--- title: "The funds most people hold lost money in September as gains stayed narrow" url: "https://etf.net/news/the-funds-most-people-hold-lost-money-in-september-as-gains-stayed-narrow-2026-10-02" published_at: "2026-10-02T10:57:19.919Z" updated_at: "2026-10-02T10:57:19.919Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # The funds most people hold lost money in September as gains stayed narrow In September 2026, a broad bond fund lost 2.3% and a gold fund lost 6.8%, while Solana funds gained 13.3%. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 2, 2026. In September, the funds most people hold lost money, and the gains sat in a few corners. Solana funds gained **13.3%**, and SPY, which holds the S&P 500, lost 0.3%. Each theme figure is the middle fund's total return, income reinvested, from the August 31 close through Wednesday, September 30. A named fund is that fund's own return, not the middle of its theme. The ranking starts from 4,922 funds. It sets aside 764 funds that use leverage or that are built to rise when a market falls, plus 113 funds with no price for the month and 167 with no theme. Seven themes were too thin to rank. A few leveraged and inverse funds still show up as the best or worst fund in themes not shown in the table. Solana funds were the top theme. Uranium and nuclear funds, down 12.4%, were the bottom, and critical-materials funds were next, down 11.8%. QQQ, the Nasdaq-100, gained 3.3%. The rest of the core set: SPY, IWM, EFA, EEM, AGG, TLT and GLD; finished lower. AGG, a broad bond fund, lost 2.3%, and GLD, a gold fund, lost 6.8%. Chart: **Seven of eight** widely held funds lost money in September Selected themes, ordered by the middle fund's return. Many themes sit between these rows. Table: Theme, Middle-fund return, Funds ## Where the gains were Solana's lead was one token, not a clever fund. All nine funds gained between 13.2% and 13.7%. All 11 ether funds finished between 7.3% and 7.8%, and all 13 bitcoin funds between 5.8% and 6.0%. In August, Solana funds had gained 42.6%. They led again, on a smaller move. The other-crypto row is not bitcoin, ether or Solana, which have their own themes. It is a mixed group of smaller tokens, and a 13.0% middle hides the spread. A staked SUI fund gained 58.3%, and a Canton fund gained 1.6%. The listed top of the semiconductor theme is not a basket of chip makers. ARMH, which holds Arm Holdings and hedges the British pound, gained 21.9%. SMH, a fund of semiconductor companies, gained 9.4%, in line with the theme's 9.2% middle. SMHC, a fund of Chinese semiconductor shares, lost 8.5%. China funds as a group lost 5.8%. Broad technology funds gained 4.7%, but XSW, a fund of software and services companies, lost 7.3%. Cloud and software funds lost 1.2%. RSP, which holds S&P 500 companies in equal amounts rather than by size, lost 4.8% and was the worst fund in the S&P 500 theme. QTOP, a fund of the 30 largest Nasdaq-100 stocks, gained 5.3%, and QNXT, the Nasdaq-100 without those 30, lost 3.0%. The gain was in the largest names. ## Oil futures rose, oil stocks did not Energy-futures funds gained 9.0%, and energy-stock funds lost 3.9%. USO, which holds near-term futures on WTI crude, the main U.S. oil benchmark, gained 8.9%. BWET, a fund that holds crude-tanker freight futures without leverage, including the Middle East Gulf to China route, gained 92.7%. A 12-month natural gas fund lost 2.9%. Reuters reported on Friday, September 11 that rates for the largest tankers loading oil in the Gulf of Oman for China had hit a record, after the biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the U.S.-Iran war began in late February. Oil and gas producer funds lost 6.6%, and defense and aerospace funds lost 5.8%. Reuters reported on Monday, September 28 that stocks fell as oil prices and Treasury yields rose, with investors weighing the chances of a peace deal in the Iran war. ## Yields rose further than the Fed moved On Wednesday, September 16, the Federal Reserve raised the target range for its main short-term rate by 25 basis points, to 3.75% to 4%. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. "Inflation remains elevated," its policy committee said, and the increase was meant to bring inflation back to its 2% goal sooner. From August 31 to September 30, the Treasury's published yield on the two-year note rose from 4.34% to 4.88%, and the ten-year rose from 4.75% to 5.29%. Each move was 54 basis points, more than twice the Fed's increase. For a holder of long Treasuries, that was a 5.4% price loss in TLT. Treasury-bill funds gained 0.2%. Yields were already rising before that decision. On Friday, September 11, TheStreet reported that Treasury yields had sprung higher on worries about inflation and a possible rate hike, caused in large part by the Trump administration's recent actions in the Middle East. The rise did not stop with the hike. On Tuesday, September 29, the Associated Press reported that oil prices swinging in the U.S. war with Iran were helping push Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years. Reuters reported on Wednesday, September 30 that global bonds had closed out their worst month in years, with soaring energy costs fueling inflation fears. Shorter bonds lost less than the long ones. Chart: Bond-fund losses **grew** with duration Floating-rate loan funds were flat, since those coupons reset when short-term rates move. U.S. real estate funds lost 5.9%. Bank funds lost 6.1%, and utility funds lost 5.6%. Gold finished September at $4,154 an ounce. ANZ said higher yields and a stronger dollar were working against the metal. Precious-metals miner funds lost 10.9%, after gaining 32.6% in August. A portfolio of the S&P 500 fund, a bond fund and gold lost money in September. It did not hold the Solana funds, chip funds, or oil and freight futures that made the gains. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/the-funds-most-people-hold-lost-money-in-september-as-gains-stayed-narrow-2026-10-02. Please cite the page URL.