Unleveraged top 20:

Disclosure: No Positions

Through the eyes of an investors, the consumer sector of the global economy is generally split into two segments: consumer staples and consumer discretionaries. Consumer staples stocks generally include those that manufacture and sell goods that are vital components of most household budgets, such as food and non-durable household goods. Companies producing goods that are deemed to be more of a luxury spend are classified as consumer discretionary stocks.

Historically, investors looking for low beta have gravitated towards consumer staples, while those looking to make a leveraged play on the health of the broad overall economy have embraced the consumer discretionary sector. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) has a beta of 1.11 relative to the S&P 500, compared to only 0.49 for the Consumer Staples SPDR (XLP).

ETFs have come along way in their relatively short existence, evolving from plain vanilla funds tracking major equity benchmarks to include more exotic products such as ETFs with triple leverage, and ETFs that employ long/short strategies, hedge fund tracking ETFs, and actively-managed funds. While some investors point to the several dozen funds that have struggled to attract capital as a sign that the ETF market has become over-saturated, the warm reception that many new funds have received is an indication to the contrary.

This year promises to be an exciting one for the ETF industry, with dozens of highly-anticipated new products in the pipeline (see the Seven Most Anticipated New ETFs of 2010). The ETF industry has expanded greatly since the first installment of ETFs That Don’t Exist, But Should, with some of our ideas becoming reality. And while there’s now an ETF offering exposure to just about every corner of the investable universe, we still think there’s plenty of room for growth and untapped potential. Below, we present seven more ETF ideas we think would be popular with investors.