AdvisorShares Psychedelics ETF

PSIL

Market cap $21.3M

2025 is drawing to a close, and investors have plenty to look back on. Active ETF performance and proliferation was once again an important theme, and as the category matures, its standout performers have diversified.

When it comes to curing common ailments, the majority of doctors won't be prescribing things like LSD, mescaline, PCP, or psilocybin (mushrooms) anytime soon. But these are examples of a growing billion-dollar psychedelic drugs industry that's poised for even more growth.

SGDM, SLVP, SHLD, URA and PSIL top the charts in the first half of 2025, defying market turmoil and riding sector-specific surges.

Here are a few ETFs that have outperformed the S&P 500 in the first quarter.

When I survey the thematic landscape and the top-performing themes so far this year, it looks quite reminiscent of the year 2020 during the last Trump administration. Themes like gold mining, video gaming, online retail, and streaming media are at the top of the performance list.

At mid-way through the first quarter, Wall Street has been on a bull run, outplaying tariff trade war fears.

The S&P 500 experienced an impressive return of close to 25% in 2024, significantly outpacing its average annual growth rate over the last several decades, which is much closer to 10%. After another strong year for the broader market, investors may have entered 2025 with outsized hopes that this momentum will continue.

January was full of events and surprises for Wall Street. Here are the five top-performing ETFs that were the leaders in January.

Wall Street has been upbeat in January, with the Dow Jones outperforming the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Over recent years, investors have sought safety within mega-cap tech stocks while searching for alpha within disruptive technology trends like artificial intelligence. Most investors can agree the AI theme has long-term growth potential, and the current market sell-off is a short-term hiccup.