The Nasdaq OMX has put together an equal weighted index (called the Nasdaq Government Relief Index) of 24 companies that have received over 1 billion in government relief in the form of TARP or other programs.  Any index without volume numbers isn’t of much use to me from a trading perspective, but nonetheless it might be of interest to see how  these companies perform collectively over the next couple years.  Perhaps an ETF is in the pipeline that will follow this index, but for now any of the big financial ETF’s such as the SPDR Financials ETF (XLF) will be a half way decent representation since most of the big banks have received government funds but this index would include companies like AIG and General Motors as well. 

“We believe the NASDAQ OMX Government Relief Index will be useful in helping investors evaluate the government’s investments and the impact of the relief plan on the economy during this period of historical significance,” said NASDAQ OMX Executive Vice President John Jacobs in a statement.

You can see these companies have been whacked good over the past week.  This chart from Yahoo shows the performance relative to the S&P500.

Here’s a video from Bloomberg, discussing the new index.