RSPM vs XLB

RSPMCInvesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Materials ETF

XLBAState Street Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF

In short

RSPM Materials, cut into even slices. RSPM gives every materials stock in the S&P 500 the same weight, so the sector's smallest name counts as much as its largest, and it has run that way since 2006.

XLB The original materials play. A 1998-vintage slice of the S&P 500's chemical, mining, packaging and building-materials names, run at eight basis points and traded in size all day long.

Stated mandate

RSPM The fund tracks an index that equally weights stocks in the materials sector of the S&P 500® Index.

XLB The fund seeks to track, before expenses, the price and yield performance of the Materials Select Sector Index.

Why people hold it

• RSPM Equal weighting is the whole point: each S&P 500 materials name gets the same slice, so a few giant chemical and industrial-gas stocks do not set the tone.invesco.com
• The index resets holdings back toward equal weight instead of letting winners compound into outsized positions, which keeps the tilt toward the sector's smaller members intact.invesco.com
• Trading since 2006 on the same rulebook, through multiple commodity cycles. Distributions come quarterly.
• It stays on task: the portfolio tracks its equal-weight materials index closely rather than wandering into adjacent sectors.

• XLB Charges 0.08% a year against a peer-group median of 0.38%, and nothing in the cohort undercuts it (FMAT matches).
• Trading since December 1998 as one of the original Select Sector SPDRs, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it.sec.gov
• Very actively traded for a sector fund, which is the whole point if you use it for tactical tilts rather than buy-and-forget.
• Clean mandate: chemicals, metals and mining, paper and forest products, containers and packaging, construction materials. No thematic drift.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• RSPM At 0.40% a year it runs above the typical materials ETF, and cap-weighted rivals such as XLB and VAW charge a fraction of that for the same sector.
• Thinly traded and modest in size, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than on the sector's most heavily traded funds.
• Around two dozen stocks in one cyclical corner of the market, and equal weighting leans harder on the smaller names than a cap-weighted fund does.

• XLB Around 26 stocks, and index rules let one name reach 25% at a quarter-end measurement. A couple of chemical giants carry outsized weight.sec.gov
• The universe is the S&P 500 only. Smaller miners and specialty producers sit outside the net, which is the water VAW and XME fish in.ssga.com
• One sector, tied to commodity prices and building demand, so it can travel a very different path from the broad market. Distributions come quarterly.ssga.com

Full RSPM profile⁠

Full XLB profile⁠