FTXG vs XLP

FTXGDFirst Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF

XLPAState Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF

In short

FTXG FTXG skips the broad staples grab bag and stays in the grocery aisle: about 30 US food and beverage stocks, picked and weighted by a momentum and profitability screen rather than size alone.

XLP One of the original sector funds, live since December 1998. XLP is the S&P 500's staples aisle: roughly 40 makers of soap, soda, snacks and smokes, cap-weighted, for eight basis points.

Stated mandate

FTXG The fund seeks to track the performance of the Nasdaq US Smart Food & Beverage Index before fees and expenses by substantially replicating that index.

XLP The fund seeks to track, before expenses, the price and yield performance of the Consumer Staples Select Sector Index, representing U.S. consumer staples companies.

Why people hold it

• FTXG A focused food-and-drink sleeve rather than a whole-sector basket: roughly 30 US names tracking the Nasdaq US Smart Food & Beverage Index.ftportfolios.com
• Weighting leans on momentum and profitability, so the biggest packaged-food giant does not automatically claim the biggest slot.ftportfolios.com
• Straightforward plumbing: a 1940 Act fund that substantially replicates its index and pays out quarterly.ftportfolios.com

• XLP 0.08% a year against a peer-group median of 0.40%. In a slow-and-steady sector, that fee gap is one of the few things you actually control.
• Part of the first suite of sector ETFs launched in 1998, and still a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades very actively. Getting in and out is rarely the hard part.ssga.com
• Ties FSTA on fee and undercuts VDC, while holding strictly to S&P 500 members rather than a wider universe. Clean, literal exposure to the index's staples slice.ssga.com
• Among the strongest implementations in the staples cohort: broad mandate, quarterly distributions, no structural quirks buried in the wrapper.

Worth knowing

• FTXG At 0.60% a year it costs more than the typical consumer staples ETF, and well above cap-weighted options like VDC (0.09%) and XLP (0.08%).
• A small fund that trades lightly, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the heavily traded broad-staples funds in the group.
• About 30 stocks in one corner of staples: news at a single company moves this fund more than it would a broad sector basket.

• XLP About 40 names, market-cap weighted with index caps applied for diversification. The biggest retailers and household-product giants still carry outsized weight.spglobal.com
• U.S. only. Foreign staples heavyweights sit outside the mandate; KXI casts a global net, and RSPS spreads weight evenly instead of by size.
• This is one slice of the S&P 500, not a diversified core. Staples run on their own cycle and can drift far from the broad market for long stretches.

Full FTXG profile⁠

Full XLP profile⁠