Many of This Year's New ETFs Are Speculative or Complex
By Charles Rotblut, CFA
Two words describe the largest types of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched during the first half of this year: speculative and complex. Speculative refers to the 232 leveraged ETFs brought to market between January and June 2026. They account for nearly one-third of this year's new ETFs. Complex refers to the 44 ETFs that use options-based strategies to create a stream of income.
These products are not suitable for most individual investors. I explain why below.
Leveraged ETFs: Don’t Get Wiped Out by the Tail Think carefully before buying a leveraged investment product that might seem highly attractive based on historical performance. Two key negatives are volatility drag and tail risk.
Hello, my name is Charles Rotblut, CFA, and I’ve got some exciting news to share with you.
On Tuesday, August 4, at 3:00 p.m. Central Time, I’ll be joined by AAII analysts John Bajkowski and Sam Levine, CFA, CMT, for our first-ever AAII Market Update. We’ll unpack the Fed’s July interest rate decision and what its language tells us about September, preview Friday’s jobs report, and dig into two of the most prominent companies’ second-quarter numbers ahead of their earnings calls.
We’ll also walk through the AAII tools we each use to do this research — the very same ones available to you. This event is free and open to all investors through YouTube live stream, and we’ll be taking your questions. I hope you join me and my colleagues during our live event on Tuesday, August 4, at 3:00 p.m. Central Time.
AAII Sentiment Survey
Optimism among individual investors about the short-term outlook for stocks increased in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. This week’s special question asked AAII members what their opinion is of new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh. More about this week’s results.
This week’s results:
Bullish: 31.0%, up 1.4 points Neutral: 26.9%, down 1.2 points Bearish: 42.1%, down 0.2 points
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