Best 3 ETFs for 2026

Screening Filters

1. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $2,000,000

   • Purpose: Ensure the ETFs are highly liquid and easy to trade.
   • Rationale:
     • “Best” ETFs for a future year like 2026 should be practical to own: tight bid–ask spreads, less price slippage, and the ability to enter/exit positions without moving the market.
     • A $2M+ average dollar volume threshold screens out illiquid or niche ETFs that may be harder to trade or may have higher implicit costs.

2. PriceAboveMA200 (Price above 200-day moving average)

   • Purpose: Focus on ETFs that are in a sustained uptrend rather than in a prolonged downtrend.
   • Rationale:
     • For “best for 2026,” your colleague is leaning on trend-following logic: ETFs that are trading above their long-term (200-day) average price are typically considered to be in a healthier technical state.
     • This doesn’t guarantee future performance, but it favors ETFs with positive market sentiment and momentum instead of those still under pressure.

3. Year Price Change % ≥ 15%

   • Purpose: Capture ETFs with strong recent performance/momentum.
   • Rationale:
     • A 15%+ annual price gain is a way to identify ETFs that have been rewarded by the market recently, which may reflect strong underlying fundamentals or favorable sector/region exposure.
     • For a forward-looking question like “best ETFs for 2026,” strong trailing performance is used as a proxy for resilience and current leadership, while avoiding laggards.

4. Themes: Large Cap Blend Equities, Large Cap Growth Equities

   • Purpose: Limit results to diversified, mainstream equity ETFs in large-cap segments.
   • Rationale:
     • Large-cap blend and large-cap growth funds tend to be core holdings in many portfolios and are often candidates when people ask for “best ETFs” for a coming year, rather than narrow sector or speculative products.
     • These categories usually include broad, well-known benchmarks (e.g., S&P 500, NASDAQ-100 style funds) and provide diversified exposure instead of concentrated bets, making them more suitable as “top picks” for a general investor.

5. Expense Ratio ≤ 0.10%

   • Purpose: Select only very low-cost ETFs.
   • Rationale:
     • Over multi-year horizons, fees are a key driver of net returns. For choosing “best” ETFs looking ahead to 2026, minimizing cost is one of the few variables you can control.
     • A 0.10% cap is strict and focuses on the most cost-efficient funds, typically large, mainstream ETFs with significant scale and competition driving fees down.

Why Results Match the User’s Request (“Best 3 ETFs for 2026”)

• The screen targets core, diversified, large-cap equity ETFs, which are the usual candidates when investors ask for “best” broad-market funds for the near future, rather than speculative or niche products.
• It emphasizes quality and practicality: high liquidity and ultra-low expenses, which directly improve the investing experience and long-term outcomes.
• It adds trend and momentum filters (price above 200-day MA and ≥15% annual gain), biasing the selection toward ETFs currently exhibiting strength and positive sentiment rather than hoping for turnarounds.
• Together, these filters narrow the universe to a small set of liquid, low-fee, diversified, and currently strong-performing ETFs, which is a reasonable interpretation of what “top 3 ETFs for 2026” should look like, even though no screen can guarantee which will actually be the best performers.