FXL vs XLK: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund

FXLCNYSE Arca

State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF

XLKANYSE Arca

Overlap

25.9%by weight

Expense ratio

XLK −0.52pt a year

FXL0.60%XLK0.08%

Avg volume · 30D

XLK 63.7×the volume

FXL130KXLK8.28M

10Y return · a year

XLK +4.0pt

FXL+19.7%XLK+23.7%

FXL vs XLK Performance

Oct 29, 2021 – Oct 30, 2026

+62.6%FXL+130.6%XLK

Expense ratio: FXL 0.60%; XLK 0.08%, better
Fund size: FXL $2.68B; XLK $125B
1Y total return: FXL +21.6%, better; XLK +20.0%
Yield (12M): FXL 0.00%; XLK 0.47%, better
Holdings: FXL 111; XLK 78
Avg volume (30D): FXL 130K sh; XLK 8.28M sh, better
NAV per share: FXL $213.51; XLK $188.72
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for FXL, XLK, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	FXL	XLK
Cost30% weight	D31	A98Higher
Mission25% weight	Not scored	A76
Risk15% weight	B56	B61Higher
Tradability15% weight	B63	A98Higher
Holdings10% weight	A87Higher	C41
Durability5% weight	B59	A82Higher

Rank among Technology (Broad) funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. FXL and XLK are both graded against the same 23 Technology (Broad) funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

Technology (Broad)⁠

Category · 23 funds

See all 23 ›

XLK ranks 1st and FXL 15th of 23 funds in the Technology (Broad) Category.

Rank 1AXLKState Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETFScore 82
Rank 2AFTECFidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETFScore 78
Rank 14CIGViShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETFScore 53
Rank 15CFXLFirst Trust Technology AlphaDEX FundScore 51
Rank 16CPTFInvesco Dorsey Wright Technology Momentum ETFScore 40

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

FXLCFirst Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund

XLKAState Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF

In short

FXL A 2007-vintage tech fund that skips the cap-weighted default. Roughly 100 names selected and weighted by the rules of the StrataQuant Technology Index: smart beta before the label caught on.

XLK A 1998 original: XLK owns the technology slice of the S&P 500, about 70 names, for eight basis points. Big, heavily traded, and top-heavy by design, with quarterly caps the only brake on the giants at the top.

Stated mandate

FXL Seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield, before fees and expenses, of the StrataQuant® Technology equity index.

XLK The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Technology Select Sector Index before expenses.

Why people hold it

FXL Running since 2007 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, it is a long-tenured rules-based take on the tech sector, not a recent launch chasing a theme.
Roughly 100 tech names in one wrapper, chosen by the StrataQuant Technology Index's published rules rather than by a manager's judgment.
The 0.60% expense ratio sits below the median for its peer group, and it is among the easier funds in that group to trade.
Stands in the upper tier of a large field of active and rules-driven US equity funds.

XLK Costs 0.08% a year against a roughly 0.40% median for broad tech funds, tying FTEC as the cheapest of the category's top-rated names and undercutting VGT's 0.09%.
One of the largest and most actively traded funds in the tech aisle, so entering or exiting rarely means fighting the order book.
Running since December 1998 and dead simple: the tech sector of the S&P 500, spanning software, semiconductors, hardware, communications equipment and IT services. Pays quarterly.ssga.com

Worth knowing

FXL At 0.60%, it costs several times what top-ranked core peers charge (DFAU at 0.12%, FELC at 0.18%). The screen carries that price gap.
One sector, about 100 stocks. Concentration like that moves in bigger steps than a broad-market fund, up and down.
Income is a side effect here: distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly or quarterly.

XLK Top-heavy by construction. About 70 stocks, and the index only trims its biggest weights at quarterly rebalances to stay inside fund diversification limits.spglobal.com
The universe is S&P 500 tech only. Smaller tech companies outside the big index are out, and the Select Sector funds split the S&P 500 up, so some familiar names sit in other sector funds.ssga.com
It is one sector with no ballast from the rest of the market, so a tech drawdown lands here in full.

Full FXL profile⁠

Full XLK profile⁠

FXL vs XLK Holdings

How FXL and XLK differ

Overlap by weight

25.9%

Shared holdings make up 85.0% of XLK and 43.5% of FXL.

Level by level

Holdings48 in both25.9%
Sector6 Sectors90.3%
Countryby domicile99.4%
Asset classEquity100%

Sector

Sector weights in FXL and XLK, widest gap first
Sector	More in FXLMore in XLK	FXL	XLK
Technology	XLK +9.6 points	90.3%	99.9%
Industrials	FXL +4.0 points	4.0%	0.0%
Communication	FXL +2.9 points	2.9%	0.0%
Financials	FXL +2.0 points	2.0%	0.0%
Consumer Discretionary	FXL +0.8 points	0.8%	0.0%
Energy	XLK +0.1 points	0.0%	0.1%

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in FXL and XLK, widest gap first
Country	More in FXLMore in XLK	FXL	XLK
United States	FXL +0.4 points	99.8%	99.4%
China	XLK +0.4 points	0.0%	0.4%
Mexico	XLK +0.2 points	0.0%	0.2%
Australia	FXL +0.2 points	0.2%	0.0%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

FXL17.5%
XLK64.6%

Securities held

FXL110
XLK76

Asset class

FXL: Equity
XLK: Equity

Holdings

Only in FXL62
In both48
Only in XLK28

Only in FXL

62 securities, 56.3% of FXL by weight

EPAM Systems, Inc.2.03%
NIQ Global Intelligence Plc1.83%
Mobility Global Inc.1.73%
RingCentral, Inc. (Class A)1.71%
Rubrik, Inc. (Class A)1.70%
Atlassian Corporation (Class A)1.68%
SentinelOne, Inc. (Class A)1.66%
Zoom Communications, Inc. (Class A)1.65%
Leidos Holdings, Inc.1.47%
Snowflake Inc. (Class A)1.41%
KBR, Inc.1.38%
Amdocs Limited1.38%
Universal Display Corporation1.37%
People Inc.1.33%
Elastic N.V.1.33%
MongoDB, Inc.1.27%
Cloudflare, Inc. (Class A)1.27%
Dynatrace, Inc.1.25%
Maplebear Inc. (Instacart)1.23%
Sanmina Corporation1.21%
DocuSign, Inc.1.15%
Cirrus Logic, Inc.1.15%
Science Applications International Corporation1.12%
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Class A)1.06%
Samsara Inc. (Class A)1.04%
Toast, Inc. (Class A)1.03%
Ingram Micro Holding Corporation1.00%
Semtech Corporation0.90%
Sitime Corporation0.86%
Manhattan Associates, Inc.0.78%
Parsons Corporation0.78%
Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.0.77%
Alphabet Inc. (Class A)0.77%
Zscaler, Inc.0.75%
FormFactor, Inc.0.74%
Amkor Technology, Inc.0.71%
Astera Labs, Inc.0.68%
UiPath, Inc. (Class A)0.67%
AppFolio, Inc. (Class A)0.67%
Dolby Laboratories, Inc.0.66%
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc.0.65%
TTM Technologies, Inc.0.64%
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc.0.63%
DoorDash, Inc. (Class A)0.61%
Nutanix, Inc. (Class A)0.60%
Arrow Electronics, Inc.0.58%
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.0.55%
MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.0.52%
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd0.49%
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation0.46%

Only in XLK

28 securities, 14.9% of XLK by weight

Intel Corp2.68%
Cisco Systems Inc2.51%
Oracle Corp1.42%
Arista Networks Inc1.13%
Seagate Technology Holdings0.93%
Accenture PLC Class A0.89%
Cadence Design Sys Inc0.55%
Synopsys Inc0.55%
Lumentum Holdings Inc0.48%
Motorola Solutions Inc0.48%
Nxp Semiconductors NV0.39%
Te Connectivity PLC0.38%
Keysight Technologies In0.33%
Autodesk Inc0.30%
Ciena Corp0.29%
Flex Ltd0.20%
Teledyne Technologies Inc0.18%
On Semiconductor0.17%
Hp Inc0.17%
Qnity Electronics Inc0.15%
Verisign Inc0.15%
F5 Inc0.12%
First Solar Inc0.11%
Zebra Technologies Corp Class A0.10%
Fair Isaac Corp0.09%
Trimble Inc0.09%
Tyler Technologies Inc0.08%
Xak Technology DEC26<0.01%

Weight gaps

All 48 Holdings in both funds, largest gap first.

Holding weights in FXL and XLK, widest gap first
Holding	More in FXLMore in XLK	FXL	XLK
NVIDIA CorporationNVDA	XLK +13.86 points	1.12%	14.98%
Apple Inc.AAPL	XLK +13.46 points	1.30%	14.76%
Microsoft CorporationMSFT	XLK +10.45 points	0.96%	11.41%
Broadcom Inc.AVGO	XLK +4.18 points	0.58%	4.76%
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.AMD	XLK +3.56 points	1.29%	4.85%
Micron Technology, Inc.MU	XLK +3.02 points	1.04%	4.06%
Applied Materials, Inc.AMAT	XLK +1.72 points	0.24%	1.96%
PTC Inc.PTC	FXL +1.63 points	1.75%	0.12%
Cognizant Technology Solutions CorporationCTSH	FXL +1.61 points	1.78%	0.17%
Palantir Technologies Inc. (Class A)PLTR	XLK +1.42 points	1.23%	2.65%
Roper Technologies, Inc.ROP	FXL +1.41 points	1.67%	0.26%
Lam Research CorporationLRCX	XLK +1.41 points	0.46%	1.87%
Everpure, Inc. (Class A)P	FXL +1.25 points	1.52%	0.27%
NetApp, Inc.NTAP	FXL +1.24 points	1.49%	0.25%
Gen Digital Inc.GEN	FXL +1.15 points	1.24%	0.09%
Super Micro Computer, Inc.SMCI	FXL +1.15 points	1.26%	0.11%
International Business Machines CorporationIBM	XLK +1.06 points	0.37%	1.43%
KLA CorporationKLAC	XLK +1.03 points	0.25%	1.28%
Twilio Inc. (Class A)TWLO	FXL +0.95 points	1.10%	0.15%
QUALCOMM IncorporatedQCOM	XLK +0.88 points	0.28%	1.16%
Workday, Inc. (Class A)WDAY	FXL +0.75 points	0.98%	0.23%
Jabil Inc.JBL	FXL +0.71 points	0.89%	0.18%
GoDaddy Inc. (Class A)GDDY	FXL +0.69 points	0.77%	0.08%
Fortinet, Inc.FTNT	FXL +0.69 points	1.19%	0.50%
Texas Instruments IncorporatedTXN	XLK +0.66 points	1.01%	1.67%
Intuit Inc.INTU	FXL +0.63 points	1.16%	0.53%
Datadog, Inc. (Class A)DDOG	FXL +0.56 points	1.08%	0.52%
Sandisk CorporationSNDK	XLK +0.52 points	0.62%	1.14%
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.MPWR	FXL +0.50 points	0.85%	0.35%
Salesforce, Inc.CRM	XLK +0.48 points	0.63%	1.11%
Adobe IncorporatedADBE	FXL +0.40 points	0.98%	0.58%
Dell Technologies Inc. (Class C)DELL	FXL +0.40 points	1.24%	0.84%
Palo Alto Networks, Inc.PANW	XLK +0.38 points	1.44%	1.82%
Teradyne, Inc.TER	FXL +0.37 points	0.64%	0.27%
Microchip Technology IncorporatedMCHP	FXL +0.36 points	0.62%	0.26%
Corning IncorporatedGLW	XLK +0.35 points	0.25%	0.60%
Gartner, Inc.IT	FXL +0.30 points	0.38%	0.08%
CDW CorporationCDW	FXL +0.26 points	0.38%	0.12%
Skyworks Solutions, Inc.SWKS	FXL +0.20 points	0.32%	0.12%
Akamai Technologies, Inc.AKAM	FXL +0.19 points	0.27%	0.08%
Marvell Technology, Inc.MRVL	XLK +0.19 points	0.93%	1.12%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CompanyHPE	XLK +0.19 points	0.27%	0.46%
Coherent Corp.COHR	FXL +0.19 points	0.46%	0.27%
ServiceNow, Inc.NOW	XLK +0.18 points	0.49%	0.67%
Analog Devices, Inc.ADI	FXL +0.08 points	1.32%	1.24%
Western Digital CorporationWDC	XLK +0.08 points	0.76%	0.84%
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (Class A)CRWD	XLK +0.08 points	1.48%	1.56%
Amphenol CorporationAPH	XLK +0.01 points	1.18%	1.19%

All 110 FXL holdings⁠All 75 XLK holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

FXL vs XLK Cost

Overpaying FXL vs XLK

$10,128

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

FXL 0.60%
$11,817
XLK 0.08%
$1,689

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

FXL 0.60%
XLK 0.08%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	FXL	XLK	Overpaying
10	$1,076	$147	$929
20	$4,116	$575	$3,541
30	$11,817	$1,689	$10,128

Expense ratio

0.60%FXL
0.08%XLK, cheaper

XLK0.08%FXL0.60%

0.08%1.00%

Middle half of Technology (Broad) funds
Median 0.45%

XLK cheapest of 23 funds

FXL 16th cheapest of 23 funds

FXL vs XLK Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): FXL 0.00%; XLK 0.47%, better
Payout (12M): FXL None; XLK $0.83
Last payment: FXL No data; XLK $0.22
Ex-dividend: FXL No data; XLK Sep 21, 2026
Paid on: FXL No data; XLK Sep 23, 2026
Frequency: FXL No data; XLK Quarterly

Distribution history

Per share, 2017 to 2026, same scale for both

FXL27 paymentsAll FXL payments⁠

XLKQuarterly · 39 paymentsAll XLK payments⁠

FXL vs XLK Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: FXL 20.9%, betterXLK 23.6%
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: FXL 1.03XLK 1.07, better
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: FXL −38.5%XLK −33.6%, better
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: FXL 1.26XLK 1.35; Market = 1

FXL and XLK in the news

All news⁠

Closing Bell
S&P 500 falls 0.5% as tech losses outweigh oil’s 7% drop
7 hours agoXLK
Closing Bell
Chip woes drag Nazdaq, S&P 500 to worst day since June
Oct 30, 2026XLK
Closing Bell
Alphabet falls 12.6% - dragging SPY into negative territory for the day
Oct 29, 2026XLK
Closing Bell
Fed holds rates, stocks rise a third day as long yields climb
Oct 28, 2026XLK
Closing Bell
Boeing plummets 10.7%, but Chip stocks lift S&P 500 on Broadcom deal
Oct 27, 2026XLK
Closing Bell
Brazil ETF EWZ falls 19.8% as Lula win drives Ibovespa’s worst day since 2020
Oct 26, 2026XLK

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FXL vs XLK

In short

Stated mandate

Why people hold it