These 15 Funds Were the Worst Performing of the Past Decade—Is One in Your Portfolio?

The last decade has seen one of the strongest bull markets in history, in which the S&P500 index has posted a 10 -year return of 182.9% through February 2025. Nevertheless, a selected club of the Exchange-Treded Fund (ETF) does not want to work in destroying billions in a widely growing market and shareholder value.

The biggest losers include special funds that retail investors should mostly escape, but some belong to the categories that many believe. Below, we take you through the list and the fund companies behind them, whose reputation has taken a hit.

Funds lost for shareholders

According to a report by March 2025 Morningstar, 15 funds posted the worst performance through poor performance in the last decade and toxic combinations of investor flow at the last decade (people were putting in money as the market was going in the wrong direction).

Posting the greatest losses, the Proseus Ultrapro Short CUCUCU (SQQ) was a leveraged inverse ETF, aimed at providing three times the daily performance of the NASDAQ-100 daily performance. When nasdaq goes 100 AboveSqqQ goes Below By Three times more, so it should not be surprising that in a decade, according to the tradingview, for the NASDAQ-100, a total 10-year-old returns for 443.2% (for an average annual rate of 18.4%), SQQAq lost more than $ 10 billion to investors.

Other leveraged index funds, such as processes ultra Wicks short-term futures (UVXY), also suffered significant damage.

Thematic funds with concentrated bets were also prominently depicted in the study of Morningstar. Ark Innovation ETF (Arkk) – Flagship of Kathi Wood, actively managed ETF – and Ark Genomic Revolution ETF (Arkg), which focuses on biotech, lost more than $ 12 billion for investors. These funds attracted mass flow after a strong performance in 2020, only to produce the steep decline.

Geographical concentration added another layer of risk. Kraneshares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) and Ishares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) suffered losses from country-specific political and economic problems.

Perhaps the most surprising is that the list has traditional fixed-incredcies funds. These include Templeton Global Bond (TGBAX) and Fidelity Series Long-Term Treasury Bond Index (FTLTX), indicating that even more mainstream bond investment can erase sufficient value, interest rates should be dramatically transferred.

Warning signal for investors

These red flags feature the largest value destroyer of the decade:

• Leviation and reverse risk: His names designed for “Ultra,” “Ultrapro,” “3x,” or “Bear” for refined short -term traders, not for long -term investors. These products reset daily and experience mathematical decay over time, making them unsuitable for purchase-and-catch strategies.
• Hempic bets: Funds focused on narrow areas or subjects can attract investor attention, but often come with high volatility that can burn investors by pursuing performance that enter at the wrong time. These particular funds are usually suitable only as minor positions for investors who fully understand the risks.
• Excessive volatility: The worst performing funds experienced extreme swing, with a decline of over 60% in a year. These funds are designed for professional traders and institutional investors that use them as part of hedging or as part of complex trading strategies.

Bottom line

The largest value in the fund industry provides a valuable case study in the way the destroyer invests. In the last decade, investors have been given better service from the passive index funds such as plain-vanilla categories and the industry’s largest and most established fund managers.