Nuclear as the scarce clean-firm answer to AI power demand: hyperscaler PPAs and restarts repricing the operating fleet, SMR developers racing to first concrete, and a fuel cycle being onshored after decades of Russian dependence. Overlap with power-grid is deliberate — this basket isolates the nuclear-specific leg: merchant fleet operators, reactor OEMs, enrichment and uranium, and instrumentation.
Follow the theme against the wider market.
Series before each basket's creation date are a backtest of the membership as of creation; live tracking starts at creation.
| Return | 1 day | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days | MTD | YTD | 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basket | -0.4% | -6.1% | +3.9% | -7.6% | +4.9% | +1.6% | -7.5% |
| vs S&P 500 | +0.7% | -4.3% | +3.8% | -10.9% | +4.7% | -9.6% | -19.8% |
1y · 2025-10-16 – 2026-10-16 · 252 / 252 sessions
Basket total returns · Annualized using 252 trading sessions · 0% risk-free rate and downside target. As of 2026-10-16 · close.
Sharpe: average daily simple return divided by its sample standard deviation, multiplied by √252. The risk-free rate is assumed to be 0%; this is not a cash-adjusted ratio.
Sortino: average daily simple return divided by downside deviation, multiplied by √252. Downside deviation is the square root of the average squared shortfall below 0%, counting all sessions, including zeros for gains.
Historical volatility: √(252 × average squared daily log return), matching the Vol page’s realized-volatility convention. This differs from the sample standard deviation used in Sharpe.
Each period requires complete history and at least 5 sessions. MTD and YTD follow the calendar; 1y is 252 sessions. Missing data or an undefined ratio displays — with a reason. Short periods can produce unstable ratios; intraday snapshots include a partial session. History before this basket’s creation is backtested. If a new basket has no stored daily return series yet, estimates from its rounded published chart levels are marked ≈.
Current members and the reasoning behind each inclusion. Returns are for individual holdings.
| Why it’s included | Added | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VSTVistra Corp. | Second-largest competitive fleet (Energy Harbor deal) levered to data-center PPAs | -1.4% | -5.9% | +8.2% | -5.4% | 2026-07-21 |
| CEGConstellation Energy | Largest US fleet; the Microsoft Crane restart PPA is the sector's repricing event | -1.3% | -9.0% | +6.5% | -22.8% | 2026-07-21 |
| PEGPublic Service Enterprise Group | The regulated exception: PSEG's merchant generation is essentially the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear fleet | +1.8% | -1.1% | +2.5% | -8.6% | 2026-07-21 |
| GEVGE Vernova | BWRX-300 SMR order book via GE Hitachi on top of the grid-equipment franchise | -0.6% | -8.3% | -2.0% | +41.2% | 2026-07-21 |
Partial price histories: CEG from 2022-01-19, GEV from 2024-03-27.
Equal-weighted; monthly rebalance, buy-and-hold between rebalances; dated membership changes reset the target weights.
Tracked since 2026-07-21. Membership decisions are documented below.
Read the methodology →Basket returns include dividends. “vs S&P 500” compares the basket’s compounded growth with the benchmark’s. Green means positive; red means negative.
Cross-checked against NLR. Daily return correlation: 0.62 across 1182 sessions. operators, OEMs and fuel in one fund; includes foreign listings (Cameco, Kepco) outside our US-only universes
Initial composition: 13 names — merchant fleets (CEG, VST, TLN, plus PEG as the nuclear-concentrated regulated exception), OEM and developers (GEV, BWXT, OKLO, SMR, NNE), fuel cycle (LEU, UEC, UUUU) and instrumentation (MIR). Reference pinned to NLR. Considered and excluded: CCJ and the foreign fuel majors (non-US-domiciled, outside the FW 3000), the private developers everyone actually watches (X-energy, TerraPower, Kairos, Westinghouse), regulated utilities with fleets buried in rate base (D, DUK, SO, ETR — no merchant leverage to nuclear scarcity), and pre-revenue fuel tech (LTBR, ASPI — NNE already carries the speculative leg).