XLK vs XNTK

XLKAState Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF

XNTKBState Street SPDR NYSE Technology ETF

In short

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.

XNTK A tech fund born in 2000 that ignores the cap-weighted script: about 35 names, equal-weighted at each annual rebalance, with tech-flavored consumer discretionary stocks allowed in alongside classic IT.

Stated mandate

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

XNTK The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the NYSE Technology Index, which consists of 35 leading US-listed technology-related companies.

Why people hold it

• 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

• XNTK Equal-weighted at the annual rebalance, so the mega-caps start with the same slice as everyone else in the roughly 35-stock basket.ssga.com
• Its index reaches past the strict tech box into tech-related consumer discretionary names, catching internet and e-commerce businesses that pure IT funds screen out.ssga.com
• 0.35% expense ratio, under the median fee in its broad-tech peer group, and it has been trading since 2000 as a multi-billion-dollar SPDR with quarterly distributions.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• XNTK About 40 holdings. One stumbling name lands harder here than in a 300-stock tech index.
• Weights reset once a year, so winners drift to outsized slices between rebalances. Equal weight is a starting point, not a constant.ssga.com
• The big cap-weighted rivals (VGT, XLK, FTEC) charge less and trade more heavily, which can mean tighter spreads for large orders.

Full XLK profile⁠

Full XNTK profile⁠