Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
QLD vs QQQ: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, QLD returned +20.9% to QQQ's +15.2%, and QQQ charges 0.18% to QLD's 0.89%.
askIQ about this page
askIQ about QLD and QQQ
Net assets: $15.4bn on Oct 28, 2026 for ProShares Ultra QQQ, and $483.0bn on Oct 27, 2026 for Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1.
Pair scorecard
QQQ costs 0.71 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 5.7 points; QQQ is far larger, $483.0bn against $14.6bn.
| Measure | QLD | QQQ |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +20.9% | +15.2% |
| What its daily multiple gave, 3 months | 19.5% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | QQQ 9.8% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | QQQ 9.8% | |
| The multiple over the whole window | 2 times gives +19.6% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 4.5%, high on Oct 6, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Nasdaq-100 | Nasdaq-100 Index |
| Against its daily multiple, 3 months | 1.7 points short | |
| Against the whole-window multiple | 1.8 points short | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.89% | 0.18% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $14.6bn | $483.0bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 96% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 46.7% | |
Risk and return
Jun 30, 2006 to Oct 23, 2026 · 1,060 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: QLD against QQQ, Jun 30, 2006 to Oct 23, 2026; QQQ against QQQM, Oct 23, 2020 to Oct 23, 2026.
QLD returned more: +8,667.1% to +2,024.3%. QQQ swung less: 20.3% to 40.5%. QQQ fell less at its worst: −51.4% to −82.0%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | QLD | QQQ | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +8,667.1% | +2,024.3% | QLD | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +24.5% | +16.2% | QLD | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +7,531.3% | +1,716.9% | QLD | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 40.5% | 20.3% | QQQ | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 27.5% | 13.8% | QQQ | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −82.0% | −51.4% | QQQ | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 362.4% | 100.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 133.6% | 100.2% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 2.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.71 | 0.76 | QQQ (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.04 | 1.12 | QQQ (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.143 | 0.145 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.30 | 0.31 | QQQ (slight) | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | QQQ | QQQM | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −2.1% a year | −0.1% a year | QQQ not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −4.64 | −0.58 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −3.0% to −1.2% | −0.4% to +0.2% | QQQ includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.65 | −0.10 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 20.3% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 1,060 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
QLD and QQQ on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
QLD and QQQ do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 QLD returned +20.9% and QQQ +15.2% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 5.7 points.
- Cost. QLD charges 0.89% of assets a year and QQQ 0.18%, a gap of 0.71 points.
- Size. QLD has $14.6bn in net assets and QQQ $483.0bn (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); QQQ is 33.1 times larger.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
Free. It needs an email sign-in, once.
Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, QLD returned 17.8%, against 19.5% for twice QQQ's daily moves. Of that 1.8, daily compounding is −0.1 points, which any 2 times fund would show over the same path, and the fund itself is −1.7 points against 2 times each day's move, compounded. QQQ moved at 18% annualized over that window.
Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 2 times QQQ's 9.8% implies +19.6%, which makes QLD look 1.8 points short. That is not the fund's objective, which is daily. QLD aims to return +2 times QQQ's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer periods the daily results compound, so the total is not +2 times the period's move: it is lower after a fall and recovery, and can be higher in a steady run. The more it moves, the further the two numbers separate.
QQQ
QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +15.2% with distributions reinvested, against +15.2% for its benchmark, the Nasdaq-100 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.18% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 96% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 103 positions, with the top ten at 46.7%. It sat 4.5% below its high of Oct 6, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Are QLD and QQQ in the same category?
- QLD is a leveraged ETF and QQQ is a stock ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, QLD or QQQ?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, QLD returned +20.9% and QQQ +15.2%.
- Which is cheaper, QLD or QQQ?
- QQQ is cheaper, by 0.71 percentage points a year. That is about $71 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown
ETFIQ, QLD against QQQ, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qld-vs-qqq
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). QLD against QQQ. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qld-vs-qqq
[QLD against QQQ (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qld-vs-qqq)
Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.