Frontier Markets is designed to replicate, net of expenses, the Bank of New York Mellon New Frontier DR Index. This is another of the newer Emerging Markets ETFs having just started trading June 12, 2008 just ahead of the meltdown.  Guggenheim purchase all the ETFs from Claymore who was the former sponsor of FRN. 

Annual Total Expense Ratio = .95% (95 Basis Points)

Net assets of FRN grew dramatically in the last quarter of 2010 and recently stood at $212 Million and average daily trading volume was 185,000 which was slightly higher than BKF but much less liquid than EEM or VWO.

When looking at historical performance you can see that FRN (like BKF) has underperformed EEM since inception despite the strong performance in the second half of 2010.

FRN Performance Since Inception VS EEM

Chart begins on FRN first trading day - June 12, 2008