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

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FTA returned +19.8% and SDY +10.0%.

Which is cheaper, FTA or SDY?

SDY is cheaper, by 0.23 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $23. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

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

By their latest filed holdings, 93% of FTA and 84% of SDY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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FTA vs SDY: how they differ

FTA and SDY hold 19% of their weight in the same names, and FTA returned +19.8% over the year. First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund and State Street SPDR S&P Dividend ETF.

SDY costs 0.23 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 9.8 points; SDY is 15.4 times larger.

	FTA	SDY
Expense ratio	0.58%	0.35%
Net assets, FTA as of Oct 9, 2026 and SDY as of Oct 8, 2026	$1.4bn	$20.8bn
Total return, 1 year	+19.8%	+10.0%
Holdings in common	19%
Nasdaq-100, total return, 1 year	+23.6%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	9.5%	20.5%
Below its high	6.0%, high on Aug 24, 2026	5.8%, high on Aug 24, 2026

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

+19.8%

FTA total return, 1 year

+10.0%

SDY total return, 1 year

0.58%

FTA expense ratio

0.35%

SDY expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, FTA and SDY hold 19% 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

19% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding FTA SDY

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. 0.88% 0.96%

Amcor plc 0.87% 0.85%

Edison International 0.90% 0.85%

Cincinnati Financial Corporation 0.90% 0.84%

Verizon Communications Inc. 0.79% 3.09%

Chevron Corporation 0.73% 2.11%

Consolidated Edison, Inc. 0.73% 1.36%

Xcel Energy Inc. 0.73% 1.21%

Evergy, Inc. 0.72% 0.81%

Eversource Energy 0.72% 1.05%

The Travelers Companies, Inc. 0.72% 0.68%

Accenture plc 0.58% 3.49%

Only in FTA

HF Sinclair Corp. 0.99%

Ovintiv Inc. 0.97%

PTC Inc. 0.97%

Constellation Brands, Inc. (Class A) 0.95%

EQT Corporation 0.95%

Occidental Petroleum Corporation 0.95%

Permian Resources Corp. 0.95%

Carnival Corporation Ltd. 0.94%

Only in SDY

REALTY INCOME CORP 1.96%

AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING 1.52%

KENVUE INC 1.49%

BECTON DICKINSON AND CO 1.49%

PROCTER + GAMBLE CO/THE 1.34%

ABBVIE INC 1.33%

COCA COLA CO/THE 1.25%

ABBOTT LABORATORIES 1.22%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

FTA

First Trust Large Cap Value 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 +19.8% +10.0%

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

Gap to the S&P 500 +2.5 pts −7.3 pts

Expense ratio 0.58% 0.35%

Already in the S&P 500 93.0% 84.4%

Holdings 187 156

Net assets, FTA as of Oct 9, 2026 and SDY as of Oct 8, 2026 $1.4bn $20.8bn

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

FTA in plain words

FTA tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +19.8% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.58% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 9, 2026, 93% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 187 positions, with the top ten at 9.5%. It sat 6.0% below its high of Aug 24, 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, FTA or SDY?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FTA returned +19.8% and SDY +10.0%.
Which is cheaper, FTA or SDY?: SDY is cheaper, by 0.23 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $23. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do FTA and SDY overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 93% of FTA and 84% of SDY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

FTA vs VOE COWZ vs FTA FTA vs IWS FTA vs NOBL IVOV vs SDY IMCV vs SDY SDY vs VFMF PEY vs SDY

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

Where these figures came from

FTA filings on SEC EDGAR ↗FTA prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗First Trust page for FTA ↗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, FTA against SDY, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fta-vs-sdy

Open data

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