(updated) iShares vs Claymore : is fundamental indexing worth it?

(corrected the conclusion)

In this stock downturn, one has to wonder if the price of "fundamental" indexing (higher MER for Claymore CDZ vs. to iShares XIU for example) compared to market-share indexing is worth it.

It took a quick snapshot of XIU and CDZ from June 18 to October 21st:

.	XIU	CDZ
June 18 2008	22.7	21.55
October 21st 2008	14.87	16.91
Difference	-7.83	-4.64
Difference %	-34.49%	-21.53%

CDZ is clearly better for that time frame. This is only a single data point and you should do more research before investing in any of those ETFs.

XIU has an MER of 0.25 and CDZ has one of 0.6. CDZ also has a much lower volume.