Making its debut on 04/19/2006, smart beta exchange traded fund First Trust NASDAQ-100 Select Equal Weight ETF (QQEW) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $1.71 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. QQEW seeks to match the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index before fees and expenses.
The Nasdaq-100 Select Equal Weight Index is designed to track the performance of the 50 companies from the Nasdaq-100 Index with the highest combined Blended Quality and Growth scores.
Cost & Other Expenses
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.55% for QQEW, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.31%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 58.7% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.
Taking into account individual holdings, Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (STX) accounts for about 2.31% of the fund's total assets, followed by Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (MPWR) and Arm Holdings Plc (ARM).
QQEW's top 10 holdings account for about 21.66% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, QQEW return is roughly 1.59%, and is up about 10.1% in the last one year (as of 05/18/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $123.05 and $146.24.
QQEW has a beta of 1.05 and standard deviation of 17.65% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 52 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
First Trust NASDAQ-100 Select Equal Weight ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF Shares (VUG) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ) tracks NASDAQ-100 Index. Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF Shares has $225.67 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $465.51 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.03% and QQQ changes 0.18%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Growth
Bottom Line
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First Trust NASDAQ-100 Select Equal Weight ETF (QQEW): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).