IMCG vs SPYM

IMCGAiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF

SPYMAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF

In short

IMCG Growth investing usually means megacaps. IMCG works the middle of the market instead: roughly 300 mid-cap growth names, indexed since 2004, for six basis points a year.

SPYM State Street's budget-priced S&P 500 tracker: the same 500 large caps as its famous sibling, for 0.02% a year, the lowest fee in its S&P 500 peer group. Running since 2005 and now one of the category's giants.

Stated mandate

IMCG The Fund seeks to track an index of U.S. mid-capitalization equities with growth characteristics. Its strategy uses representative sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in securities from the Underlying Index.

SPYM The fund seeks to track the total return of the S&P 500 Index before fees and expenses, providing broad exposure to U.S. large-cap equities.

Why people hold it

• IMCG 0.06% a year, one third of the 0.18% median for its growth-fund peer group. Mid-cap indexing at large-cap-index prices.
• The growth leaderboard is stacked with large-cap funds (VUG, SCHG, SPYG, VONG). IMCG covers the middle instead, holding about 300 mid-cap growth names.
• Sticks close to the Morningstar mid-cap growth index it follows, one of the tighter tracking jobs in its peer group.
• Running since 2004 under the iShares roof, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it.

• SPYM 0.02% a year, the cheapest fee in its S&P 500 cohort, against a 0.15% median for the group. Two dollars a year per $10,000 invested.
• Same S&P 500 index as State Street's flagship SPY (0.09%), for a fraction of the fee, and a basis point under VOO and IVV.
• Tracks the index tightly: gaps between fund and benchmark are among the smallest in its peer group, which is the whole job of an index wrapper.
• Live since 2005, now one of the largest and most heavily traded funds in the category. Distributions land quarterly.

Worth knowing

• IMCG Moderately traded rather than heavily traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the megacap growth ETFs sitting beside it in the category.
• This is a size-and-style bet. Mid-cap growth companies tend to move more sharply than the broad market, in both directions.
• Distributions land quarterly, but a growth screen is not built around income.

• SPYM The S&P 500 is cap-weighted, so the biggest US companies drive most of the move. Equal-weight takes on the same index (RSP) spread that bet differently.
• About 500 US large caps and nothing else: no mid caps, no small caps, no international.
• The fee edge over VOO and IVV is one basis point. Same index, so trading costs and platform access matter as much as the sticker fee.

Full IMCG profile⁠

Full SPYM profile⁠