Sell Your Popular ETFs and Buy These Instead: Industry Insider

In an interview on CNBC's Fast Money, ETF maven Matt Hougan, president of IndexUniverse.com, weighed in on his alternative ETF choices for some common sectors. For example, he prefers iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU) to the more well known SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) because IAU is cheaper. Since they both own spot gold, he doesn't see any reason to own GLD when you can get the same thing for half the cost.

He also likes iShares Dow Jones US Financial Sector (NYSE: IYF) in place of Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF). The problem with XLF is that it has a heavy weighting in large-caps, while IYF has more of a full spectrum of financials, notes Hougan.

When it comes to junk bonds, Hougan prefers iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bd (NYSE: HYG) to SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond (NYSE: JNK), because HYG holds "safer securities."

For dividend stocks, Hougan says go with iShares High Dividend Equity (NYSE: HDV) vs. iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (NYSE: DVY) because in addition to being high yielders, the stock in this ETF have less volatility, making HDV preferable to many investors.

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