For many investors, generating alpha is perhaps one of the most important results any long-term portfolio should deliver. Most would agree that simply placing one’s assets in a broad market index, such as the S&P 500, is not the most efficient means of achieving excess returns. Instead, investors turn to alternative strategies to exploit profit opportunities from the market. And thanks to the ever-evolving world of ETFs, there are now hundreds of products that seek to generate the highly coveted alpha [see also How To Pick The Right ETF Every Time]. A number of these new products are actually twists on the most popular members of the first generation of ETFs, altering the weighting methodology or selection criteria underlying well-known stock and bond benchmarks. One of the most interesting twists in the world of S&P 500 ETFs came in 2009 with the introduction of ProShares’ Credit Suisse 130/30 ETF (CSM), the first [...] Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com. Related Posts: Three Year Check: AGEM, EQL, CSM ProShares Launches Hedge Fund Replication ETF (HDG) ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performers From First Half Of 2011 ProShares Debuts Two VIX ETFs ProShares Launches Long/Short RAFI ETF