FTSE, S&P 500 or NASDAQ 100 - which performed better over the last 1 and 5 years - you will be surprised!

and the winner is.... the FTSE RAFI ETF PSRU...

Here is a 5-year chart with some other popular ETFs for comparison...

Let us look at the Year-To-Date (YTD) graph too...

Same here - PSRU 29% vs S&P 9% vs NASDAQ 12% - the large difference was mainly due to the poor USD/GBP exchange rate in 2025, but even over five years, PSRU has beaten the others.

We can see that it was affected far less by Trump's tariffs around March-May 2025 as it does not directly hold USA shares. PSRU thus provides a good hedge against more Trumpisms in the future. Also the USD/GBP exchange rate in 2025 favoured the British £ by at least 6% in the first 9 months of 2025, but 2026/2027 will probably show a stronger dollar meaning holding US stocks will increase in £GBP value over the next 2 years, probably by at least 5-10%.

Holdings

We can compare the top ten holdings...

PSRU pays a dividend of over 4% a year too. It is therefore suitable for GIA accounts (accumulating ETFs are a pain to hold in a GIA account as you have to work out the ERI each year to report it for dividend tax purposes). If you hold less than approx £12k in PSRU it will probably be below the £500 UK annual dividend tax allowance.

Performance

Over the last 3 years however, NASDAQ EQQQ won due to the very bullish Tech boom in 2023/2024 but 2026/2027 is not expected to repeat this performance as Tech stocks are now thought to be very overvalued and AI expectations have waned.

So, PSRU looks to me like a worthy candidate for a large part of my portfolio for 2026/2027 - if not for it's good performance, then just to act as a hedge against US Magnificent 10 stocks and DJT! My only reservation is that the strengthening USD\GBP exchange rate will work against international GBP-based companies for the next two years or so.

I hold PSRU in both my T212 ISA and GIA accounts already (approx £5.3k), but may add more soon given the recent drop in the USA stock market this week!