Investors may look back on 2017 as a year of remarkably low volatility. As the world digested events like Brexit, the leader of the free world’s erratic ways and the emergence of Bitcoin mania, equity markets marched forward unhindered by what was happening around them. The result was a remarkable 86% of ETFs and LICs reporting positive performance in 2017, up from 79% in 2016. The broad Australian market returned a solid but not amazing 11% (including dividends), but the real action was in global markets, with global indexes returning 15% plus.

Below we have listed the performance of all of the ETFs and LICs that we follow at ETF Watch. Only funds which were available on 1 January 2017 have been included, which means the 38 ETFs and LICs launched in the last 12 months are not included below.

Whilst small hedge fund Henry Morgan Limited (HML) was the official performance winner, the fund has been suspended since early June as ASIC questions their reporting of their Net Asset Values (NAV) of their unlisted assets. In second place was Betashares currency hedged geared US equity fund (GGUS), a fund which has benefited from the triple threat of rising US equity prices, rising AUD and its leveraged position. In third position was small LIC Global Masters Fund (GFL), investing primarly in Berkshire Hathaway and seeing a large rise in its premium to NAV over the period.

Beyond the top few, it has been a year for Asian equities, with both ETFs and LICs who focus on Asia filling a number of places on the leaderboard, a stark contrast to last year where Asia performed poorly. Apart from Asia, resources were strong performers. Australian focused share funds generally fell in the middle of the pack, with the rear of the field filled predicably with inverse index funds (those who bet against the market) and some poor performing LICs.

* Income yield has been calculated based on income divided by closing price on 30 December 2017. Total performance has been calculated by simply adding the performance and the yield (ignoring the timing of dividend payments). Whilst the franked component of income payments has been calculated, the income payment has not been grossed up by the franking credits. All performance is based on closing share prices rather than underlying Net Tangible Assets. As usual, past performance should not be used as an indication of possible future returns, and we recommend this data not be used to support investment decisions.

**HML has been suspended from trading since June 2017.