The ETF Obsession | April 2026

It's a little late, but I reviewed all the ETF launches in April! Of 93, there were 49 even worth looking at, and only 10 of those got a positive rating.

Welcome to this month’s edition of The ETF Obsession.

The best review of all the ETFs that launched last month currently in your inbox!

If you want to see past editions, click this link!

• 63 ETFs were launched last month (and 30 more changed exchanges or rebranded to new tickers).

• Here’s my top-level review:

  • Positive: 10

  • Neutral: 17

  • Negative: 22

• You can view/copy the spreadsheet here:

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Hey folks, a quick note!

Next month, I’m going to be opening up a new “section” of TMO for The ETF Obsession. It’s popular enough that it deserves its own mailing list. That means that moving forward, readers will get to choose whether they want The ETF Obsession every month or if they would prefer just The Macro Obsession every week, or vice versa.

That will launch next month, for the May edition, in a few weeks. Nothing for you to do now but enjoy this month’s edition.

Thank you for your patience with me getting this one out late into the month. I appreciate all the support from folks.

Now, let’s get on to the newsletter!

What I Noticed in April: Active Managers Buying the Passive Index

Aside from there being a billion YieldBoost and 2x leveraged funds, I noticed that quite a few of the active ETFs launched this months had a few of their largest holdings in passive indexes.

The Pictet Emerging Markets Rising Economies ETF (RISE 0.00%↑) comes to mind as the worst offender this month. Its top three holdings, all almost 5% of the fund each, are all passive large-cap Indian equity indexes. But if I’m going to pay a fund manager 0.73%, then they need to do something. Go pick Indian stocks if you’re so bullish on India, is my take.

There were a couple like this that bothered me a bit because I just don’t think that investors are served too well by this practice. There was one fund that’s charging nearly 1% and doesn’t explain what it does to be risk-aware or adaptive or defensive. Its current holdings are 100% the S&P 500 index via SPYM 0.00%↑.

Honorable Mentions

There were a few funds worth mentioning:

• VanEck launched 2 new TruSector funds, TRUF 0.00%↑ and TRUH 0.00%↑ aimed at replacing existing sector funds XLF 0.00%↑ and XLV 0.00%↑ that carry artificial weight cap rules. TruSector holds all stocks at their actual S&P 500 index weights, uncapped.

• Thornburg converted two of their long-running mutual funds to ETFs, TAOZ 0.00%↑ and TFGZ 0.00%↑. It’s unclear if they’re going to be any good performance-wise, but the holdings look actually unique and like the managers are actually working for their fees and not just buying passive indexes.

• VanEck also launched VEFA 0.00%↑, an EAFE index fund that changes its weights according to analyst sentiment. It’s heavy on Europe and Japan. I felt, as an analyst myself, that I couldn’t give this one a “meh” rating because while I do think the aggregate analyst opinion is pretty “meh,” I have to show some solidarity here.

• iShares launched another muni bond ladder piece for 2034, shoutout to IBMW 0.00%↑.

• A new defense tech ETF that donates 10% of its revenue to veterans looked like a solid choice. And they got a good ticker with DUTY 0.00%↑.

• Calamos dropped CBOX 0.00%↑, which is a competitor to BOXX 0.00%↑. It effectively invests in box spreads, meaning it generates cash-like returns without any taxable distributions; that makes it perfect for being used as options collateral.

• Last but not least, THOR dropped a new adaptive fund, THMR 0.00%↑. I like the guys who run this fund and I think their daily update newsletter on the holdings is interesting. I can say that they are working for their fees because I get the updates on what changes day to day. Here’s their holdings as of this morning when I got the email update from Brad Roth (the fund manager). Very interesting holdings. I’m staying away for now, but I’m clearly watching it closely. I feel that way about all the existing THOR funds.

  

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The Best New ETF of March 2026

Regular readers of mine will know that I am a big fan and investor in rare earths and critical materials stocks. I have an allocation to such in the TMO model portfolio—see the last update here. They will also know that I am not a fan of investing in Chinese stocks, which plague large rare earth ETFs like REMX 0.00%↑.

Enter the Sprott Rare Earths Ex-China ETF (REXC 0.00%↑), which solves for this. If you are an existing REMX investor, I highly suggest moving to this one. Effectively this holds the same index but without the Chinese exposure. It’s a clean bet on the West working on fixing their rare earth situation and is a much more clean exposure to that thesis than even my existing favorite SETM 0.00%↑. Although I won’t be moving away from that one anytime soon for its other exposures that REXC doesn’t have, like the inclusion of base metal miners.

Either way, it’s the best ETF of the month by far because it addresses a real problem, is reasonably priced, and isn’t relying on a stock picker being really good at their job.

If you’re interested I recommend checking out Sprott’s website. They’ve got an excellent overview of the fund there, unlike many of the fund managers who launched funds this month—whose websites look like they’re from the 90s (looking at you, First Trust) or are impossible to find (looking at you, Tamarisk).

Searchable/Sortable Table

As above, here is my research doc that I compiled for this article, with my notes on every fund that launched last month. Note that I just dictate my thoughts about these as I’m researching them. There may be errors in here or assumptions I’ve made that are faulty, so consider this just a starting point for your own research.

You can click this button to go directly to the Google Sheet so that you can view/copy from there:

If this newsletter gave you a new perspective, send it to a pal.

See you next month.

ETFs Discussed:

ACYS 0.00%↑ AMA 0.00%↑ AXTX 0.00%↑ BAVA 0.00%↑ BCEM 0.00%↑ BESO 0.00%↑ BFEW 0.00%↑ BFXU 0.00%↑ BUFE 0.00%↑ CAGE 0.00%↑ CBOX 0.00%↑ CPNX 0.00%↑ CRY 0.00%↑ CWY 0.00%↑ DGAP 0.00%↑ DPRE 0.00%↑ DUTY 0.00%↑ EMFI 0.00%↑ FEMG 0.00%↑ FEMV 0.00%↑ FSEG 0.00%↑ FSEV 0.00%↑ HYGM 0.00%↑ IBMW 0.00%↑ IVEP 0.00%↑ JELH 0.00%↑ JELM 0.00%↑ JHDG 0.00%↑ LITZ 0.00%↑ MHIG 0.00%↑ MHIP 0.00%↑ MPWX 0.00%↑ MSBT 0.00%↑ MUYY 0.00%↑ NGHT 0.00%↑ ODTE 0.00%↑ ORBX 0.00%↑ REXC 0.00%↑ RISE 0.00%↑ RKSG 0.00%↑ RWIN 0.00%↑ SNDQ 0.00%↑ SPCL 0.00%↑ SPDF 0.00%↑ SSMG 0.00%↑ STXL 0.00%↑ STXX 0.00%↑ TAOZ 0.00%↑ TFGZ 0.00%↑ THMR 0.00%↑ TMYY 0.00%↑ TOAO 0.00%↑ TRUF 0.00%↑ TRUH 0.00%↑ TXXH 0.00%↑ UCOP 0.00%↑ UPAL 0.00%↑ UPLT 0.00%↑ VEFA 0.00%↑ WCMG 0.00%↑ WRTH 0.00%↑ XBNB 0.00%↑ XEY 0.00%↑