Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
QQQI vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, QQQI returned +11.9% to SPY's +13.6%, and SPY charges 0.09% to QQQI's 0.68%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $15.4bn for NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF and $814.8bn for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.59 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 1.7 points; SPY is far larger, $814.8bn against $15.4bn.
| Measure | QQQI | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +11.9% | +13.6% |
| Price change, 1 year | fell 2.8% | rose 12.4% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 14.1% | |
| Return of capital, issuer estimate | 100% of the Oct 23, 2026 payment | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: Nasdaq-100, measured through QQQ | S&P 500 Index |
| Against its benchmark, same days | behind by 3.3 pts | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.68% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $15.4bn | $814.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 54% | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026. Method
Risk and return
Feb 9, 2024 to Oct 23, 2026 · 141 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: QQQI against QQQ, Feb 9, 2024 to Oct 23, 2026; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPY returned slightly more: +56.6% to +52.7%. SPY swung less: 14.3% to 16.0%. SPY fell slightly less at its worst: −16.9% to −18.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | QQQI | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +52.7% | +56.6% | SPY (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +16.9% | +18.0% | SPY (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +3.2% | +51.6% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 16.0% | 14.3% | SPY | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.8% | 9.4% | SPY | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −18.4% | −16.9% | SPY (slight) | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 69.5% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 85.4% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.79 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.98 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.79 | 0.92 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.16 | 1.41 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.158 | 0.133 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.92 | 1.07 | SPY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | QQQ | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | 0.0% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.01 | −0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −3.0% to +3.0% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.67 | −0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 4.8% | 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, 141 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, QQQI and SPY hold 54% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026.
half
54% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
QQQI and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ. Cash paid: distributions over the window, as a share of the starting price.
QQQI and SPY do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. QQQI is measured against Nasdaq-100 through QQQ and SPY follows S&P 500 Index.
- Cost. QQQI charges 0.68% of assets a year and SPY 0.09%, a gap of 0.59 points.
- Size. QQQI has $15.4bn in net assets and SPY $814.8bn (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); SPY is 52.9 times larger.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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QQQI
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, QQQI paid 13.7% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price fell 2.8%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +11.9%. Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) returned +15.2% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 3.3 pts. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 14.1%, paid monthly. NEOS estimates that 100% of the distribution paid Oct 23, 2026 was a return of capital (its 19a-1 notice). That is a tax label, not a measure of erosion.
SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
Questions people ask
- Are QQQI and SPY in the same category?
- QQQI is an option-income ETF and SPY 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, QQQI or SPY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, QQQI returned +11.9% and SPY +13.6%.
- Which is cheaper, QQQI or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.59 percentage points a year. That is about $59 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.
How this is computed
Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.
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ETFIQ, QQQI against SPY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qqqi-vs-spy
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[QQQI against SPY (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qqqi-vs-spy)
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