RSP vs SPYM

RSPBInvesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF

SPYMAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF

In short

RSP Same 500 companies as the S&P 500, sliced evenly instead of by size. Running since 2003, it is the large, heavily traded way to own the index without letting a handful of megacaps call the shots.

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

RSP The fund is designed to provide exposure to the S&P 500 while equally weighting the stocks in that 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

• RSP Every name gets the same slice: about 500 S&P 500 members, equally weighted, so no small group of giants steers the whole fund.
• One job, done plainly. Hold the S&P 500's companies and weight them equally. No stock picking, no forecasts, no tilt beyond the equal-weight rule.
• Trading since 2003 and now a multi-billion-dollar, very actively traded fund, which tends to make getting in and out cheap. Distributions land quarterly.

• 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

• RSP The 0.20% annual fee sits above the median for S&P 500 trackers and well above cap-weighted siblings like VOO and IVV at 0.03%.
• Equal weighting leans toward the index's smaller members, so results can diverge from the headline S&P 500 in either direction.
• Keeping weights level takes ongoing rebalancing, so turnover runs higher than a cap-weighted fund that simply lets winners ride.

• 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 RSP profile⁠

Full SPYM profile⁠