Best ETFs for October 2024

ETFs can help investors diversify their portfolio through a single investment product

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer a way for investors to diversify their portfolios 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 for October 2024.
• These funds include PGJ, ICVT, PCY, UNG, FXB.

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 in assets under management (AUM).

All data are current as of Sept. 24, 2024.

Equity ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF (PGJ)

• One-month performance: 15.14%
• Expense Ratio: 0.67%
• Annual Dividend Yield: 6.25%
• 30-Day Average Daily Volume: 35,545
• AUM: $118 million
• Inception Date: Dec. 9, 2004
• Issuer: Invesco

The Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF invests in U.S. exchange-listed companies that generate most of their revenue from China. The fund saw a rally in recent days, thanks to stimulus measures by the Chinese government designed to lift the country’s housing and financial markets. As of Sept. 24, the ETF is heavily tilted towards consumer discretionary names (56%) and communication services (27%).

Bond ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: iShares Convertible Bond ETF (ICVT)

• One-month performance: 2.4%
• Expense Ratio: 0.20%
• Annual Dividend Yield: 2.30%
• 30-Day Average Daily Volume: 169,877
• AUM: $2.03 billion
• Inception Date: June 2, 2015
• Issuer: BlackRock, Inc.

The iShares Convertible Bond ETF offers growth potential by combining features of both stocks and bonds, providing upside participation with downside protection. It is less sensitive to interest rate changes due to the equity-like characteristics of convertible bonds and offers diversification
with low correlation to traditional bonds. It currently holds 336 investments, with zero exposure to controversial weapons, nuclear weapons, firearms, tobacco, and U.N. Global Compact violators.

Fixed Income ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF (PCY)

• One-month performance: 2.54%
• Expense Ratio: 0.50%
• Annual Dividend Yield: 6.3%
• 30-Day Average Daily Volume: 439,655
• AUM: $1.5 billion
• Inception Date: Oct. 11, 2007
• Issuer: Invesco

The Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF focuses on U.S. dollar-denominated government bonds from over 20 emerging market countries. The fund invests at least 80% of its assets in securities within the index and is rebalanced quarterly. The portfolio mainly consists of long-term bonds with maturities of 20 years and over, with a relatively equal weighted allocation to various emerging markets.

Commodities ETF with the best 1-Month Return: United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG)

• One-month performance: 15.2%
• Expense Ratio: 1.06%
• Annual Dividend Yield: N/A
• 30-Day Average Daily Volume: 6,168,950
• AUM: $910 million
• Inception Date: April 18, 2007
• Issuer: Marygold

The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) is an ETF designed to track daily price movements of natural gas, with shares traded on the NYSE Arca. Its investment objective is to mirror the
daily percentage changes in the price of natural gas futures at the Henry Hub distribution hub in Louisiana, while collateralized by cash and government obligations. UNG primarily invests in natural gas futures.

Currency ETF with the Best 1-Month Return: Invesco CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB)

• One-month performance: 1%
• Expense Ratio: 0.40%
• Annual Dividend Yield: 4.1%
• 30-Day Average Daily Volume: 13,977 shares
• AUM: $64 million
• Inception Date: June 21, 2006
• Issuer: Invesco

FXB aims to track the value of the British pound sterling, the official currency of the U.K. It does this by holding physical British pounds in a deposit account to back the shares.

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 one-month returns. We then filtered out any ETFs employing a leveraged or inverse strategy, as well as any with under $50 million in AUM. 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, 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 comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info.

As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above ETFs.

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