Best Performing ETFs Of The Year

July 06, 2022

[Editor's Note: This article is updated throughout the year with the most current market data. Click here for the previous edition.]

 

Few ETFs have escaped the vicious selling in financial markets this year. As of the end of June, a mere 7% of U.S.-listed ETFs were in the green on a year-to-date basis.  

One group, however, has managed to buck the trend in a big way—commodity ETFs, and particularly, energy ETFs. In fact, nearly every fund within the top 25 best-performing ETFs of the first half of 2022 fit within those categories.  

That includes the top-performing GS Connect S&P GSCI Enhanced Commodity TR Strategy Index ETN (GSCE), the United States Gasoline Fund (UGA), the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG), each up more than 50%. 

When excluding inverse and leveraged funds, the threshold to make the top 25 ETFs of the first half of 2022 was 30%, an excellent return in a year in which the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is down by 20% and the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) is lower by 10.2%. 

Noncommodity Winners  

While commodity-related ETFs have comprised the vast majority of this year’s top-performing ETFs, a few noncommodity funds managed to sneak into the top 25. 

The Simplify Interest Rate Hedge ETF (PFIX) and the FolioBeyond Rising Rates ETF (RISR), both of which benefit from the current interest rate environment, gained 51% and 31%, respectively. 

The KFA Mount Lucas Index Strategy ETF (KMLM), which owns a combination of commodities, currencies and fixed income futures, also made it into the top 25, with a return of 31%. 

For a full list of the best-performing ETFs of the year, see the table below: 

 

Best Performing ETFs Of The Year (excluding leveraged/inverse)

Ticker Fund YTD Rtn
GSCE  GS Connect S&P GSCI Enhanced Commodity Total Return Strategy Index ETN +69.94%
UGA  United States Gasoline Fund LP +65.58%
RJN  ELEMENTS Linked to the Rogers International Commodity Index - Energy To Return +62.12%
JJE  iPath Series B Bloomberg Energy Subindex Total Return ETN +60.00%
BNO  United States Brent Oil Fund LP +56.58%
UNL  United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund LP +54.09%
DBE  Invesco DB Energy Fund +53.22%
UNG  United States Natural Gas Fund LP +52.20%
GAZ  iPath Series B Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex Total Return ETN +51.56%
PFIX  Simplify Interest Rate Hedge ETF +50.45%
USO  United States Oil Fund LP +47.81%
OIL  iPath Pure Beta Crude Oil ETN +46.08%
OILK  Proshares Trust-Proshares K-1 Free Crude Oil Strategy Etf +44.89%
GSP  iPath GSCI Total Return Index ETN +42.14%
USL  United States 12 Month Oil Fund LP +41.64%
GSG  iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust +35.01%
DBO  Invesco DB Oil Fund +34.61%
PXE  Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF +34.56%
COMT  iShares GSCI Commodity Dynamic +32.58%
XLE  Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund +31.42%
KMLM  KFA Mount Lucas Index Strategy ETF +31.36%
RISR  FolioBeyond Rising Rates ETF +30.92%
RYE  Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF +30.63%
VDE  Vanguard Energy ETF +30.47%

Data measures total returns for the year-to-date period through June 30.

 

Follow Sumit on Twitter @sumitroy2 

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