QQQ vs SPY
QQQ and SPY overlap by 54.9% of their weight, in the 86 companies both hold, by both issuer files of 2026-10-15.
Invesco QQQ Trust against SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
The short answer
SPY contains 93.0% of QQQ by weight and QQQ contains 54.9% of SPY. Trading in both is deep enough that the choice for a trader is about the index, and the index difference is the 418 companies listed outside the Nasdaq.
The two funds
- Last close, 2026-10-15
- $728.00 -0.13%
- Cost per year
- 0.18%
- Return, 1 year
- 21.1%higher
- Return, 3 years
- 108.8%higher
- Worst fall, 3 years
- -21.3%
- Volatility
- 19.5%
- Positions
- 101
- Top 10 weight
- 46.9%
- Last close, 2026-10-15
- $771.79 +0.28%
- Cost per year
- 0.09%cheaper
- Return, 1 year
- 17.4%
- Return, 3 years
- 90.0%
- Worst fall, 3 years
- -16.9%shallower
- Volatility
- 14.2%calmer
- Positions
- 504
- Top 10 weight
- 38.6%
QQQ and SPY, prices through 2026-10-16. How the badges are decided.
Holdings overlap
86 companies sit in both funds. That is 93.0% of QQQ's own weight and 54.9% of SPY's.
Side by side
Issuer files, QQQ 15 Oct 2026, SPY 15 Oct 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 86 companies in both and an overlap of 54.9% of weight, with the largest shared names, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, weighing more in QQQ than in SPY.
Where the 45.1% that is not shared comes from
Only 7.0% of QQQ's weight sits outside SPY, in 15 companies that are mostly foreign listings on the Nasdaq such as Shopify, Arm, MercadoLibre and PDD. The other direction is where the difference lives: 418 companies, 45.1% 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 46.9% of its weight in ten companies against 38.6% for SPY, QQQ returned 108.8% over three years against 90.0%, fell -21.3% at its worst against -16.9%, and carried 19.5% volatility against 14.2%. SPY yields 0.99% against 0.42% for QQQ.
Holding both
Weekly returns correlated at 0.94 over three years and 0.94 over five, so the pair moves as one market most weeks. What a second ticker changes is weight, not membership: the same 86 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 | 54.9% |
| Share of QQQ held in common with SPY | 93.0% |
| Share of SPY held in common with QQQ | 54.9% |
| Companies in both | 86 |
| Positions in QQQ / SPY | 101 / 504 |
QQQ holdings as published 2026-10-15, SPY 2026-10-15.
Largest positions held by both
| Rank | Company | In QQQ | In SPY | Weight in each | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVDA Nvidia | 8.06% | 7.88% | 7.88% | |
| 2 | AAPL Apple | 7.69% | 7.48% | 7.48% | |
| 3 | MSFT Microsoft | 6.17% | 6.0% | 6.0% | |
| 4 | AMZN Amazon | 4.23% | 3.75% | 3.75% | |
| 5 | GOOGL Alphabet Class A | 3.16% | 3.07% | 3.07% | |
| 6 | GOOG Alphabet Class C | 2.94% | 2.46% | 2.46% | |
| 7 | AVGO Broadcom | 2.52% | 2.45% | 2.45% | |
| 8 | META Meta Platforms | 3.37% | 2.43% | 2.43% | |
| 9 | MU Micron Technology | 4.47% | 1.58% | 1.58% | |
| 10 | TSLA Tesla | 2.93% | 1.53% | 1.53% | |
| 11 | AMD Advanced Micro Devices | 3.9% | 1.38% | 1.38% | |
| 12 | WMT Walmart | 2.44% | 0.79% | 0.79% | |
| 13 | INTC Intel | 2.13% | 0.71% | 0.71% | |
| 14 | PLTR Palantir Technologies | 1.96% | 0.69% | 0.69% | |
| 15 | COST Costco | 1.84% | 0.65% | 0.65% |
Held by only one of them
| In QQQ only | Weight | In SPY only | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPCX Space Exploration Technologies Corp | 2.71% | LLY Eli Lilly | 1.5% |
| SHOP Shopify | 0.92% | BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway | 1.47% |
| ASML ASML | 0.66% | JPM JPMorgan Chase | 1.34% |
| ARM ARM Holdings PLC | 0.45% | XOM ExxonMobil | 1.08% |
| MELI MercadoLibre | 0.4% | V Visa | 1.02% |
| MSTR Strategy | 0.23% | JNJ Johnson & Johnson | 0.91% |
| PDD PDD Holdings Inc | 0.23% | ABBV AbbVie | 0.75% |
| ALAB Astera Labs | 0.22% | MA Mastercard | 0.75% |
| CCEP Coca-Cola Europacific Partners | 0.2% | CVX Chevron | 0.65% |
| NBIS Nebius Group NV | 0.19% | PG Procter & Gamble | 0.55% |
Covariance and correlation
Covariance, annualised (%2)
| QQQ | SPY | |
|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 380 | 261.8 |
| SPY | 261.8 | 202 |
Percent squared per year, three years of weekly returns
Correlation, 3 years
| QQQ | SPY | |
|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 1.00 | 0.94usually in step |
| SPY | 0.94usually in step | 1.00 |
Weekly total returns, what the bands mean
Check it: 261.8 divided by (19.5 × 14.2) 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% | 0.99% |
| Total return, 1 year | 21.1% | 17.4% |
| Total return, 3 years cumulative | 108.8% | 90.0% |
| Total return, 5 years cumulative | 100.5% | 82.1% |
| Volatility, annualised on 3 years of weekly returns | 19.5% | 14.2% |
| Worst fall in 3 years, peak to trough, weekly closes | -21.3% | -16.9% |
| Beta against the S&P 500 | 1.29 | 1.0 |
| Positions held | 101 | 504 |
| Weight in the ten largest positions | 46.9% | 38.6% |
| Weight in the single largest position | 8.1% | 7.9% |
| Assets | $498.9B | $809.2B |
Prices through 2026-10-16.
Year by year
| Year | QQQ | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 18.9% | 14.1% |
| 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 | 0.92 |
| 3 years | 0.94 |
| 5 years | 0.94 |
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
Cite this page
TickerInside, QQQ vs SPY, holdings files of 2026-10-15 and 2026-10-15, https://tickerinside.com/compare/qqq-vs-spy/, CC BY 4.0
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