Which returned more over the last year, FEX or SDY?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and SDY +10.0%.

Which is cheaper, FEX or SDY?

SDY is cheaper, by 0.22 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $22. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do FEX and SDY overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 84% of SDY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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FEX vs SDY: how they differ

FEX and SDY hold 16% of their weight in the same names, and FEX returned +17.6% over the year. First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund and State Street SPDR S&P Dividend ETF.

SDY costs 0.22 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 7.6 points; SDY is 13.2 times larger.

	FEX	SDY
Expense ratio	0.57%	0.35%
Net assets, FEX as of Oct 9, 2026 and SDY as of Oct 8, 2026	$1.6bn	$20.8bn
Total return, 1 year	+17.6%	+10.0%
Holdings in common	16%
Nasdaq-100, total return, 1 year	+23.6%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	5.0%	20.5%
Below its high	4.1%, high on Aug 14, 2026	5.8%, high on Aug 24, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 8, 2026 and Oct 9, 2026.

+17.6%

FEX total return, 1 year

+10.0%

SDY total return, 1 year

0.57%

FEX expense ratio

0.35%

SDY expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, FEX and SDY hold 16% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings dated Oct 8, 2026 and Oct 9, 2026.

50%

half

16% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding FEX SDY

Chevron Corporation 0.45% 2.11%

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. 0.45% 0.49%

Roper Technologies, Inc. 0.45% 0.52%

The Travelers Companies, Inc. 0.45% 0.68%

Cincinnati Financial Corporation 0.44% 0.84%

Edison International 0.44% 0.85%

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. 0.44% 0.96%

Amcor plc 0.43% 0.85%

Accenture plc 0.39% 3.49%

Verizon Communications Inc. 0.39% 3.09%

Nucor Corporation 0.37% 0.47%

Chubb Limited 0.36% 0.54%

Only in FEX

PTC Inc. 0.60%

Everpure, Inc. (Class A) 0.51%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 0.50%

HF Sinclair Corp. 0.49%

NetApp, Inc. 0.49%

Okta, Inc. 0.48%

Ovintiv Inc. 0.48%

Constellation Brands, Inc. (Class A) 0.47%

Only in SDY

REALTY INCOME CORP 1.96%

AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING 1.52%

KENVUE INC 1.49%

INTL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP 1.19%

MCDONALD S CORP 1.11%

NEXTERA ENERGY INC 1.10%

AIR PRODUCTS + CHEMICALS INC 1.04%

ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS 1.03%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

FEX

First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund

SDY

State Street SPDR S&P Dividend ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer First Trust State Street

What it is Tracks an index Tracks the S&P Dividend

Total return, 1 year +17.6% +10.0%

S&P 500 over the same days +17.3% +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 +0.4 pts −7.3 pts

Expense ratio 0.57% 0.35%

Already in the S&P 500 85.6% 84.4%

Holdings 375 156

Net assets, FEX as of Oct 9, 2026 and SDY as of Oct 8, 2026 $1.6bn $20.8bn

FEX and SDY on the fields both publish, as of Oct 9, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

FEX in plain words

FEX tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.6% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.57% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 9, 2026, 86% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 375 positions, with the top ten at 5.0%. It sat 4.1% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

SDY in plain words

SDY tracks the S&P Dividend. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +10.0% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.35% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 84% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 156 positions, with the top ten at 20.5%. It sat 5.8% below its high of Aug 24, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, FEX or SDY?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and SDY +10.0%.
Which is cheaper, FEX or SDY?: SDY is cheaper, by 0.22 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $22. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do FEX and SDY overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 84% of SDY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

FEX vs VOE COWZ vs FEX FEX vs IWS FEX vs NOBL ILCV vs SDY FTA vs SDY RWK vs SDY RSPA vs SDY

FEX on its own →SDY on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

FEX filings on SEC EDGAR ↗FEX prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗First Trust page for FEX ↗SDY filings on SEC EDGAR ↗SDY prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗State Street website ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Weight overlap is an ETFIQ calculation: for every security both funds hold, the smaller of the two weights, summed.

Cite this page

ETFIQ, FEX against SDY, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fex-vs-sdy

Open data

Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.