If your portfolio is invested in exchange-traded funds, you may have had a very good 2025. The S&P 500 — the index tracked by the three largest ETFs on the market, per ETF Database – returned about 16% in 2025.
But in theory, depending on which funds you held, you could have done quite a bit better.
The MicroSectors Gold Miners 3X Leveraged ETN, a fund which tracks the price of a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, finished the year up 796% — the best of any U.S. traded ETF, according to data from FactSet analyzed by CNBC. You could have also earned a huge return had you bought other ETFs focused on metal mining or Korean stocks.
Prudent, long-term investing is generally the name of the game if you’re hoping to build wealth, investing experts say. So what makes some of the 2025 winners unsuitable?
Leveraged funds
One common theme on the list is the use of leverage, the practice of buying or selling derivatives to amplify a fund’s return. Rather than seeking to track the return of an index, funds with 2X or 3X in the name aim to deliver multiples of that same return. This makes them highly volatile, and likely candidates for year-end best-of — or worst-of — lists, says Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi, an investment research firm and index provider.
Top 10 ETFs of 2025 have ‘very little, if any’ role in your portfolio, says expert
