Call it the “Teflon” market. Nine months into the year, stocks have yet to see a pullback of any significance.
On the contrary―the S&P 500 continued to grind higher to ever-higher records during the third quarter, finishing the month of September around the 2,519 mark, for a year-to-date gain of 14.2%.
As impressive as that is, there's a group of funds that have blown the socks off the return for the broader market. Gains for these ETFs are no less than 55% and as much as 173%.
We take a look at some of these top-performing ETFs of 2017.
Shorting Volatility
We came up with two lists of funds for this article. One includes every single ETF on the market; the other excludes inverse and leveraged exchange-traded products. There's no overlap between the two.
The all-encompassing list largely includes leveraged versions of the funds on the narrower list. The exceptions are three inverse VIX products on the list, the REX VolMAXX Short VIX Weekly Futures Strategy ETF (VMIN), the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV) and the ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY), each with gains of more than 106%.
Shorting volatility has been one of the top trades of the year as the CBOE Volatility Index wallows near record lows.
Top-Performing ETFs Of 2017 (All Products)
Data measures the year-to-date period through Sept. 29
Innovation ETFs Surge
The tamer list, which excludes inverse and leveraged ETFs—and which some might consider more "investable"—is topped by the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), with a 71% year-to-date gain.
ARKK is one of two ETFs on the list issued by ARK Investment Management, a company that focuses on thematic ETFs with a "disruptive innovation" bent.
The fund holds companies that work in fields related to genomics, next-generation internet, and industrial innovation.
Top-Performing ETFs Of 2017 (excluding inverse/leveraged)
| Ticker | Fund | YTD Return (%) |
| ARKK | ARK Innovation ETF | 71.0 |
| CXSE | WisdomTree China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund | 64.5 |
| KWEB | KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF | 63.9 |
| CQQQ | Guggenheim China Technology ETF | 62.1 |
| ARKW | ARK Web x.0 ETF | 62.0 |
| EMQQ | Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF | 59.2 |
| BBC | Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF | 58.3 |
| EWZS | iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap ETF | 56.4 |
| CHIM | Global X China Materials ETF | 55.8 |
| BRF | VanEck Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF | 55.7 |
Data measures the year-to-date period through Sept. 29
Technology and health care are the top-performing stock market sectors of the year, and ARKK has taken advantage of that by holding some of the highest-flying names in the group, including Tesla, Amazon, Nvidia and AthenaHealth.
The fund also has a sizable stake in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), equal to 5.1% of the ETF's holdings. The over-the-counter traded bitcoin investment vehicle is up a stunning 477% this year.
The ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW), a narrower ETF from ARK that holds next-generation internet companies, is also on the top 10 list, with a gain of 62%.
Worst Performing ETFs Of The Year
