Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)offer a way for investors to diversify their portfolio across different asset classes through a single investment product that can be bought and sold on an exchange like a stock. Top ETFs typically have a large asset base and lower operating costs. Investors can also use ETFs to mitigate investment risks and gauge the performance of an index, sector, or industry to make more informed investment decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Leading ETFs offer investors an opportunity to broadly diversify their holdings through a single investment with a low expense ratio and/or higher returns compared to competitors.
- We screened for the equity, bond, fixed income, commodities, and currency ETFs providing the highest one-month total returns.
- These funds include CRPT, FCVT, EMHY, DBA, and UUP.
Below, we outline the top equity, bond, fixed income,commodities, and currency ETFs that generated the highest returns over the last month. We have excluded leveraged and inverse ETFs, as well as funds with less than $50 million inassets under management (AUM). All data are current as of March 25, 2024.
- One-month performance: 50.7%
- Expense ratio: 0.85%
- Annual dividend yield: N/A
- 30-day average daily volume: 84,147
- AUM: $56.1 million
- Inception date: Sept. 20, 2021
- Issuer: First Trust
CRPT is an actively managed ETF targeting companies in the cryptocurrency industry and broader digital economy space. It invests at least 50% of its net assets in crypto industry firms. About 61% of the fund's assets are invested in software companies, with the capital markets industry representing the majority of the remaining investments.
Nearly half of CRPT's assets are allocated to class A shares of Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) and class A shares of MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR), a cryptocurrency exchange operator and a business intelligence and cloud infrastructure company, respectively. Digital asset and blockchain company Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (GLXY) represents the third-largest position in the portfolio.
Bond ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: First Trust SSI Strategic Convertible Securities ETF (FCVT)
- One-month performance: 3.68%
- Expense ratio: 0.95%
- Annual dividend yield: 1.73%
- 30-day average daily volume: 34,445
- AUM: $82.9 million
- Inception date: Nov. 3, 2015
- Issuer: First Trust
FCVT is an actively managed fund that focuses on U.S. and non-U.S. convertible securities. More than 90% of the fund's portfolio is made up of convertible bonds, with the remainder of the portfolio made up of mandatory and convertible preferred stock, cash, and equivalents.
The top holdings of FCVT include bonds of media conglomerate Liberty Media Corp. (LSXMA), bank Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), and cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW), among others.
Fixed-Income ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: iShares J.P. Morgan EM High Yield Bond ETF (EMHY)
- One-month performance: 2.75%
- Expense ratio: 0.50%
- Annual dividend yield: 6.53%
- 30-day average daily volume: 49,465
- AUM: $365.9 million
- Inception date: April 3, 2012
- Issuer: BlackRock Inc.
EMHY targets the JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets High Yield Bond Index, providing exposure to U.S. dollar-denominated high yield bonds issued by governments and corporations in emerging market countries. About 13.4% of the fund's portfolio is bonds from Brazil, while 12.5% is bonds from Turkey and 8.6% bonds from Mexico.
The top holdings in the portfolio of EMHY include bonds issued by the government of Argentina, Mexican gas company Petróleos Mexicanos, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Ltd.
Commodities ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA)
- One-month performance: 11.2%
- Expense ratio: 0.93%
- Annual dividend yield: 4.01%
- 30-day average daily volume: 468,289
- AUM: $759.3 million
- Inception date: Jan. 5, 2007
- Issuer: Invesco
The Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) is an agricultural commodities fund structured as a commodity pool, a structure that pools investor assets to invest in commodities futures and options. It targets the DBIQ Diversified Agriculture Index Excess Return and holds a broad range of agricultural and livestock commodities, making it useful as a hedge against inflation.
The top futures holdings of the fund include cocoa, live cattle, and coffee. It also holds the Invesco Government & Agency Portfolio short term trust (AGPXX), various Treasury bills, and other related positions as collateral.
Currency ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP)
- One-month performance: 0.8%
- Expense ratio: 0.77%
- Annual dividend yield: 6.20%
- 30-day average daily volume: 1,285,881
- AUM: $331.6 million
- Inception date: Feb. 20, 2007
- Issuer: Invesco
UUP is a commodity pool that tracks the Deutsche Bank Long USD Currency Portfolio Index - Excess Return. The fund tracks the performance of the U.S. dollar relative to the euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound, the Canadian dollar, the Swedish krona, and the Swiss franc. The fund decreases in value when this basket of currencies increases, and it increases in value as the dollar appreciates.
The euro represents the largest share of assets at around 58%, followed by the yen at 14% and the pound at 12%.
How We Chose the Best ETFs
We selected the best ETFs across five areas of focus (equities, bonds, fixed-income, commodities, and currencies) utilizing a screener by VettaFi. In each case, we sorted ETFs according to the specified category and ranked them by highest 1-month returns. We then filtered out any ETFs employing a leveraged or inverse strategy as well as any with AUM of under $50 million. Finally, for currencies ETFs, we excluded any funds focused on cryptocurrencies from our screen.
How to Invest in ETFs
Investors can buy and sell shares of ETFs in the same way they make traditional stock trades. Most brokerages provide access to a broad spectrum of ETFs. To begin, simply create and fund a brokerage account, then determine which ETFs you may be interested in purchasing. Follow the steps to initiate a buy through your particular brokerage. In most cases, it's as easy as that.
The Bottom Line
Exchange-traded funds offer investors access to an entire professionally managed portfolio of holdings with a single transaction. Their ability to diversify and simplify a retail investor's investing process is widely regarded. One metric that investors often look to is trailing one-month performance. The top ETFs for equities, bonds, fixed income, commodities, and currencies for April 2024 based on this metric include CRPT, FCVT, EMHY, DBA, and UUP.
The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read ourwarranty and liability disclaimerfor more info.
As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above ETFs.
Correction—April 9, 2024: This article has been corrected to state that the data were current as of March 25, 2024.
