The large-cap growth style ranks fourth out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in my Style Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Neutral rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 23 ETFs and 694 mutual funds in the large-cap growth style as of February 6th, 2013. Prior reports on the best & worst ETFs and mutual funds in every sector and style are here.

Figures 1 and 2 show the five best and worst-rated ETFs and mutual funds in the style. Not all large-cap growth style ETFs and mutual funds are created the same. The number of holdings varies widely (from 18 to 574), which creates drastically different investment implications and ratings. The best ETFs and mutual funds allocate more value to Attractive-or-better-rated stocks than the worst, which allocate too much value to Neutral-or-worse-rated stocks.

To identify the best and

New ETF creation activity picked up in September as 27 new products came on the market. New arrivals consisted of 25 ETFs and two ETNs. Vanguard was singularly responsible for the majority of new listings, launching 16 new ETFs in two separate waves. Particularly noteworthy about the Vanguard launches is the fact that all 16 ETFs follow the same indexes as existing ETFs from iShares and SPDRs. In all 16 cases Vanguard chose to differentiate itself on price and brand. Vanguard is not content with its current position of being the third largest ETF supplier.

Six ETFs were delisted during in September, leaving the net increase for the month at 21. The number of currently listed products stands at 1,067 (959 ETFs and 108 ETNs) as of September 30. A total of 173 products have been launched year-to-date and 31 have closed for a net increase of 142. Six

The month of September brought an unexpected but very welcome rally in stock markets, as many equity ETFs enjoyed their best month of the year. September also set a number of records from the product development perspective in the ETF industry; more than two dozen new funds from a handful of different issuers hit the market, and the month’s additions had pulled in aggregate assets of nearly $300 million by month end. The month also saw Claymore rebranded under the Guggenheim name, as well as the departure from the ETF industry of two issuers, Geary and GlobalShares.

In total 27 new ETFs were born in September, covering a wide variety of markets, asset classes, and investment strategies. The net increase in the ETF lineup, however, was only 19, as three different issuers announced the closing of eight ETFs in aggregate.

New ETFs

Highlights from ETFs that began trading in September