For years now, advisors and investors alike have been pouring significant attention — and inflows — into the broad spectrum of fixed income ETFs.

VettaFi recently sat down with Morten Paulsen, head of research for robotics & machinery at CLSA, to discuss the transition of physical AI into a tech-driven industrial up-cycle. Paulsen projects that persistent U.S. labor shortages will drive domestic robot shipments toward a historical high of 40,000 units in 2026.

Passive, active, Treasuries, corporates, munis, international, and more — the whole spectrum of fixed income ETFs seemed to come off a strong year in 2025. The year was also marked by a bevy of launches.

Join us at the Winter Symposium for a crucial session dedicated to defining investment strategy for the coming year.

Private markets were historically for institutional and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Today, that exclusivity is breaking down, as many retail investors realize the value behind private markets and advisors look for additional diversification tools.

2025 capped off a record year for orbital launches, confirming that the space industry is more than alive and well. This creates a growth opportunity set for the Procure Space ETF (UFO), which can capture ongoing developments in the industry in 2026.

Another blockbuster year for bond ETFs is in the books. After two straight years of record net inflows, taxable fixed income ETF assets have nearly doubled since 2020 – crossing the $2 trillion mark. But the big story in 2026 will be rising pressure to move out of money market funds.

According to Baiocchi, advisors are reevaluating portfolios and recognizing gaps in exposure to companies driving major market themes.

As geopolitical tensions reshape global trade, capital flows and investor risk appetite, gold is once again surfacing as an important component of asset allocation. Some investors and central banks are arguably viewing gold as a risk hedge, supplanting US Treasuries as a safe-haven asset.

As seen in a How to Find Pure Play Approaches to Drone Technology webinar, a lot goes on behind the scenes when building an exchange-traded fund (ETF) — in this case, the REX Drone ETF (DRNZ).

In 2025, despite representing just over 10% of ETF assets, actively managed ETFs gathered nearly one-third of all ETF inflows. Investors increasingly turned to discretionary active equity and fixed income ETFs and not just index-based ETFs. That has persisted thus far in 2026, with active ETFs gathering 37% of new money.

Amplify ETFs had an impressive year in 2025, outperforming the broader market in both asset growth rate and performance across its thematic and income-oriented suites.

The whole world may be talking about AI nonstop right now, but that doesn’t mean other tech segments are falling off. Some are actually outperforming. Blockchain ETF BLOK, for example, has significantly outperformed its ETF Database Category average over the last year.

In the investment business, it’s common to address not only what occurred during the past twelve months but also to provide an assessment of future prospects.

With 2025 in the books, it will be a difficult year to top for fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but Morningstar is predicting more excitement to come. That should keep fixed income investors fixated on what new developments the space brings this year.

2025 will go down as another year of record-breaking achievements for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Among the past year’s highlights was a record number of mutual funds converting to ETFs, as noted by Ben Johnson, Morningstar Head of Client Solutions, via a LinkedIn post.

The MSCI Emerging Markets index rallied more than 30% in U.S. dollar terms, easily outpacing the S&P 500 and other developed market benchmarks. And many are expecting that broader outperformance to continue in 2026 – thanks to a combination of macro developments, valuations and AI exposure.

There’s a lot of buzz about the opportunity in US small cap stocks this year. There’s a confluence of factors that seem aligned just right for the segment, chief amongst them earnings growth expectations.

Investors have flocked to the evolving income ETFs space in recent years. The arrival of the ETF rule in 2019 helped launch countless new and intriguing ETF offerings aimed at adding income to investor portfolios.

With large cap growth companies showing signs of frothy valuations, investors could be looking elsewhere to add that extra shot of growth. Thematic ETFs can do just, focusing on niche sectors that may not get the fanfare on financial news sites.

Vanguard Group Inc. is bringing its decades-long relationship with Wellington Management into the ETF structure. It is launching three active equity ETFs. This marks the indexing giant’s first venture into actively managed equity products in the wrapper.

In a year where moderation, not momentum, may define returns, options-enhanced ETFs offer an attractive way to stay invested while monetizing the more limited upside many expect.

Nuclear energy has seen a hot start to 2026, benefitting from positive sentiment around artificial intelligence, ongoing support from the US government, and notable nuclear news from Meta (META).

Midstream is unique from the rest of energy in being able to provide EBITDA guidance for the year ahead or multi-year periods without depending on specific commodity prices. Companies provide services for fees under long-term contracts, which results in stable and predictable cash flows.

The ETF universe continued to expand in 2025, with a growing number of high-income products incorporating options strategies to enhance payouts. However, for many investors and advisors, traditional ETFs that own dividend-paying stocks remain a core component of a well-rounded portfolio.

With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) taking place in Las Vegas, investors’ eyes are on Nvidia (NVDA). A predictable response, but one that underscores the importance of the semiconductor behemoth in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.

2025 capped off another strong year for fixed income ETFs, as ongoing market uncertainty pushed more investors into the safe confines of bonds. When it came to inflows, it was Vanguard that was well-represented with four funds cracking the top 10.

While stablecoins are a form of tokenization, tokenization is a broader concept than stablecoins. Tokenization is the process of creating and recording a digital representation of traditional assets (e.g., securities, deposits, real estate, commodities, etc.) so ownership and transfer can happen in more automated, accessible ways.

There’s a lot of collective wisdom about the challenge of forecasting markets and the economy. Warren Buffet once famously said: “”Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”

VanEck’s muni bond ETF kept all 49 holdings intact during its fourth quarter rebalance but executed an internal rotation favoring higher-yielding funds over investment-grade names, according to index data from VettaFi.

ETFs have come on in leaps and bounds since the ETF rule arrived in 2019. Exchange-traded funds are taking a bigger and bigger role in the investment landscape, offering a different route into many strategies compared to mutual funds.

Canada’s strong showing was part of a broader global rotation away from U.S. mega-cap technology stocks and into international “value” markets.

Nuclear power tends to be attractive for its reliability, longevity, and emission free-power generation. Despite these benefits, nuclear energy represents a relatively small portion of worldwide power generation. In 2024, nuclear accounted for 9% of the global electricity mix.

In late December, I attended the Direxion Investments opening bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange. In October 2025, Direxion launched a new family of ETFs into their ever-growing roster of leveraged and inverse funds: the Titans ETFs.

Investors and advisors have numerous goals to meet with their portfolios. Some investors full send their portfolios to produce as much capital appreciation as possible. Others, especially those at or near retirement age, look for current income and ballast to steady their financial ships.

The most-read practice management articles of the year touch on topics ranging from helping clients retiring early get suitable health insurance to dealing with conflicting political views held by clients or colleagues.

Thematic ETF assets climbed 49.6% through the first 11 months of 2025, reaching $467.93 billion by the end of November, according to research from ETFGI.

In 2025, Advisor Perspectives’ most-read commentaries mainly centered on uncertainty around U.S. equities and on record-high valuations, in particular. Key themes included the bleak forecast for U.S. equities and the opportunities presented by non-U.S. stocks. Other articles weighed in on the risks around private equity that await retail investors delving into the space and on the investment potential of utilities due to AI and the shift to clean energy.

Retirement dominated 2025’s top articles, featuring insights from William Bernstein and Allan Roth among others. Key highlights include critiques of retirement calculators, Vanguard’s expectations for the next decade, Roth IRA strategies, and the nuances of dividend investing for long-term portfolios.

Plenty of headlines were written as the One Big Beautiful Big Bill Act (OBBBA) made its way through U.S. Congressional debates earlier this year. For the advisor community, many were likely wondering how the OBBBA would affect their portfolio strategies. To be more specific, which investing themes could be boosted by this U.S. policy maneuver?

As the dollar weakens and the migration to international equities continues, investors might still be on the fence when it comes to getting exposure.

Barring a miracle, bitcoin will end 2025 in the red, marking just the fourth time the largest cryptocurrency has done so in its history.

2025 is drawing to a close, and investors have plenty to look back on. Active ETF performance and proliferation was once again an important theme, and as the category matures, its standout performers have diversified.

While often overlooked, water management plays an important role in oil and gas production. Oil wells typically produce more water than oil, while hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) requires water to be pumped into wells. Water infrastructure related to oil and gas production is considered midstream and is classified within gathering and processing.

While assets under management have grown modestly, the fund’s impressive Sharpe and Information ratios—outperforming the vast majority of its peers—validate the efficacy of its strategic partnership with Apollo.

AI’s third wave could represent a broadening opportunity set of companies for investors to capitalize with. Businesses that adopt AI into their operations could ramp up productivity and expand their valuations at a rapid pace.

The era of "easy" yield in money market funds is ending as the Federal Reserve begins its long-awaited series of rate cuts. To stay ahead of shifting borrowing costs, investors are increasingly looking toward the flexibility and proprietary research of actively managed fixed income ETFs.

In the world of exchange-traded funds, some investors tend to look at index-based ETFs as static alternatives to the more flexible active funds. However, that is not necessarily the case. Index-based funds do move their assets around, particularly when their underlying indexes rebalance at points throughout the year.

This year’s research highlights a clear investor preference for high-conviction themes like crypto, global defense, and commodities, which dominated both inflows and market discourse.

LPL Financial explores trending retirement policy shifts topics, including Trump Accounts and private equity’s expanding role in 401(k)s.