SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust | SPY |



by Brendan McCann

This fund offers a well-diversified, market-cap-weighted portfolio of 500 of the largest US stocks. It accurately represents the large-cap opportunity set while charging rock-bottom fees, a recipe for success over the long run. The fund tracks the flagship S&P 500, which selects 500 of the largest US stocks—roughly 80% of the US equity market—and weights them by market cap. An index committee has discretion over selecting companies that meet certain liquidity and profitability standards. While a committee-based approach may lack clarity, it adds flexibility to reduce unnecessary changes during reconstitution, taming transaction costs compared with more rigid rules-based indexes. The end portfolio is well-diversified and accurately represents the US large-cap opportunity set. This allows the strategy to capitalize on its low fee and closely track the performance of the large-cap market. The bedrock of this strategy is market-cap weighting, which harnesses the market’s collective wisdom on the relative value of each holding with the added benefit of low turnover and associated trading costs. It’s a sensible approach because the market tends to do a good job pricing large-cap stocks. Large, highly traded markets tend to reflect new information quickly and are well suited for indexing. When a few richly valued companies or sectors power most of the market gains, market-cap weighting may expose the strategy to stock- or sector-level concentration risk. As of year-end 2024, the top 10 holdings made up the largest portion of the index (37%) in several decades, and the 34% allocation to technology stocks was the highest since the dot-com bubble. But this is not a fault in design. The S&P 500 simply reflects the market composition. In the long run, its broad diversification, low turnover, and low fee outweigh these risks. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
Pessoas | Above Average |
Parent | Above Average |
Processo | High |