The cheap large-cap growth pick is the S&P 500 list
State Street's S&P 500 Growth fund returned 16.1% through October 1, 2026, $540 ahead of Schwab on $10,000, while the fee gap with Vanguard was $1 a year.
Key takeaways
For a cheap large-cap growth fund, we rank State Street's fund of S&P 500 growth stocks, SPYG, first among the 35 funds that select US stocks for growth.
Cost is 30% of that score, and on cost SPYG ties Schwab's large-cap growth fund, SCHG, and Vanguard's large-cap growth fund, VUG. Holdings, which is where concentration shows up, is 10%. That is why a fund with about 60% of its money in ten stocks, and more than half in technology, can still rank first. The rank is not a forecast of next year.
Through Thursday, October 1, SPYG returned 16.1%. SCHG returned 10.7%. VUG returned 11.3%. Those are total returns, dividends included, from the end of 2025.
SCHG sits 5.4 percentage points behind. On $10,000, that is $540. VUG sits 4.8 percentage points behind, or $480 on that $10,000.
VUG charges 0.03%. The other two charge 0.04%. On the same $10,000, the fee gap is $1 a year.
SPYG tracks the growth stocks inside the S&P 500. SCHG tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index. VUG tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index.
In the latest holdings, 77% of the weight in SPYG and VUG sits in stocks both hold. Nvidia is the largest holding in each, at 15.1% of SPYG and 13.6% of VUG. The funds own overlapping lists, and this year those lists did not return the same.
Vanguard's Russell 1000 Growth fund, VONG, is a wider list, 394 stocks against 151 in SPYG. It charges 0.06% and trailed SPYG by 9.4 percentage points this year, the widest of these gaps.
What a longer hold shows
The three-year and five-year columns are total returns through the same Thursday, dividends included. They are the gain over the whole stretch, not a yearly rate.
Over five years, SCHG finished 1.8 percentage points behind SPYG. Over three years, it finished 11.8 behind. VUG trailed on both longer windows. VONG trailed by more on both, so the wider list has lagged for longer than this year.
If you already hold SCHG, the five-year gap is 1.8 percentage points, not the 5.4 of this year.
Same index, lower fee
Once you know which list you want, the fee is the part you can still choose. Vanguard's own S&P 500 Growth fund, VOOG, charges 0.07%. iShares' S&P 500 Growth fund, IVW, charges 0.18%. SPYG charges 0.04% for that index. From 0.04% to 0.18% is $14 a year on $10,000, paid every year you hold it.
The same split sits on the Russell list. iShares' Russell 1000 Growth fund, IWF, charges 0.18% for the index VONG offers at 0.06%.
If ten stocks is too many
If the pile-up in ten stocks is what you came to avoid, mid-cap growth is a different list. A fund of US mid-size growth stocks, IMCG, charges 0.06%. Its largest holding is 1.6% of the fund, and technology is 27%. It led SPYG by 3.1 percentage points this year and trailed it by 2.4 over the past year.
IMCG led SPYG this year and trailed over 12 months
- SPYG
- IMCG
- This year
- SPYG 16%
- IMCG 19%
- Past year
- SPYG 18%
- IMCG 16%
Invesco's Nasdaq-100 fund, QQQ, holds large Nasdaq-listed companies that are not financials. It does not select stocks for growth.
If the S&P 500 growth list is the one you want, buy SPYG at 0.04%.
ETFs in this story
Frequently asked questions
Which fund is the cheap large-cap growth pick?
State Street's S&P 500 growth fund, SPYG, ranked first among the 35 funds that select US stocks for growth.
How far ahead of Schwab is it this year?
Through October 1, 2026, SPYG returned 16.1%, which put it $540 ahead of SCHG on $10,000.
How big is the fee gap with Vanguard?
VUG charges 0.03% and SPYG and SCHG charge 0.04%, a gap of $1 a year on $10,000.
What does a longer hold show versus Schwab?
Over five years SCHG finished 1.8 percentage points behind SPYG, not the 5.4 points of this year.
