u/ETFNavigatorPro

Four months in and the story of 2026 is already one of the most dramatic in recent memory. Energy has been the big winner while a very specific group of funds has been quietly destroying wealth on the other side of the ledger.

TOP 5

1. BWET +748.1%: The Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF went from $19.26 to $163.34. The Strait of Hormuz conflict turned this tiny, obscure fund into one of the greatest performing ETFs in modern history. It tracks the cost of shipping crude oil by sea, and with tanker routes disrupted for months on end, freight rates went through the roof. Most people have still never heard of it.

2. USO +112.7%: The United States Oil Fund went from $69.16 to $147.09. More than doubling in four months by tracking WTI crude oil prices. The Middle East conflict is the entire story here.

3. BNO +106.7%: The United States Brent Oil Fund went from $28.32 to $58.53. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, more than doubled. Same driver as USO.

4. UGA +94.5%: The United States Gasoline Fund went from $61.73 to $120.07. When oil doubles, gas follows. If you have been to a gas station in 2026 you already lived this story firsthand. UGA just let you profit from it.

5. DBE +89.9%: The Invesco DB Energy Fund went from $17.47 to $33.17. DBE gives you a broader basket of energy commodities including crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas, all in one fund. While USO and BNO get the headlines, DBE quietly nearly doubled by riding the same Middle East tailwind across the entire energy complex. A solid way to play the energy theme without being concentrated in a single commodity.

BOTTOM 5

Before getting into the names, here is the thing you need to know about all five of these funds. They are all YieldMax option income ETFs, and they all advertise eye-catching weekly dividend yields ranging from 70% to almost 200% annually. The pitch sounds great. The reality is that even if you reinvested every single dividend payment back into the fund through DRIP, every one of these is still down more than 30% on a total return basis for the year. The income is real and so is the NAV erosion.

1. RDYY -47.2%: YieldMax's Reddit option income ETF went from $37.70 to $19.93. RDYY currently has a distribution rate of over 70%, which sounds incredible until you realize the share price has been nearly cut in half. Reddit had a rough year and RDYY absorbed every bit of the downside while the options strategy capped the upside during the good weeks.

2. AIYY -45.0%: YieldMax's AI option income ETF, tied to C3.ai, went from $17.38 to $9.55. C3.ai has been one of the weakest names in the AI space this year and AIYY has reflected that completely. Even with a yield of over 190%, it is still down over 30% from a total return perspective YTD.

3. RBLY -44.4%: YieldMax's Roblox option income ETF went from $29.19 to $16.24. RBLY currently carries a distribution rate of over 100%, but Roblox had a difficult year and the fund's structure meant there was no protection on the way down.

4. SNOY -44.3%: YieldMax's Snowflake option income ETF went from $12.20 to $6.81. Snowflake has been one of the more disappointing cloud software names of 2026 and SNOY went right along with it.

5. DRAY -44.1%: YieldMax's DraftKings option income ETF went from $31.05 to $17.35. DraftKings struggled all year and DRAY holders collected weekly income while watching the share price steadily erode underneath them.

April was a month defined by two mega themes: the ongoing Middle East shipping crisis and an AI chip revolution that finally started showing up in earnings. The winners and losers reflect both of those stories clearly.

TOP 5

1. BWET +65.8%: BWET is becoming a monthly fixture on this list and April was no different. The Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF went from $98.50 to $163.34 as the Strait of Hormuz situation remained unresolved and tanker freight rates stayed elevated. It's now up over 1,400% in the past year and still barely known outside of niche investor circles.

2. STHH +64.0%: The STMicroelectronics ADRhedged ETF was the surprise of the month, climbing from $66.25 to $108.67. STHH tracks STMicroelectronics, the European semiconductor giant, and STM had an incredible April. STM reported Q1 revenue of $3.1 billion, up 23% year over year, beating expectations despite an EPS miss, and the stock surged as investors focused on the company's AI data center momentum and a multi-year deal with Amazon Web Services.

3. HYDR +61.2%: The Global X Hydrogen ETF went from $36.24 to $58.43. As oil prices remained elevated and clean energy alternatives attracted attention, hydrogen had a monster month. The fund is still well off its all-time highs but April was a major step in the right direction.

4. XSD +49.7%: The State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF went from $326.12 to $488.09. Intel's strong earnings confirmed that CPU demand is surging because of agentic AI, and that rising tide lifted every semiconductor name in the basket. Semis had one of their best months in years.

5. WEED +49.5%: The Roundhill Cannabis ETF went from $15.14 to $22.64. Cannabis had a huge April driven by ongoing rescheduling optimism. RFK Jr. announced the FDA would convene a committee to evaluate whether certain peptide substances should be added to the compounding pharmacy approved list, and broader deregulation hopes kept the sector in a strong uptrend all month.

BOTTOM 5

1. VXX -21.0%: The iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN finished the month down 21.04%, falling from $35.70 to $28.19. This Exchange-Traded Note serves as a barometer for market anxiety; it typically surges when volatility spikes and declines when the market is calm. Because April was a exceptionally strong month for equities, "fear" evaporated from the market, leading to this sharp drop in VXX.

2. VIXY -20.8%: The ProShares VIX Short Term Futures ETF went from $34.35 to $27.22. Same story as VXX, just a slightly different wrapper. Both funds got crushed as April turned into a surprisingly strong month for equities.

3. MRNY -15.8%: The YieldMax MRNA option income ETF fell from $18.57 to $15.64. Moderna had a rough month and MRNY absorbed the full downside as these option income funds always do when the underlying stock struggles.

4. YQQQ -13.9%: The YieldMax Short N100 Option Income Strategy ETF dropped from $12.78 to $11.00. This one is designed to generate income from a short position on the Nasdaq 100. With the Nasdaq ripping higher in April on AI and chip momentum, a short Nasdaq fund had a predictably bad month.

5. BITI -13.4%: The ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF fell from $26.66 to $23.08. Bitcoin recovered meaningfully in April and BITI, which moves in the opposite direction of bitcoin, went the wrong way for anyone holding it.