John Spence at Marketwatch.com reports on changes coming to iShares ETFs linked to S&P style indices. The six funds, (large, mid, small, growth & value) will be rebalanced because of changes to the methodologies of the underlying indices. This will cause some 20-25% turnover. It will be interesting to see what tax-effect this turnover has on the various funds.

If those changes are not “pure” enough for you, Rydex is coming to your rescue. From Marketwatch.com:

BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Rydex Investments has filed a registration statement for six exchange-traded funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission to track new “pure style” growth and value indexes managed by Standard & Poor’s. The index series consists of stocks that exhibit only strong growth or value characteristics, broken down by large, mid and small-caps. The six funds Rydex filed are: Rydex S&P 500 Pure Value ETF, Rydex S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF, Rydex S&P MidCap 400 Pure Value ETF, Rydex S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth ETF, Rydex S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF, and Rydex S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth ETF.

As a followup to an earlier post, PowerShares is launching an ETF based on the fundamental indexation methodology. The PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio (PRF) is expected to start trading next week. You can read the press release here.

The totality of this news begs the question: How much is too much?

We are all for free markets and having the choice among competing funds and fund sponsors. However, at some point both fund sponsors and investors alike are going to balk at the next me-too fund. In regards to broad-based, domestic ETFs might we be reaching this point? We do not know, but we do have a hunch that for novice investors, the thicket of equity ETFs is already quite daunting.