New analysis from trading and investing platform etoro shows that investors who focused on the technology and gaming themes driving long-term market growth achieved significantly higher returns than the Nasdaq-100 over the past decade.

etoro compared the performance of portfolios of large-cap technology stocks, gaming stocks, and banking stocks since their inception just over ten years ago, benchmarked against the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500. *

The technology portfolio returned 1,342% while the gaming portfolio returned 1,252%. Both significantly outperformed the Nasdaq-100, which returned 636% over the same period. The banking portfolio returned 333%, which, though behind the Nasdaq-100, beat the S&P 500’s 326%.

Roberto Gornstein, Investment Portfolio Team Leader at etoro, said: “If we look back over the past 10 years, the themes that have driven market growth have changed shape significantly. Technology has moved from smartphones and cloud software to all things AI.

“Semiconductor stocks like Nvidia, previously best known for powering gaming graphics, are now at the centre of that technological revolution. Meanwhile, gaming itself went from console and PC publishing to an industry where most revenue now comes from mobile.”

The technology and gaming portfolios also outperformed the Nasdaq-100 over one-, three- and five-year periods, while the banking portfolio outperformed the S&P 500 over those same periods. This suggests that performance was not limited to the most recent year and reflects sustained exposure to the underlying forces shaping each industry.

Roberto Gornstein added: “These themes endured, even as the companies and market forces driving them changed, because they were supported by structural changes rather than short-term market excitement. Investors who maintained a long-term view and stayed invested were ultimately rewarded.

“That is one of the attractions of thematic investing: it allows investors to focus on the forces reshaping an industry over time, rather than trying to predict which company or market cycle will lead next.”

etoro’s Smart Portfolios turn 10

The figures come as etoro marks the 10-year anniversary of three of its longest-running Smart Portfolios: BigTech, InTheGame and TheBigBanks. The portfolios track companies exposed to each theme, allowing the analysis to capture the performance of an industry rather than a single stock.

Roberto Gornstein said: “When we created these portfolios, the aim was not to predict which single company would remain on top for 10 years. It was to give retail investors a simple and transparent way to invest in a long-term trend, even as the companies driving it changed. The last decade shows why that matters, market leadership can shift significantly, while the underlying forces shaping an industry can persist for much longer.”

The Smart Portfolio range that BigTech, InTheGame and TheBigBanks helped establish has since grown to more than 130 portfolios, offering retail investors easy access to a broad range of global investment themes. Transparency is central to the experience, with investors able to see the individual holdings within each portfolio, their weighting, price and performance, understand the strategy behind the portfolio and explore the underlying assets, all in a single interface. The portfolios have no management fees, performance fees, or lock-up periods.

Data taken at market close 30/09/2026. Index performance calculated in USD terms. Data from Bloomberg. Past performance is not an indication of future results

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