Green Vs. Black ETFs

How do you take your energy -- green or black?

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The choices are not quite that simple yet, but with investors fixating on $100-a-barrel oil and CNBC taking an in-depth look at the green movement all this week, it’s worth asking the question: Which group is performing better in the market -- investments based on so-called clean or green energy or investments based on more traditional carbon-based technology, like oil and coal?

Given the growing popularity of exchange traded funds with investors and ETFs' capacity to reflect a broad swath of any sector, we thought they’d provide the most useful comparisons.

Green ETFs

  • Powershares WilderHill Clean Energy +46.71%
  • Market Vectors Global Alt Energy +43.36%
  • PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy +20.92%
  • Claymore / LGA Green +5.74%

Black ETFs

  • United States Oil Fund +45.70%
  • Oil Service HOLDRs +41.90%
  • Energy Select Sector +32.35%

Yes, that’s right, thus far on a year-to-date basis, green has a slight edge over black.

Symbol
Price
 
Change
%Change
IPATH GC
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OIH
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-- Research by Ariel Nelson, CNBC