Nick Peters-Golden

It’s been a long time coming for the asset management world, but ETF share classes are now a reality. Fidelity Investments has joined that movement, with the launch of its first ETF share classes for some of its mutual funds. The firm announced the move Monday, with three ETF share classes available on June 18, 2026.

AI stocks, those equities either from AI pioneers or firms poised to benefit from that innovation, have driven stock market and portfolio performance for months and months and months. Investors have largely benefitted, but as AI stocks enter a new phase, it could be time to refresh portfolios. The active, research-based ETF TTEQ has an innovation-centric investment strategy that has helped it deliver strong returns YTD.

WisdomTree Investments marked 20 years of operation this week, per a release from the firm. The firm launched its first 20 ETFs on June 16, 2006, with an approach the firm called “Modern Alpha.” That approach entails fundamentally weighted, income-focused strategies that look to marry passive and active strengths.

The ETF industry has been growing for decades, but its spike, and the spike of active ETFs particularly in recent years, is hard to overstate. 2026 has seen continued record-setting pace for ETFs, with active ETFs contributing 80% of launches YTD as of May. That widening pool challenges investors to find the best ETFs.

The active ETF space offers some notable advantages over passively managed index ETFs. Many investors look to S&P 500 ETF strategies as key building blocks in their portfolios. What they may not realize is that there are many active ETFs that can actually outperform those important S&P 500 ETF funds. The T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF (TSPA), for example, has added more than half a billion over just one month with its own approach to outperforming the market.

Investors have plenty of reasons to celebrate the covered call ETF boom. Covered call strategies have offered new ways to add income to portfolios. Challenges in fixed income were a catalyst for assets to flow into traditional covered call ETFs. Those funds offer income, but at a costly trade-off, frequently limiting upside and long-term performance for those ETFs.

The bitcoin ETF story has been an interesting one. From the hype, excitement, and final release of spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, those funds no longer dominate the headlines. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), iShares’ take on the spot bitcoin ETF, exploded to a nearly $100 billion in October 2025, but has since seen its AUM halved. Now, iShares is making a foray into a new type of bitcoin ETF, the bitcoin income ETF, with its new fund BITA.

A real, potentially lasting U.S.-Iran deal appears to be on the horizon for the first time in many weeks of on-, then off-again negotiations. Should this be the deal that does it, or another one in the near term, oil prices will respond. In fact, they’ve already dropped in response to the news that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen. These recent developments may offer opportunities for savvy investors in emerging markets.

Concentration risk has emerged as a dominant threat to portfolios this year. Even as geopolitical tensions show signs of cooling under a potential U.S.-Iran deal, market crowding remains a top concern. While mega-cap stocks have earned their place in investor portfolios, the growing appetite for diversification is opening the door for active small- and mid-cap strategies like TMSL to make their case.

Tech stocks remain a key space for investors, with the AI revolution driving continued success for AI-adjacent stocks. Investors have benefitted from that growth in recent years, but now that comes with concentration risk. The active tech ETF GTEK has produced robust numbers this yea r, outperforming big time tech ETFs like VGT without that concentration risk.