From Crash to Victory: 2026 ETFs That Could Triple Your Portfolio (Gold, Silver & Tech)

A warm welcome to 2026. I'm Ronda Leggy with ETF Guide, and the new year means it's a fresh start for everyone. We're going to examine the top trends that ETF traders and investors need to have on their radar. Joining us is Dave Crrenis, the CEO and founder of ETF Portfolio Management. Dave is also the author of the book Investable Benchmarks, a guide to ETFs technology and leverage, now in its third edition.

Dave, great to see you again. How you doing? Hey Ron, great to be with you. Happy New Year, my friend.

Very good. I appreciate that. And of course 2025 is over, but what were some of the biggest surprises of the year?

Well, the biggest surprise of 2025 was the US equity market crash and recovery in the first half of the year, along with the freaky Friday trend reversal between precious metals and crypto. In the first half of 2025, the S&P 500 fell 18% in less than two months and then fully recovered over the following two months, and half of the crash occurred over just two weeks. This extreme core equity volatility severely impacted the three times levered funds on a full-year basis. TQQQ and SPXL both returned far less than the three times of the unlevered versions. Still, their long-term returns have been unbelievable.

Over the past 15 years, TQQQ and SPXL delivered 141x and 40x, respectively. In fact, the 15-year return for TQQQ was 12 times the unlevered NASDAQ 100, and it was 23 times the return of the S&P. Well, those are some pretty impressive numbers, and certainly that's been the right trade to overweight technology. Now, looking at ETFs linked to precious metals and mining stocks, they continue to be top performers. What's going on with gold and silver ETFs? And does the trend continue?

Well, precious metals had a record year in 2025. Gold GLDM was up 64%. Silver SLV gained 145%, and the levered versions were sensational. Three times gold SHNY delivered 215%, and two times silver AGQ rose by 361%. Even gold miners finally outperformed gold as GDX gave you 155%, and the three times gold miner GDXU returned almost 800%. GDXU actually delivered more than five times the unlevered version GDX. And I don't know if these trends continue, but they certainly could. And regardless, investors should always be prepared for every possible market scenario.

Yeah, pretty impressive performance there from the mining sector. And of course, we regularly talk about Nugget, NUGT, and Jnug, which is junior miners, and those both have leverage on them and have been great performers also. So, keep those ETFs on your radar. Now, we got to talk about cryptocurrency ETFs.

Lot of stuff happening there. Of course, Bitcoin and Ethereum were both pretty quiet in 2025, and the short-term trend has been modestly down, but there's still a lot of, you know, look forward-looking things that are quite bright and bullish, what you might say bullish catalyst for waking up the crypto market. So, what do you see happening in the crypto ETF space? So, leading cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin and Ethereum had a horrible year in 2025, down by 8% and 11% respectively.

Given all the positives, those are modest losses. That's not horrible.

Well, given where we were in the cycle and the expectations for the new administration favoring crypto, I think it was a big disappointment certainly from where they were at their peak during the year. And given all the positive momentum favoring crypto last year, I did expect a much higher peak and a strong year.

Since crypto ultimately struggled in 2025, I am concerned about 26. Regardless, one year is typically not a significant data point for investment performance, and the long-term and short-term trends do still favor crypto. At year end 2025, the short-term three-year return for GBTC was 883%, which was far ahead of the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P. And at ETFM, we do plan to resume adding to our core Bitcoin exposure using Bitcoin Trust symbol BTC for the lower expense ratio.

Yeah. And I think when you look at the Clarity Act, the potential passage of that in 2026, the continued adoption of Bit Bitcoin by both institutional investors as well as retail, I think you're going to see possibly some movement there to the upside. And of course, any short-term movement to the downside would certainly be an opportunity to accumulate. Next, we got to talk about some important trends that were started in 2025 that could spill over into 2026. Do you have any favorite ETF investments trends or themes or specific industry sectors?

You know, Ron, the semiconductor sector had a strong 2025, and memory chips in particular, like SanDisk and Micron, were phenomenal. Micron two times symbol muou delivered far more than expected. The unlevered Micron MU gained 240%, and the two times version Muyu was up almost 600%. And while profit taking and corrections will occur eventually, we do believe the strong momentum in Micron will continue.

That said, be extremely careful with individual stocks and especially with leverage. Leverage single stock ETFs can surprise investors. And for the full year 2025, the two times levered ETFs for Nvidia didn't come anywhere close to two times the unlevered stock return.

What about Soxel? I know that's one that you've tracked and talked about many times in the past. What do you see for Soxel? Well, Soxel had a good year last year, although it also did not give you the full multiple investors might have expected because of all the turbulence in the first half. We are bullish on semiconductors. Our exposure currently is mainly through Micron and a very little bit in Nvidia, but mostly Micron for now.

So to cap things off and to conclude this conversation, I want to ask you about potential risks that may be brewing for 2026, we got to talk about that that investors and traders should be aware of.

So the escalation in China's military drills around Taiwan along with the 2025 trend reversal in gold and Bitcoin may suggest there is material geopolitical risk here. Also, the global race to dominate AI, humanoid robots, and electric cars may not go as expected. Given the volatility we saw in 2025, investors are reminded to always be prepared for everything. Historical trends and correlations work until they don't. And at ETFM, we favor having certain exposure to active management with strict risk controls. And while active risk controls may not help in every situation or every individual year, they can still be priceless for your portfolio long term.

Yes, I agree. And I call it you're having a margin of safety or a safety cushion. So crucial to the investment process and certainly many investors miss that. But thank you for pointing it out, Dave. Great points and look forward to following up with you as 2026 progresses. We'll catch up with you soon.

Thanks Ryan. Great to see you. Well, let us know in the comment section below how you're enjoyed today's conversation and what you're doing for 2026 to position your investment portfolio for what's to come. I'm Ronda Leggy. This is ETF guide and we'll see you on the next