Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SPY vs TQQQ: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SPY returned +13.6% to TQQQ's +22.4%, and SPY charges 0.09% to TQQQ's 0.78%.
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Net assets: $814.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, and $37.3bn on Oct 28, 2026 for ProShares UltraPro QQQ.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.69 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 8.8 points; SPY is far larger, $814.8bn against $36.9bn.
| Measure | SPY | TQQQ |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +13.6% | +22.4% |
| What its daily multiple gave, 3 months | 28.9% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | QQQ 9.8% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | QQQ 9.8% | |
| The multiple over the whole window | 3 times gives +29.4% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | S&P 500 Index | Nasdaq-100 |
| Against its daily multiple, 3 months | 3.4 points short | |
| Against the whole-window multiple | 3.9 points short | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.09% | 0.78% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $814.8bn | $36.9bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
Risk and return
Feb 19, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026 · 870 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026; TQQQ against QQQ, Feb 19, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
TQQQ returned more: +29,817.5% to +819.3%. SPY swung less: 16.1% to 57.5%. SPY fell less at its worst: −31.8% to −80.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SPY | TQQQ | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +819.3% | +29,817.5% | TQQQ | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.2% | +40.6% | TQQQ | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +583.8% | +28,259.4% | TQQQ | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 16.1% | 57.5% | SPY | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.1% | 38.0% | SPY | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −31.8% | −80.4% | SPY | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.8% | Not measured | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 147.6% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 3.00 | 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 | 0.81 | 0.86 | TQQQ (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.18 | 1.30 | TQQQ (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.133 | 0.164 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.45 | 0.51 | TQQQ | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | VOO | QQQ | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | −3.5% a year | SPY not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.51 | −4.48 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.3% to +0.1% | −5.1% to −2.0% | SPY includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.15 | 0.83 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.4% | 38.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 870 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
SPY and TQQQ on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SPY and TQQQ do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SPY follows S&P 500 Index and TQQQ follows Nasdaq-100.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SPY returned +13.6% and TQQQ +22.4% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 8.8 points.
- Cost. SPY charges 0.09% of assets a year and TQQQ 0.78%, a gap of 0.69 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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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%.
Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, TQQQ returned 25.5%, against 28.9% for three times QQQ's daily moves. Of that 3.9, daily compounding is −0.5 points, which any 3 times fund would show over the same path, and the fund itself is −3.4 points against 3 times each day's move, compounded. QQQ moved at 18% annualized over that window.
Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 3 times QQQ's 9.8% implies +29.4%, which makes TQQQ look 3.9 points short. That is not the fund's objective, which is daily. TQQQ aims to return +3 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 +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 SPY and TQQQ in the same category?
- SPY is a stock ETF and TQQQ 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, SPY or TQQQ?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +13.6% and TQQQ +22.4%.
- Which is cheaper, SPY or TQQQ?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.69 percentage points a year. That is about $69 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, SPY against TQQQ, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-tqqq
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