History Says This Chip ETF Keeps Beating the S&P 500. It Has Trailed the Index Only Twice Since 2016.
The fund's wins came by double-digit margins -- and its two losses were about twice as deep as the market's.
Overview
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) is having another big year. As of this writing, the chip-focused fund has generated a total return of about 59% in 2026. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC), with dividends included, has gained about 12%.
And a difference like that is nothing new. Measured on total return, the fund beat the index in eight of the 10 calendar years from 2016 through 2025. In its eight winning years, it never won by less than about 13 percentage points.
Details
A record like that can make the fund look like a simple upgrade over an S&P 500 index fund. But I don't think it is that simple. The two years the fund lost (and how badly it lost them) say as much about owning it as the eight years it won.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.