Natural Gas Leads Worst Performing ETFs of the Year

Senior ETF Analyst

Apr 03, 2024

Reviewed by: Kent Thune

Edited by: Ron Day

With the S&P 500 up double digits in just the first three months of the year, most U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds followed suit to the upside.

But not all of them.

Many inverse ETFs, or those that move in the opposite direction of an index or individual asset, performed poorly during Q1.

For instance, the T-Rex 2X Inverse NVIDIA Daily Target ETF (NVDQ), which moves in the opposite direction as Nvidia, lost nearly three-quarters of its value by betting against the market’s hottest stock.

Funds that made leveraged bets on stocks that underperformed sharply, like the GraniteShares 2x Long TSLA Daily ETF (TSLR), also tumbled. TSLR was the sixth worst-performing ETF of the first quarter, with a loss of 52%.

Shares of Tesla have performed the worst among the magnificent seven this year due to slowing demand for electric vehicles and increased competition from rival automakers.

Another big loser during the first quarter was the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas ETF (BOIL), which shed 55%.

This year, the price of natural gas sank below $2/mmbtu for the first time since 2020 amid an oversupplied market.

Worst ETFs of Q1 2024 (Including Leveraged)

Name	Ticker	YTD Return
T-Rex 2X NVIDIA Daily Target ETF	NVDQ	-75.35%
GraniteShares 2X Short Daily NVDA Daily ETF	NVD	-74.32%
AXS 1.25X NVDA Bear Daily ETF	NVDS	-55.98%
ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas	BOIL	-54.78%
GraniteShares 2X Long TSLA ETF	TSLR	-54.54%
T-Rex 2X Long Daily TSLA Target ETF	TSLT	-54.54%
ProShares Ultra Short Semiconductors	SSG	-51.53%
Direxion Daily NVDA Bear 1X Shares	NVDD	-47.71%
Direxion Daily Electric & Autonomous Vehicles Bull 2X Shares	EVAV	-47.46%
Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bear 3X Shares	SOXS	-44.22%

Data as of March 31, 2024.

If you strip out leveraged and inverse ETFs, Q1’s worst performing fund is also a natural gas ETF: the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG), with a loss of 28.2%.

ETFs tied to Tesla, like the Kurv Yield Premium Strategy Tesla TSLA ETF (TSLP), and those tied to lithium, like the Sprott Lithium Miners ETF (LITP), have also lagged, with losses of 20% to 25%.

So too have clean energy ETFs, like the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW), which shed 22% in the first quarter.

Worst ETFs of Q1 2024 (Excluding Leveraged)

Name	Ticker	YTD Return
United States Natural Gas Fund LP	UNG	-28.16%
Kurv Yield Premium Strategy Tesla TSLA ETF	TSLP	-25.31%
KraneShares European Carbon AIlowance Strategy ETF	KEUA	-22.93%
Yieldmax TSLA Option Income ETF	TSLY	-21.98%
Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF	PBW	-21.90%
Sprott Lithium Miners ETF	LITP	-20.72%
iShares Lithium Miners and Producers ETF	ILIT	-20.11%
Global X Hydrogen ETF	HYDR	-18.38%
Defiance Next Gen H2 ETF	HDRO	-18.29%
First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Trust Fund	QCLN	-17.76%

Data as of March 31, 2024

Sumit Roy

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Sumit Roy is the senior ETF analyst for etf.com, where he has worked for 13 years. He creates a variety of content for the platform, including news articles, analysis pieces, videos and podcasts.

Before joining etf.com, Sumit was the managing editor and commodities analyst for Hard Assets Investor. In those roles, he was responsible for most of the operations of HAI, a website dedicated to education about commodities investing.

Though he still closely follows the commodities beat, Sumit covers a much broader assortment of topics for etf.com, with a particular focus on stock and bond exchange-traded funds.

He is the host of etf.com’s Talk ETFs, a popular video series that features weekly interviews with thought leaders in the ETF industry. Sumit is also co-host of Exchange Traded Fridays, etf.com’s weekly podcast series.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys climbing the city’s steep hills, playing chess and snowboarding in Lake Tahoe.

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