ETFs: “Still many gold and silver enthusiasts”

Despite reaching new highs, gold and silver ETCs and mining ETFs remain extremely popular. However, concerns about an AI bubble are leading to profit-taking in tech ETFs.

23 December 2025. FRANKFURT (Deutsche Börse). Purchases continue to dominate ETF trading in the final trading days of 2025. “Precious metals remain the main focus, with silver leading the way,” reports Ivo Orlemann of ICF Bank. “We are seeing a large number of purchases of precious metal ETCs and mining ETFs,” explains Michael Norizin of Lang & Schwarz.

For about a month now, the price of silver has been climbing to new highs almost daily. The price of gold had already reached its last high in October and then weakened. Now, however, there is a new record at $4,492 per troy ounce. Popular products at ICF include classic gold (IE00B579F325) and silver ETCs (JE00B1VS3333, <IE00B43VDT70), triple-leveraged ETCs (IE00B8HGT870, IE00B7XD2195) and silver mining ETFs (IE000UL6CLP7). “Most of the time, it's purchases, but occasionally there are also profit-taking transactions,” observes Orlemann. According to Norizin, Xetra Gold (DE000A0S9GB0) and WisdomTree Core Physical Silver (JE00BQRFDY49) are particularly in demand, but so are the large mining ETFs. 

“Nasdaq ETFs now more likely to be sold”

In the area of equity ETFs, interest in Europe is particularly noticeable, as Frank Mohr of Société Générale observes, specifically in MSCI Europe and Stoxx Europe 600 trackers (IE00B4K48X80). The situation is different for DAX ETFs: although there are purchases and sales, leveraged products are clearly being sold, while ShortDAX index funds are clearly being bought, such as the one from Xtrackers (LU0292106241) – both signs of a negative assessment of the German stock index.

According to Mohr, global ETFs are usually on shopping lists, led by the iShares Core MSCI World (IE00B4L5Y983) and the Vanguard FSTE All World (IE00B3RBWM25). S&P 500 ETFs (IE000XZSV718) also remained in demand. “What is new is that Nasdaq trackers are tending to be sold off,” Mohr notes. The interest in emerging market equities that has been observed for several months now is also continuing. For example, the Amundi MSCI Emerging Markets (LU1681045370) is finding its way into portfolios. The VanEck Morningstar Developed Markets Dividend Leaders (NL0011683594) also remains popular with ICF clients. 

Instead of tech trackers, go for bank trackers

According to Mohr, skepticism toward US tech stocks is also evident in trading in sector ETFs. Although these continued to account for the largest share of turnover, they tended to be on the sell lists. Examples include the SPDR S&P U.S. Technology Select (IE00BWBXM948) and the Amundi MSCI World Information Technology (LU0533033667). At Lang & Schwarz, there is a lot of activity in the iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector (IE00B3WJKG14) in particular.

Also noteworthy: strong inflows into bank ETFs. According to Mohr, investors are keen to invest in the iShares Stoxx Europe 600 Banks (DE000A0F5UJ7) and the Amundi Euro Stoxx Banks (LU1829219390), while the trading-savvy Lang & Schwarz clientele is favoring the WisdomTree Euro Stoxx Banks 3x Daily Leveraged (IE00BLS09N40). No longer in such high demand: defense ETFs. According to Norizin, the favorites of yesteryear are particularly affected by sell-offs: VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5) and WisdomTree Europe Defence (IE0002Y8CX98). Both have lost ground since October, but have recently stabilized.

US government bonds are convincing, cryptocurrencies are not

In the bond ETF sector, money market trackers continue to perform well. However, US government bonds are also extremely popular at present, as Mohr reports—and across a wide range of maturities.

However, crypto ETNs remain “surprisingly quiet,” as traders note. “There's not much going on,” explains Norizin. Orlemann also sees little trading activity. If anything is being traded, it's Bitcoin trackers such as WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin (GB00BJYDH287). Bitcoin currently costs $87,400, around 30 percent less than its all-time high in October.