2020 has been a whirlwind of a year, and the first few months saw a huge plunge in stocks because of the pandemic. However, the market is gradually recovering pretty steadily. In fact, there are several ETFs (exchange-traded funds), which have logged returns as high as 90%, 80%, and 40% in the first half of the year.
ETFs are a great option for investors who wish to diversify their portfolios and with short-term and long-term horizons. Just like stocks, you can buy and sell ETFs throughout the day.
If you wish to trade exchange-traded funds, here are the best performing ETFs of 2020 so far.
- iPath S&P Dynamic VIX ETN (XVZ)
The iPath S&P 500 Dynamic VIX ETN is known to regularly switch its allocation from short-term VIX futures to medium-term VIX futures. This fund is also benchmarked to the VIX Index of the CBOE.
2020 has definitely been a very volatile year and this fund has made the most of it by increasing short-term volatility expectations right before the next big news that shook markets. Even though the fees (0.95%) may be slightly higher than your usual index fund, it is completely worth considering the whopping 93 percent returns it saw during the first half of this year.
- Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY)
IBUY is among the largest ETFs that is dedicated to e-commerce stocks and has over $500 million under management. Under this ETF, the top stocks include popular clothing retailer Stitch Fix (SFIX) as well as discounter Overstock.com (OSTK), among others. In the first half od 2020, IBUY had returns as high as 47 percent, making it one of the best performing ETFs of the year so far.
- O’Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (OGIG)
OGIG constitutes the biggest tech firms in the world and boasts of a massive median market cap of about $80 billion. This ETF focuses on tech giants and leaders that are so well-known and successful that they have near monopolies in each of their respective fields. It’s no wonder that the some of the biggest holdings under this ETF includes e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) and Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).
At this day and age where scale matters more than ever, your portfolio is likely to thank you if you choose ETFs with bigger firms. In the first half of 2020, OGIG had returns as high as 49 percent.
- ARK Innovation ETF (ARK)
This boutique ETF firm is one of the few businesses today that actually provides something exciting and innovating in its investment offerings. Quite popular among active investors, this ETF uses internal research combined with thorough analysis to identify tech firms that actually have the potential to innovate and disrupt the industry. This makes it stand out among the many tech index funds today.
Top holdings in this ETF includes mobile payments company Square (SQ), Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA), as well as the popular online real estate site Zillow Group (Z). ARK saw returns as high as 47 percent in the first half of 2020.
- ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW)
This tech fund has been doing really well so far this year despite its struggle to find its niche in previous years. This is an ETF that focuses on, as the name suggests, the next generation of technology and connectivity, instead of the current and obvious techs that we have available today such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
The top stocks in this ETF include social media giant Snap (SNAP), as well as streaming technologies player Roku (ROKU). ARKW boasts of returns as high as 52 percent during the first half of 2020.
- Wisdom Tree Cloud Computing Fund (WCLD)
Wisdom Tree Cloud Computing Fund has performed really well this year, mostly due to the increasing reliance of businesses across industries on cloud-based solutions. The pandemic has forced many companies to move their business to the cloud and invest heavily in cloud computing. WCLD benefits from this, seeing returns as high as 57 percent during the first half of 2020.
You can see that the top holdings in this ETF include well-known names in tech, including Zoom Video Communications (ZM), DocuSign (DOCU), as well as a plethora of online tools. Investors expect that these technologies will continue to thrive as a growing number of businesses, and individuals are relying on them even during normal times.
Seeing how well these exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have performed so far this year, you may want to join in and capitalize on it as many smart investors would do. Using smart and reliable trading tools that you can fully trust is key to investing in ETFs, so make sure you don’t compromise.
