Does Clean Transport/Smart Mobility (thesis ETFs) actually work?

DEAD

No edge left once tested on a fair footing.

The claim

The Clean Transport/Smart Mobility thesis is worth a dedicated fund — Thematic ETF industry

What we did

Tested against SPY over each fund's own life, net of fee, survivorship-free, 2016–2026 (Sharadar fund data; excess vs SPY is window-matched, so fair).

The result

Result: -3.9 median excess vs SPY %/yr (net of fee)

2 funds, 0% dead, 50% beat SPY

Verdict

Only 50% of these funds beat just buying SPY over their own life; the median trailed by 3.9%/yr. 0% are already dead. The theme was sold hard; the funds trailed the index and many were buried.

What the test did and did not do

survivorship-free universe
net of real costs
point-in-time data
checked for look-ahead
tested out of sample

Almost nobody publishing a backtest says which of these they did. We list the ones we failed as well as the ones we passed.

Tested 2026-06-23. The same treatment, applied to every other system, is on the test bench.

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Written with AI assistance from our own test database. The numbers are computed, not composed.
General market commentary for education, not personalised investment advice. Backtested results are hypothetical. Trading carries a real risk of loss.