SPADE is a way to play this sector
Although the worst year the stock market has seen since the 1930s, aerospace and defense companies continued to outperform the broader markets, with the benchmark SPADE Defense Index (AMEX: DXS, Stock Forum) outperforming the S&P500 for the ninth consecutive year.
An 8.21% surge in December saw the sector, which trailed the market most of the year, end on a positive note. Although the index finished 2008 down 38.03%, the worst it has recorded since launching in 1997, December's gain enabled the Index to finish ahead of the S&P500 by 46 basis points and overcome a year that saw the Index trade downward due to pressure from the market, a strike at Boeing which impacted a number of firms, and the uncertainty associated with a presidential election.
Three-, five-, and 10-year performance is significantly ahead of the broader markets, producing gains of [9.66%], 14.60%, and 86.69%, respectively.