Top 10 most-bought ETFs: October 2026
Investor appetite for US and tech exposure remains strong.
3rd November 2026 11:45
by Dave Baxter from interactive investor
Exchange-traded fund (ETF) buyers stuck to their guns in October, backing the same mix of equity trackers, tech, precious metals and cash as the previous month.
The Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VALL), which stormed to the top of the table in September following its August launch, holds the top spot for another month.
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The fund undercuts other FTSE All-World trackers thanks to its 0.07% fee. The index that the fund tracks looks to cover “large, mid and small-cap stocks of companies globally”, according to its literature, causing some potential concerns that it might be overly exposed to small-cap shares.
However, the performance of its underlying index is almost identical to that of the FTSE All-World.
While some investors might be tempted to switch from FTSE All-World trackers into VALL, the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF GBP (LSE:VWRL) does remain incredibly popular among ii customers.
Our data, which excludes regular investment plans, shows that the ETF’s accumulation share class remained in second place last month, with its distribution share class moving up by one place to seventh.
Investors also continue to favour passive US exposure, with the accumulation and distribution share classes of the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VUAG) holding on to the fourth and sixth spot in the table.
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Beyond that, ETF buyers continue to pile into the tech sector in an even more granular manner, and to bet on the artificial intelligence (AI) trade.
The Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF GBP (LSE:EQQQ) remains in the 10th spot, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF GBP (LSE:SMGB) moves up to eighth.
October was not a pretty month for the tech sector, with a sell-off washing through both US and Asian markets as investors worried about the sustainability of AI financing and Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) suffered its biggest one-day share price fall on the back of a trading update.
It seems therefore that some are attempting to buy in on weakness, or at least ignoring the pain in markets.
The VanEck fund, which has big weightings to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:TSM), NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU), lost around 16.5% in October alone.
Meanwhile, the NASDAQ tracker was down by around 7.5%.
Precious metals
A year ago we might have accused those investors piling into gold and silver ETFs of chasing performance.
However, they have stuck with both the iShares Physical Gold ETC GBP (LSE:SGLN) and the iShares Physical Silver ETC GBP (LSE:SSLN) in what have been more trying times.
Gold and silver have struggled in recent times, with the former offering little in the way of a safe haven, while bonds and tech have sold off.
The gold ETC lost around 7% in October, with the silver fund down by a more painful 18.2%.
The silver fund is off by 30% over six months, and as the table shows, that appears to have wiped out the gains built up in late 2025.
Some investors have meanwhile played it safe, with the cash-like Amundi Smart Overnight Ret GBP H ETF Acc (LSE:CSH2) still in the top 10.
Top 10 most-popular ETFs in October 2026
| Ranking | Exchange-traded fund | Change from September | One-year total return (%) to 31 October 2026 | Three-year total return (%) |
| 1 | Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VALL) | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| 2 | Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VWRP) | Unchanged | 10.1 | 65.2 |
| 3 | iShares Physical Gold ETC GBP (LSE:SGLN) | Unchanged | -4.4 | 76.9 |
| 4 | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VUAG) | Unchanged | 9.7 | 68.9 |
| 5 | iShares Physical Silver ETC GBP (LSE:SSLN) | Unchanged | 0.2 | 94.4 |
| 6 | Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF GBP (LSE:VUSA) | Unchanged | 9.7 | 68.9 |
| 7 | Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF GBP (LSE:VWRL) | Up 1 | 10.1 | 65.2 |
| 8 | VanEck Semiconductor ETF GBP (LSE:SMGB) | Up 1 | 52.6 | 235.1 |
| 9 | Amundi Smart Overnight Ret GBP H ETF Acc (LSE:CSH2) | Down 2 | 2.5 | 3.1 |
| 10 | Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF GBP (LSE:EQQQ) | Unchanged | 7.9 | 80.2 |
Source: FE/Amundi site (to 30/10/26 for Amundi Smart Overnight Return). Top 10 is based on the number of buys in October. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.
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