The pricier equal-weight technology fund led the cap-weighted one by 11.6 percentage points

In the year through October 8, 2026, a fund that holds S&P 500 technology companies at equal weight, BRSPT, returned 48.4%, including dividends. AXLK, which tracks the Technology Select Sector Index, returned 36.8%. The gap is 11.6 percentage points.

The Technology Select Sector Index is the technology sector of the S&P 500, weighted so the biggest companies take the most room. AXLK charges 0.08% a year. BRSPT charges 0.4%, five times that fee, and it resets each company's weight every quarter. The two funds hold nearly the same companies.

A fund that holds the S&P 500, ASPY, returned 16.2%. A fund built to own North American software, BIGV, lost 5.2%.

The twelve-month figures below include dividends. The third-quarter column is the change in the share price from the end of June to the end of September, without dividends.

The biggest holdings lagged

From the end of 2025 to June 30, AXLK's share price rose 32.3%. BRSPT's rose 41.7%. ASPY rose 9.5%.

Over those same months, Nvidia's share price rose 7.3% and Apple's rose 6.4%. Microsoft's fell 22.9%.

As of October 8, Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft together were 39.6% of AXLK. BRSPT holds 75 companies and starts each quarter with each one near 1.3% of the fund. A holder had much less of the three that lagged, and much more of the other technology companies in the sector.

Those weights are current, not the weights from January. Microsoft's fall means it was a larger share of AXLK in the first half than it is now. Equal weight still would not have put close to 40% of the fund in those three names. It resets every company to the same size each quarter.

A software fund lost money

BIGV is not the software inside AXLK. AXLK's issuer, as of October 7, put 24% of that fund in software. BIGV holds North American software companies, plus some firms in interactive home entertainment and interactive media. It does not hold Nvidia or Apple.

Palo Alto Networks, the largest holding in BIGV, was 9.4% of that fund and 1.8% of AXLK. Palantir was 9.3% of BIGV and 2.5% of AXLK.

From the end of 2025 to June 30, BIGV's share price fell 14.3%. From late January to an April low, an S&P 500 index of software and services stocks lost more than 26%, on fears that companies would use AI to build software themselves, more cheaply.

Rebecca Wettemann, chief executive of the research firm Valoir, said that shift did not happen anywhere near as fast as some of the people on Wall Street thought. Vendors, she said, were reporting customer uptake as AI adoption moved beyond the experimental stage.

From the end of June to the end of September, BIGV's share price rose 17.5%. Microsoft rose 37.5%. On July 29, Microsoft said it expected to keep generating cash through the fiscal year that had just started.

The quarter's rise still left BIGV down for the twelve months.

Between BRSPT and AXLK, equal weight held far less of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft and far more of the other companies in the sector. The higher fee did not close that gap.