The first half of 2011 is officially in the books, and many investors find their portfolios in approximately the same place as they were to start the year (though a furious rally in the final week of the quarter gave a nice boost at an opportune moment). Most major equity indexes are up slightly on the year, while fixed income benchmarks have similarly hovered around breakeven. Beyond these broad generalizations, there are some significant performance discrepancies among exchange-traded products that may seem to offer up similar risk/return profiles. The following tables highlight the top performers from every ETFdb Category during the first six months of the year, shedding some light on the asset classes that have struggled and thrived so far in 2011–and reinforcing that the seemingly minor distinctions between ETPs can lead to big differences in performance [for monthly updates on the best performers, sign up for the free [...] Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com. Related Posts: May ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performing ETFs Best Performing ETFs Of 2009 Best ETF Performers Of 2010: Winners For Every ETFdb Category ETF Insider: A Dead Cat Bounce? Seven Best ETF Performers Of Q1 (And Five Of The Worst)