Want to know who's winning right now? Here are five ETFs that are holding up well against the bear.

I came across the following piece on 5 ETFs that have held up well in the bear market by someone named Gary Gordon, the ETF Expert, and someone I've not actually met. You can go to his Web site for the detailed breakdown, but here's his list:

1. The iShares Biotechnology Fund (AMEX: IBB).

2. The Merrill Lynch Broadband HOLDRs (AMEX: BDH).

3. The iShares Dow Jones Transportation Fund (NYSEArca: IYT).

4. Market Vectors Environmental Services (AMEX: EVX).

5. HealthShares Cardio Devices (NYSEArca: HHE).

Before I get to the current data—here are my comments on his list. This, like anything at either far end of the returns spectrum, is by and large a highly concentrated list. He notes that the last two have 22 and 23 equities each, for example. I did a quick lookup of the Biotech fund, which one might expect might have a decent number—and it's got 150 stocks in it. The Broadband HOLDRs, though, also only has 22 equities in the basket. And IYT only has 21! So for those of you who have been calling for the airline ETF, um, they're all in there (together with FedEx, J.B. Hunt and others). That's a nice ETF betting on the continued movement of oil to below $100.

I would also note that the HealthShares Cardio Devices ETF is one of 15 being closed on September 19, so you may not want to load up on that one right now. (Four other HealthShares will remain open).

Since our www.indexuniverse.com/data ETF database has just had all the monthly data updated through August, I thought I would have another look at the YTD performance. And it's GRIM even without yesterday's bloodbath thrown into the mix.

If you look at the top 25 (get out your magnifying glass or run the full-sized search for yourself on our data search & sort), they are ALL either commodities-focused or inverse funds. Ironically, the oil funds still sitting toward the top are suddenly suffering amidst the market volatility, slumping global economies, and now, declining oil/commodities prices.

Source: IndexUniverse.com database through 8/31/2008

And of all of these high-flying outliers, not ONE has a 2006 return, and only 7 of the 25 were even open for all of 2007. Just in time. Looking at this list, you can begin to understand the huge volumes some of these funds have seen.