Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SMH vs SOXL: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SMH returned +56.8% to SOXL's +128.7%, and SMH charges 0.35% to SOXL's 0.75%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $71.1bn for VanEck Semiconductor ETF and $24.7bn for Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF.
Pair scorecard
SMH costs 0.40 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 71.9 points; SMH is 2.9 times larger.
| Measure | SMH | SOXL |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +56.8% | +128.7% |
| What its daily multiple gave, 3 months | 23.3% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | SOXX 12.3% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | SOXX 12.3% | |
| The multiple over the whole window | 3 times gives +36.9% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its all-time high | 15.1%, high on Jun 22, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Semiconductors | Semiconductor |
| Against its benchmark, 1 year | ahead by 43.4 pts | |
| Against its daily multiple, 3 months | 6.5 points short | |
| Against the whole-window multiple | 20.1 points short | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.35% | 0.75% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $71.1bn | $24.7bn |
| Active share vs the S&P 500 | 81% | |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 79% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 69% | |
Risk and return
Dec 30, 2011 to Oct 23, 2026 · 773 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SMH against ACWI, Dec 30, 2011 to Oct 23, 2026; SOXL against SOXX, Mar 19, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SOXL returned more: +21,100.0% to +3,977.0%. SMH swung less: 26.9% to 84.2%. SMH fell less at its worst: −44.2% to −89.8%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SMH | SOXL | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +3,977.0% | +21,100.0% | SOXL | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +28.3% | +43.4% | SOXL | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +3,365.0% | +19,212.8% | SOXL | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 26.9% | 84.2% | SMH | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 17.5% | 55.2% | SMH | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −44.2% | −89.8% | SMH | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 197.3% | Not measured | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 117.1% | 124.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.40 | 3.01 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.63 | 0.99 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 1.00 | 0.84 | SMH | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.53 | 1.28 | SMH | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.192 | 0.216 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.64 | 0.48 | SMH | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | ACWI | SOXX | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +12.6% a year | −6.8% a year | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. | |
| Alpha t-stat | 2.95 | −4.39 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | +4.2% to +20.9% | −9.9% to −3.8% | Not an edge | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.96 | 0.72 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 17.4% | 56.8% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 773 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
SMH and SOXL on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SMH and SOXL do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SMH follows Semiconductors and SOXL follows Semiconductor.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SMH returned +56.8% and SOXL +128.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 71.9 points.
- Cost. SMH charges 0.35% of assets a year and SOXL 0.75%, a gap of 0.40 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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SMH
By weight, 79% of SMH's portfolio is stocks that are also in the S&P 500; its active share against the S&P 500 is 81%. The top ten holdings are 69% of the fund across 25 positions, as published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 the fund returned +56.8% with distributions reinvested against +13.4% for its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index, so a holder was ahead by 43.4 pts. It sits 15.1% below its all-time high of Jun 22, 2026.
Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, SOXL returned 16.8%, against 23.3% for three times SOXX's daily moves. Of that 20.1, daily compounding is −13.6 points, which any 3 times fund would show over the same path, and the fund itself is −6.5 points against 3 times each day's move, compounded. SOXX moved at 43% annualized over that window.
Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 3 times SOXX's 12.3% implies +36.9%, which makes SOXL look 20.1 points short. That is not the fund's objective, which is daily. SOXL aims to return +3 times SOXX's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer periods the daily results compound, so the total is not +3 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.
Questions people ask
- Are SMH and SOXL in the same category?
- SMH is a thematic ETF and SOXL is a leveraged ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, SMH or SOXL?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SMH returned +56.8% and SOXL +128.7%.
- Which is cheaper, SMH or SOXL?
- SMH is cheaper, by 0.40 percentage points a year. That is about $40 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, SMH against SOXL, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/smh-vs-soxl
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). SMH against SOXL. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/smh-vs-soxl
[SMH against SOXL (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/smh-vs-soxl)
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