Megacap growth continues to dominate the U.S. stock market in 2025. Bitcoin has broken into the mainstream through exchange traded funds. Emerging markets trade at deep discounts, offering investors a long-term contrarian story. Apriem Advisors, an independent California wealth manager, is leaning into all three trends with its best ETF picks.
"We've been pretty bullish from a macro standpoint for the last couple of years," said Benjamin Lau, principal and chief investment officer. Lau has been at the firm for nearly 25 years. His prior experience was at Fidelity Investments.
"The economy is noisy; politics has been so noisy," he said. "But when we tied to the fundamentals of companies, bottoms-up, we saw a lot of strength."
Strong revenue growth and stable profit margins have translated into solid earnings-per-share growth in recent years. He calls this operating leverage. That, Lau explained, is what has carried markets forward even as headlines caused volatility in the stock market.
Irvine, Calif.-based Apriem manages $1.5 billion in assets with a focus on intergenerational wealth growth and transfer. About two-thirds of its clients are pre-retirees or retirees. Apriem also runs a group that caters specifically to women. Lau says they are not afraid to lean into areas of growth where they see strong long-term fundamentals.
Go Big In The Stock Market
One of his top ETF picks is Vanguard Mega Cap Growth. The $30 billion fund captures the fastest-growing names within the megacap space. The top three holdings, Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple, represent 39% of the portfolio. Other heavyweights include Amazon, Broadcom, Meta Platforms and Tesla.
Lau is optimistic about growth, especially megacap technology leaders.
"If you're going to invest in growth, it's hard to say that all 500 companies in the S&P 500 offer that growth," he explained. "The bottom 493 are just not going to be the Mag 7."
Valuations remain high, which can create volatility at times, he added. But innovation in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services have staying power. The fund also holds companies such as Salesforce and Adobe, which Lau believes have solid potential in enterprise software and digital media.
MGK holds 69 stocks and is up 16.54% this year. It charges 0.07% in annual fees, making it a low-cost way to own the market's most powerful growth engines.
Jumping On Bitcoin
Lau's second ETF pick is Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust. He views it as a speculative addition to a portfolio. Its allocation in Apriem's accounts has gone from about 2.5% to 4% currently.
"We've roughly doubled in this one since last year," he said. "We don't own any gold in any of our portfolios, but this is our hedge against a weak dollar."
He noted that bitcoin adoption has been tremendous: not just for users but large financial firms, including BlackRock, that have invested heavily in the asset.
BTC was launched mid-last-year and has already amassed $5 billion in assets. It is among the lowest-cost ETFs on the market with an annual expense ratio of just 0.15%. The fund is up 15.45% year to date.
The risks investing in bitcoin remain high. Volatility can be extreme, with a history of drawdowns of 50% or more. Regulation remains in flux and correlations with traditional assets can be unpredictable. Still, Apriem sees merit in a small allocation as a hedge against inflation, currency shifts or policy surprises.
How does bitcoin compare to gold? Lau believes that, short term, gold and bitcoin are very similar. Long term, however, he sees bitcoin having a lot more uses than gold and a potential for adoption outside of the U.S.
"I think we're lucky that here in America, we have a pretty stable currency," said Lau. "Bitcoin adoption needs are even greater in countries that don't have a stable currency. And that's where a lot of practical uses are: outside of the U.S."
Look Beyond The U.S. Stock Market
His third ETF pick is Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets. The fund invests in large-, mid- and small-cap names from more than 20 emerging countries, including China. It excludes South Korea because that market is classified as developed. The fund is market-cap weighted and provides diversification across countries and sectors.
Chinese stocks make up about 30% of the fund's assets. Top holdings include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group. With $131 billion in assets, VWO is one of the largest emerging markets ETFs. It charges an annual fee of just 0.07%.
Morningstar analyst Lan Anh Tran noted that "the annual fees on all the fund's share classes fall in the cheapest quintile of their respective categories, which has helped them outperform its category average from its inception through November 2024." The fund is up 22.71% this year.
As with all emerging markets, risks remain. VWO is more concentrated in the largest economies, which adds political and regulatory risk. But Apriem's Lau views it as a valuable contrarian bet.
"This one is a longer-term contrarian play," he said. "We've always had an emerging markets holding, but we've recently been increasing it."
He sees the global trend shifting, with less reliance on the dollar and more opportunities in growing businesses overseas. Apriem doubled its allocation to VWO from 2.5% to 5% last year.
Lau's Market Outlook
Lau's overall economic outlook remains optimistic. Short-term, he sees possible headwinds forming in the job market. He also believes markets may be overestimating the number of Federal Reserve rate cuts ahead. If the Fed delivers fewer cuts, investors could be caught by surprise.
Even with those risks, he emphasizes that corporate fundamentals remain strong. Earnings-per-share estimates are accelerating and margins remain healthy. Executives are deploying share buybacks to return capital to shareholders. He notes many companies guided conservatively early in the year because of tariff uncertainties, leaving room for positive surprises.
"The real reason why we're so optimistic is, looking at the bottom line numbers, they look really good," he said. "That's tremendous. That's the operating leverage I was talking about."
Benjamin Lau
- Apriem Advisors
- Principal and chief investment officer
- A run by large-cap stocks, cryptocurrency and emerging markets stocks presents investors with ways to make money with ETFs, Lau says.
