
One of the biggest stories in the market so far this year, if not the biggest, has been the rapid decline of software stocks.
Coming out of the 2022 bear market, software names were among the strongest performers in the entire equity market. From the start of 2023 through the highs of 2025, software stocks, represented by the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (BATS: IGV), surged more than 100%. Many leading individual names didn’t just outperform the benchmark, they doubled or even tripled its return.