The NASDAQ-100 is one of the most widely followed U.S. benchmarks and thanks to the low-cost, highly liquid PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ), the NASDAQ-100 is also easily accessible for investors of all stripes.
Home to $40.2 billion in assets under management, QQQ is the sixth-largest U.S. ETF by assets. The ETF’s popularity is, in part, explained by its status as one of the best avenues accessing high-flying, venerable technology and Internet names such as Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL), Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG), Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB), Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN) and Elon Musk’s Tesla (NasdaqGS: TSLA). [Check Your ETF’s Apple Weight]
Investors looking for a more tactical approach to the NASDAQ-100 have options, including the First Trust Nasdaq-100 Tech Index (NasdaqGM: QTEC). Although QTEC “holds just 41 stocks, it manages to capture a broad swath of the sector, from Apple to Chinese search engine Baidu (NasdaqGS: BIDU) to Cerner (NasdaqGS: CERN), a health care information-technology firm,” reports Kaitlin Pitsker for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
Due to its emphasis on the NASDAQ-100’s technology names, the $266.1 million QTEC excludes the consumer discretionary and health care sectors, two group that have progressively become larger parts of the NASDAQ-100 and QQQ in recent years. Those sectors currently combine for nearly a third of QQQ’s weight. [NASDAQ ETFs Take Charge]
By excluding discretionary stocks, QTEC features no exposure to Amazon, Tesla or Netflix (NasdaqGS: NFLX). However, the ETF ‘s 14.8% weight to Internet names means Baidu, Google and Facebook are part of its lineup. QTEC’s 41 holdings sport weights ranging from 2.31% to 2.64%.