One of the biggest leaders that propelled the XLK ETF in the past decade was NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), which gained an incredible 4,780%.

The XLK ETF hit its low point for the decade in 2010 when it dipped to $20.01, but from that point forward the fund traded higher and higher with few interruptions. The XLK hit $50 in 2017 and reached $76.26 in late 2018 before pulling back to $57.57 when many tech companies cut growth and profit forecasts heading into 2019.

XLK In 2020 And Beyond: The ETF was back making new highs by mid-2019, eventually hitting $102.94 in early 2020 prior to the COVID-19 sell-off. The XLK dropped as low as $68.10 in March 2020, but rebounded quickly to its new all-time high of $127.72 in early September.

The tech sector has since cooled off, and the XLK has pulled back to around $115, but investors who bought the fund 10 years ago have still made a killing.

In fact, $1,000 in XLK shares in 2010 would be worth about $6,157 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

Investors who owned stocks in the 2010s generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500's (SPY) total return for the decade was 250.5%. But there’s no question some popular investments did much better than others along the way.

Tech’s Huge Decade: One top performer in the last decade was the SELECT SECTOR S/TECY (XLK).

Tech sector stocks have relentlessly led the market higher since the financial crisis back in 2008. The ETF started out the 2010s trading at around $23, and huge performances from stocks like Apple, Inc. (AAPL), Visa Inc (V), Mastercard Inc (MA) and Broadcom Inc (AVGO), all of which gained more than 1,000% over the past 10 years.