QQQ vs SPY
Invesco QQQ Trust against SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
The short answer
SPY contains 95.1% of QQQ by weight and QQQ contains 54.1% of SPY. Trading in both is deep enough that the choice for a trader is about the index, and the index difference is the 417 companies listed outside the Nasdaq.
The two funds
- Last close, 2026-09-04
- $718.96 +0.18%
- Cost per year
- 0.18%
- Return, 1 year
- 25.4%higher
- Return, 3 years
- 96.3%higher
- Worst fall, 3 years
- -21.3%
- Volatility
- 19.5%
- Positions
- 101
- Top 10 weight
- 46.8%
- Last close, 2026-09-04
- $770.19 -0.39%
- Cost per year
- 0.09%cheaper
- Return, 1 year
- 20.3%
- Return, 3 years
- 79.4%
- Worst fall, 3 years
- -16.9%shallower
- Volatility
- 14.4%calmer
- Positions
- 504
- Top 10 weight
- 38.1%
QQQ and SPY, prices through 2026-09-04. How the badges are decided.
Holdings overlap
87 companies sit in both funds. That is 95.1% of QQQ's own weight and 54.1% of SPY's.
Side by side
Issuer files, QQQ 5 Sep 2026, SPY 3 Sep 2026
What the numbers say
The two most traded funds are not two versions of one index
SPY holds the S&P 500, 504 positions chosen by a committee across every exchange. QQQ holds the hundred largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq, 101 positions chosen by listing venue. That produces 87 companies in both and an overlap of 54.0% of weight, with the largest shared names, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, weighing more in QQQ than in SPY.
Where the 46.0% that is not shared comes from
Only 4.9% of QQQ's weight sits outside SPY, in 14 companies that are mostly foreign listings on the Nasdaq such as Shopify, Arm, MercadoLibre and PDD. The other direction is where the difference lives: 417 companies, 45.9% of SPY, are in the S&P 500 and not in QQQ. JPMorgan, Berkshire Hathaway, Eli Lilly, Exxon, Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Mastercard head that list, and none of them is listed on the Nasdaq.
Cost, and what the concentration did
QQQ charges 0.18% a year and SPY 0.09%, so QQQ costs $9 more per $10,000 held. With 46.8% of its weight in ten companies against 38.1% for SPY, QQQ returned 96.3% over three years against 79.4%, fell -21.3% at its worst against -16.9%, and carried 19.5% volatility against 14.4%. SPY yields 0.98% against 0.42% for QQQ.
Holding both
Weekly returns correlated at 0.95 over three years and 0.95 over five, so the pair moves as one market most weeks. What a second ticker changes is weight, not membership: the same 87 companies get counted twice, and the rest of the S&P 500 is diluted rather than removed.
Where they hold the same companies
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Overlap by weight | 54.0% |
| Share of QQQ held in common with SPY | 95.1% |
| Share of SPY held in common with QQQ | 54.1% |
| Companies in both | 87 |
| Positions in QQQ / SPY | 101 / 504 |
QQQ holdings as published 2026-09-05, SPY 2026-09-03.
Largest positions held by both
| Rank | Company | In QQQ | In SPY | Weight in each | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVDA NVIDIA Corp | 8.85% | 8.29% | 8.29% | |
| 2 | AAPL Apple Inc | 7.46% | 7.22% | 7.22% | |
| 3 | MSFT Microsoft Corp | 5.91% | 5.68% | 5.68% | |
| 4 | AMZN Amazon.com Inc | 4.42% | 3.8% | 3.8% | |
| 5 | GOOGL Alphabet Inc | 3.13% | 3.01% | 3.01% | |
| 6 | AVGO Broadcom Inc | 2.69% | 2.53% | 2.53% | |
| 7 | GOOG Alphabet Inc | 2.91% | 2.4% | 2.4% | |
| 8 | META Meta Platforms Inc | 2.9% | 2.01% | 2.01% | |
| 9 | MU Micron Technology Inc | 5.03% | 1.62% | 1.62% | |
| 10 | TSLA Tesla Inc | 2.81% | 1.59% | 1.59% | |
| 11 | AMD Advanced Micro Devices Inc | 3.41% | 1.11% | 1.11% | |
| 12 | WMT Walmart Inc | 2.3% | 0.71% | 0.71% | |
| 13 | INTC Intel Corp | 2.11% | 0.68% | 0.68% | |
| 14 | CSCO Cisco Systems Inc | 1.89% | 0.64% | 0.64% | |
| 15 | PLTR Palantir Technologies Inc | 1.75% | 0.63% | 0.63% |
Held by only one of them
| In QQQ only | Weight | In SPY only | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPCX Space Exploration Technologies Corp | 1.24% | JPM JPMorgan Chase + Co | 1.45% |
| SHOP Shopify Inc | 0.78% | BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc | 1.4% |
| ARM ARM Holdings PLC | 0.47% | LLY Eli Lilly + Co | 1.37% |
| MELI MercadoLibre Inc | 0.44% | XOM Exxonmobil Holdings Corp | 1.01% |
| PDD PDD Holdings Inc | 0.24% | JNJ Johnson + Johnson | 1.0% |
| ALAB Astera Labs Inc | 0.23% | V Visa Inc Class A Shares | 0.94% |
| NBIS Nebius Group NV | 0.22% | MA Mastercard Inc | 0.71% |
| MSTR Strategy Inc | 0.21% | ABBV Abbvie Inc | 0.69% |
| CCEP Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC | 0.21% | BAC Bank of America Corp | 0.61% |
| FER Ferrovial NV | 0.18% | CVX Chevron Corp | 0.59% |
Covariance and correlation
Covariance, annualised (%2)
| QQQ | SPY | |
|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 380 | 267.0 |
| SPY | 267.0 | 207 |
Percent squared per year, three years of weekly returns
Correlation, 3 years
| QQQ | SPY | |
|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 1.00 | 0.95almost always in step |
| SPY | 0.95almost always in step | 1.00 |
Weekly total returns, what the bands mean
Check it: 267.0 divided by (19.5 × 14.4) is 0.95, the correlation in the second matrix.
One year, side by side
Cost, returns and risk
| Measure | QQQ | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Expense ratio | 0.18% | 0.09% |
| Dividend yield | 0.42% | 0.98% |
| Total return, 1 year | 25.4% | 20.3% |
| Total return, 3 years cumulative | 96.3% | 79.4% |
| Total return, 5 years cumulative | 96.7% | 85.0% |
| Volatility, annualised on 3 years of weekly returns | 19.5% | 14.4% |
| Worst fall in 3 years, peak to trough, weekly closes | -21.3% | -16.9% |
| Beta against the S&P 500 | 1.28 | 1.0 |
| Positions held | 101 | 504 |
| Weight in the ten largest positions | 46.8% | 38.1% |
| Weight in the single largest position | 8.9% | 8.3% |
| Assets | $489.0B | $811.9B |
Prices through 2026-09-04.
Year by year
| Year | QQQ | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 17.3% | 13.5% |
| 2025 | 20.8% | 17.7% |
| 2024 | 25.6% | 24.9% |
| 2023 | 54.9% | 26.2% |
| 2022 | -32.6% | -18.2% |
Do they move together
| Window | Correlation of weekly returns |
|---|---|
| 1 year | 0.94 |
| 3 years | 0.95 |
| 5 years | 0.95 |
Where to go next
- QQQ, the full page: every holding, and what else it duplicates
- SPY, the full page
- VIG vs VYM
- VOO vs VUG
- VT vs VTI
- Run the x-ray on your whole portfolio, this pair included
- Check any other pair in the overlap calculator
How these numbers are produced · Ask the same questions from your assistant
