After a down year like 2018 most investors want to just forget about what happened. But those investors who focus on understanding why their investments went south are the ones who will learn from their mistakes and hopefully avoid making them in the future. The start of a new year is a good time to review your investing thesis and try to pinpoint why some investments didn’t turn out the way you imagined they would.
With the S&P 500 (SPX) ending the year down 6.24%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) losing 5.63%, and the NASDAQ (COMP) dropping 3.88% in 2018, more than a handful of Exchange Traded Funds not only underperformed the major averages, but a few of them could have cost you nearly everything.
Let’s take a look at the top five worst performing ETFs of 2018 in a number of different categories the average investor had to choose from ion 2018 to see if you owned one or more of them.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five US Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Global Ex-US Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Developed Markets Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Emerging Markets Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five European Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Asian-Pacific Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Latin American Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Middle-Eastern & African Equity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the worst five Commodity Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the top five Currency Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
The following table shows the performance of the top five Fixed Income Non-Leveraged ETFs in 2018, as well as their performance over the last month, the last three months, the last five and ten years.
(All figures quoted above are based on December 31st, 2018 closing price.)
Hopefully, you didn’t own any of the ETF’s mentioned above; I was lucky enough to have avoided them. But if you did, focus on what went wrong and how you can improve your investment picking selection in the future.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Best of luck in 2019!
Check out my Top Performing ETFs Of 2018 list.
Matt Thalman
INO.com Contributor - ETFs
Follow me on Twitter @mthalman5513
Disclosure: This contributor did not hold a position in any investment mentioned above at the time this blog post was published. This article is the opinion of the contributor themselves. The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. This contributor is not receiving compensation (other than from INO.com) for their opinion.
