ETF Performance Highlights

Article Excerpt

Natural gas has some of the most volatile and unpredictable price movements among mainstream commodities. In the past, this has caused considerable losses for even highly experienced trading teams at major financial institutions. Natural gas lived up to its reputation in November 2018 with the US Natural Gas ETF (UNG) delivering a 43.1% increase in the unit price. The gain over the past six months is now 58% after having lost 35% over the previous 18 months. Other winners in the month include the ETFs covering emerging markets, especially India, China and South Korea. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) gained 10.1% during the month. ETFs covering crude oil or oil producers suffered during November as oil prices collapsed. The U.S. Oil ETF (USO) lost 22.3% during the month while the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration ETF (XOP) lost 21.5%. Marijuana stocks also lost ground after considerable gains earlier in the year. The Horizons Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ) lost 19.5% for the month, but is still up by 30.8% over the past year. Meanwhile, the Vanguard Total Bond…