Hundreds of ETFs Hit 52-Week Highs This Week. Here Are 3 Worth Owning Long Term.

Can you say “MOMENTUM?” 

Last Friday, the S&P 500 closed out its eighth consecutive week of gains, the longest winning streak since 2023. 

War? What war? Corporate earnings are driving this bus. It’s hard to know when the good times end. But for now, investors are most definitely risk-on. 

In Tuesday’s trading, there were 164 new 52-week highs on the NYSE, 5.7 times the number of new 52-week lows. Over on the Nasdaq, there were 559 new 52-week lows, 5.9 times the new 52-week lows.

It seems nearly impossible to be losing money in the markets right now unless you’ve got a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines. Virtually everything is working right now, especially energy and tech stocks. The S&P 500 energy stocks are up 27.8% year-t0-date, while the S&P 500 tech stocks are up 20.1%. Six of 11 sectors are up more than the index’s 9.8% return. 

Back to yesterday’s new 52-week highs and lows. I stopped counting the number of ETFs hitting new 52-week highs after 200. 

Here are three (1 from 3 different fund providers) that are worth owning for the long haul. 

Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX)

The Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX) has $3.1 billion in net assets and charges 0.50% in fees. It hit a 52-week high of $25.35 yesterday, its 20th new 52-week high in 2026.  

This first choice is actually a closed-end fund, not an ETF. However, I couldn’t resist selecting it as a good long-term play. Any fund that’s been in existence for 97 years and is still posting decent performance numbers is worth considering. 

Adams’ history is also storied. Started in 1840 by Alvin Adams as a small courier service for valuables between Boston, Worcester, Norwich, New London and New York City, it was officially incorporated as Adams Express in 1854. 

The founder died 23 years later. By 1929, its shares in the American Railway Express Co., the government agency that ran America’s nationalized railway service at the end of World War I, had become quite valuable. Adams Express converted its holdings into a closed-end investment fund worth $72 million. 

The rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward to 2026. 

ADX is an actively managed closed-end investment company whose portfolio of 100 high-quality, primarily large-cap stocks is designed to deliver both income and capital gains to its shareholders consistently.

The portfolio’s weighted median market cap is $352 billion. Virtually all of its holdings are U.S. stocks. Its top 10 holdings account for 40.5% of its net assets. The remaining 90 accounts for nearly 60%. 

The top three holdings are Nvidia (NVD) at 7.7%, Apple (AAPL) at 6.8%, and Alphabet (GOOGL) at 5.4%. If you like a healthy serving of tech in your investments, the tech sector accounts for about one-third of the net assets. Financials (12.6%) and a tie between Communications (10.0%) and Consumer Discretionary (10.0%) are the next largest holdings by sector. 

A $10,000 investment in ADX in 2015 was worth nearly $50,000 by the end of 2025. The annualized total return of ADX over 10 years through May 26 is 18.15%, on par or slightly better than the S&P 500 based on its net asset value (NAV) per share. 

The one thing to understand is that closed-end funds often trade at a discount or premium to the NAV. Like a stock, this can rise and fall over time. Currently, it trades at 4% discount. The highest discount it traded at was 16.78% in 2016, according to Morningstar.com. 

Market timing isn’t advised here. If you want a good fund to own for the long haul that trades at a discount, ADX is definitely worth considering. Just make sure to buy more when the discount is in the teens.     

Baron Technology ETF (BCTK)

The Baron Technology ETF (BCTK) has $184.69 million in net assets and charges 0.75% in fees. It hit a 52-week high of $30.52 yesterday, its 22nd new 52-week high in 2026. 

I’ve always kept an eye on Baron funds because of its founder, Ron Baron. He’s an icon in the investment management business. Anything his firm is dishing up, I’m not going to avoid.

Ron Baron doesn’t run BCTK. That responsibility goes to portfolio manager Michael Lippert, Baron’s Head of Technology Research, and Ashim Mehra. The former’s been a portfolio manager for 20 years; the latter for 8. They have run the fund since its inception on Dec. 31, 2021. It was originally a mutual fund, but converted to an ETF last December. 

Like most tech funds, they have a mandate to generate capital appreciation for shareholders. Income is not a consideration. The managers can invest up to 35% of their net assets in non-U.S. tech stocks, including those in emerging markets. The ETF’s benchmark is the MSCI ACWI Information Technology Index. 

The managers look to invest in tech companies that are disrupting the industries in which they compete. They don’t worry about near-term geopolitical situations such as the U.S. war in Iran. 

Unsurprisingly, AI is high on their list. The top three sub-industries by weight are semiconductors, which power the computers that deliver AI at 32.0%, followed by semiconductor materials and equipment (7.6%), and broadline retail (6.9%).

Somewhat surprising is that Nvidia is only the fourth-largest holding at 6.72%. Accounting for higher weights are Lam Research (LRCX), Broadcom (AVGO), and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), the largest holding at 8.30%.

What isn’t surprising is that the ETF’s median market cap is $63.18 billion, about 4 times the benchmark. 

Performance-wise, it had a rough start to life, generating a total return in 2022, its first full year as a mutual fund, of -44.3%. It’s rolled out four straight years of positive returns since: 63.38% in 2023, 47.80% in 2024, 17.64% in 2025, and 21.29% so far in 2026. 

If you like to own a tech-specific fund in your investment portfolio, the 0.75% management fee shouldn’t scare you away.  

Cambria Global Equal Weight ETF (GEW)

Cambria Global Equal Weight ETF (GEW) has $140.43 million in net assets and charges 0.29% in fees. It hit a 52-week high of $54.88 yesterday, its 18th new 52-week high in 2026. 

Cambria’s funds are managed internally by Cambria Investment Management LP. In business since 2006, well-known portfolio manager Meb Faber is a co-founder of the firm and its Chief Investment Manager – Faber, along with his colleague, Jonathan Keetz.

I selected this particular ETF because I’ve always had a thing for equal-weight funds. While there’s plenty of evidence on both sides of the argument for this investment style, I believe they especially make sense in times when markets have gotten overheated. 

In the case of GEW, it also helps that Faber and Keetz look for stocks worldwide and not just in America. 

Launched in September 2025, the actively managed ETF invests in global large-cap stocks with market caps of at least $8 billion. It has 454 holdings, which include 23 ETFs and 431 stocks. 

If you want a fund that totally excludes the U.S., GEW is not for you. The U.S. accounts for nearly 60% of the ETF’s net assets. Japan, the UK, Canada, and China account for another 21% of the portfolio, with the rest of the world making up the remaining 19%.

While it can invest in companies with as little as an $8.0 billion market cap, the average market cap is $164.52 billion.  

The three top sectors by weight are financial services (22.93%), technology (18.47%), and industrials (12.69%). It’s not unusual for global funds to have financial services account for more than technology. 

Beyond the attractiveness or unattractiveness of GEW (depending on your view of equal-weighted portfolios), it got an interesting start.

Before its September 2025 launch, investors could exchange highly-appreciated securities for GEW shares in what is referred to as a 351 ETF Exchange. 

Section 351 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code allows investors to contribute property, whether it be real estate, stocks, ETFs, or any other qualifying appreciated assets, to a new corporation, deferring capital gains. 

In this case, the new corporation was the ETF. The capital gains are deferred until the investor sells GEW. This move is particularly useful when a portfolio has gotten overweighted in one particular security. 

I mention this wrinkle only because it highlights the creativity of Cambria’s ETF offerings. It’s a bonus to be sure, but GEW won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.