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HERO

It may not be the end of the quarter yet, but we have made it through summer, and that seems like a good checkpoint to evaluate the top ETF investment themes YTD. Let's take a moment to look in this year's thematic ETF rearview mirror.

HERO is a hold due to its inability to capture high-growth, innovative, and paradigm-shifting gaming companies, lagging behind peers like ESPO. The ETF's top holdings—Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and Konami—demonstrate weak growth, minimal innovation, and a lack of transformative breakthroughs. HERO's performance, high fees, and low dividend yield make it less attractive compared to peer gaming ETFs, especially ESPO.

The company recently posted 21% year-over-year revenue growth to $1.1 billion.

Some of the top-performing themes of this year totally make sense given current geopolitical and macro headwinds. Those include gold, defense, uranium and nuclear.

URA, CRPT and ARKW and others soar in the second quarter of 2025 as tech, crypto, and uranium sectors lead a stunning market rebound from April's slump.

The S&P 500 wipes out all its losses and returns to positive territory. We highlight the five best ETFs of this year.

Global X Video Games & Esports ETF shows strong growth potential, driven by robust performance from key holdings like Konami and Roblox, despite a modest AUM. HERO's recent 20% price increase outperformed the S&P 500, highlighting its resilience and growth prospects in the expanding $205 billion video game market. The ETF's diversified portfolio, with significant allocations to Japanese, U.S., and Chinese gaming companies, supports its impressive performance and future growth potential.

Video game stocks outperform the broader market on the highly anticipated launch of game releases.

Amplify has made a notable update to its video game tech ETF.  The Amplify Video Game Tech ETF (GAMR) has changed its underlying index and is now tracking the VettaFi Video Game Leaders Index (VGAME), effective January 28.

With the completion of a close presidential election, roughly half of us are likely disappointed regardless of the winner. To counter the post-election blues, I identified some “happy” ETF themes to consider for investment.