Top Performing ETFs Of The Year

A tumultuous end to 2018 didn’t carry over into 2019. So far this year, it’s been smooth sailing for global stocks, as the MSCI ACWI Index surged by 12.3% during the first quarter.

It was the best quarter for the index—which tracks developed and emerging market stocks—since the third quarter of 2010. U.S. stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, did even better, rising 13.6% for their best quarterly showing since 2009’s third quarter.Granted, global stock markets are still off their highs from last year, but investors are no doubt reassured by the fact that equities have climbed so strongly in the face of ongoing concerns about sliding earnings, slowing economic growth, trade wars and Brexit.

Pot On Top

The best showing for global stocks in nearly a decade boded well for exchange-traded funds. Many ETFs registered sizzling gains during the first three months of the year, including four leveraged products that more than doubled.

We’ll get to those later, but first we’ll run down the top-performing ETFs of the year that delivered their gains without using leverage of any kind. Inverse products are also excluded from this list.
 

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

Ticker	Fund	YTD Return (%)
MJ	ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF	46.30
CNXT	VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext ETF	38.48
ARKG	ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF	37.11
ASHS	Xtrackers Harvest CSI 500 China A-Shares Small Cap ETF	35.02
BCNA	Reality Shares Nasdaq Nexgen Economy China ETF	33.44
XINA	SPDR MSCI China A Shares IMI ETF	32.12
PEK	VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC CSI 300 ETF USD	31.71
USOI	Credit Suisse X-Links Crude Oil Shares Covered Call ETN	31.53
IPO	Renaissance IPO ETF	31.42
CHIK	Global X MSCI China Information Technology ETF	31.24
ASHR	Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF	31.01
KBA	KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A Share ETF	30.38
CNYA	iShares MSCI China A ETF	30.05
CHIS	Global X MSCI China Consumer Staples ETF	30.01
ASHX	Xtrackers MSCI China A Inclusion Equity ETF	29.85
USO	United States Oil Fund LP	29.40
OILX	ETRACS S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN	29.26
PTF	Invesco DWA Technology Momentum ETF	28.73
SBIO	ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF	28.57
CHIQ	Global X MSCI China Consumer Discretionary ETF	28.53

Note: Data measures total returns for the year-to-date period through March 29.

 

Easily taking the No. 1 position is the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ). The only U.S.-listed ETF focused on cannabis stocks, investors holding the fund in Q1 were rewarded with a whopping 46.3% gain.

The marijuana ETF is notoriously volatile. The Q1 surge only puts it back to where it was trading last October.