The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition if you are an investor in exchange-traded funds looking to buy individual sectors on the cheap, you are cooked. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes the worst-performing sector of the S&P/TSX composite index in the 12 months to late August was materials. A weak global economy has depressed demand for the metals that companies in this sector produce, while gold prices have been weak. Up just 7.6 per cent in the past year, materials is far the lamest of the 10 Toronto Stock Exchange sectors. Next worst is utilities with a 12-month gain of only 12.5 per cent. Next on the list of TSX's lamest is telecom services, up 12.9 per cent. Within any of these sectors, there are individual stocks that have had a rough time of it lately. The biggest 12-month decliner in the industrials sector was Westport Innovations, down 43.8 per cent. Bombardier was down 16.6 per cent. These numbers offer some insight into the state of the Canadian stock market as a whole, and it is sobering for anyone looking to invest new money into index-tracking ETFs. Investors who sit in cash waiting for a big decline often miss out. Mr. Carrick says the gradual approach to buying is the best option.