3 ETFs Built for the Slower Summer Trading Season

4 hours ago 4

David Dierking, The Motley Fool

Sun, May 24, 2026 astatine 10:20 AM CDT 5 min read

A batch of investors deliberation that the markets dilatory down during the summer. That's often existent successful presumption of trading volumes, but it doesn't mean that determination aren't gains inactive to beryllium had.

If you look astatine monthly S&P 500 results implicit the past respective decades, immoderate of the weaker returns bash hap during the summertime months (this helped animate the "sell successful May and spell away" trope). Given the humanities inclination toward humble returns during this model and below-average trading volumes, that creates the imaginable for much important swings successful stock prices, should determination beryllium a catalyst to ignite them.

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How to deliberation astir the 2026 summertime trading play

We've seen that implicit the past 2 summers. Last year, the volatility created by the "Liberation Day" tariffs carried into the earlier portion of summer. In 2024, the reverse yen transportation commercialized unwind caused the VIX to spike arsenic precocious arsenic 65 successful August.

With the Fed perchance present being forced to instrumentality a much hawkish stance owed to precocious ostentation and the Iran warfare showing small motion of ending, it's imaginable we could again beryllium entering an uncertain play for equity prices. U.S. stocks person had a beardown 2 months. Investors whitethorn privation to see positioning themselves a small much defensively, fixed the macro backdrop and however acold equity prices person travel already.

Here past are 3 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to see arsenic we caput into the canine days of summer.

iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Factor ETF

One of the easiest ways to support equity vulnerability portion dialing backmost hazard is by investing successful an ETF that focuses connected limiting volatility. The iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility ETF (NYSEMKT: USMV) does precisely this by creating a portfolio of stocks optimized to minimize wide volatility.

You whitethorn look astatine the fund's existent apical holdings, spot Nvidia and Microsoft sitting successful the apical five, and wonderment however successful the satellite these would beryllium included successful a volatility-focused fund. So it's cardinal to recognize the quality betwixt "low volatility" and "minimum volatility."

A low-volatility ETF, specified arsenic the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (NYSEMKT: SPLV), lone includes stocks that show below-average stock terms volatility. A minimum volatility ETF looks to make an wide portfolio with the fewest imaginable volatility characteristics, but it tin usage a wide beingness of stocks to execute it.

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