This year’s ETFs have highlighted significant differences in the performance of different sectors of the market, with one sector dominating the top performing list. With the sky-high outperformance of oil and gas assets and severe declines elsewhere, many top-performing companies have employed leveraged versions of commodity and inverse fund strategies. In many cases, energy funds don’t even need leverage to perform better, while plain vanilla sector funds have reaped huge returns. When you remove leveraged funds, however, there are some surprising names at the top that will break the grip of oil and gas ETFs. *List does not include inverse funds and leveraged versions of other strategies. Return data until the end of December 23. The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF has surged in the second half of the year and has a total return of over 100%. According to FactSet, that really goes above and beyond unlevered energy funds. Sky-high inflation and political influence at the nation’s central bank made investing in Turkey a difficult proposition for investors, but it succeeded in 2022. Even while Turkey is out, the list is still dominated by oil and gas funds, with the VanEck Oil Services ETF (OIH) generating a total return of 65%. Six other energy-related funds have combined returns of more than 60% through December 23. Excluding all energy-specific funds, the remaining list shows many successful innovation strategies. *List does not include inverse funds and leveraged versions of strategies. Return data until the end of December 23. The second best performing fund on the list is the Hedge Funds Simplified Interest Rate ETF (PFIX). The fund is one of several that has grown strongly in a year marked by the highest inflation in decades and repeated interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The Advocate Rising Rate Hedge ETF (RRH) and the FolioBeyond Rising Rates ETF (RISR) have also done their part in enhancing investors’ portfolios. The KFA Mount Lucas Managed Futures Index Strategy ETF (KMLM), which has gained over 30%, is also indicative of a trend in 2022. Several managed futures funds have had successful years under active management. bets directed at sectors of the market such as technology and energy proved to be a target-rich environment. On the inflow side, broad-market funds from Vanguard and iShares are the big winners, as these two brands continue to dominate the ETF market. But some of the smaller funds with big inflows this year are SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL), JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) and WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund (USFR), especially compared with their size.