Quick Read
QTOP beat QQQ over the past year by three points (30% versus 27%) by stripping out the bottom 70 Nasdaq-100 names that dragged the broader index lower.
Alphabet surged 94% and Apple gained 59%, but Microsoft’s 20% drop proves QTOP’s concentration cuts both ways when an offsetting rally doesn’t show up.
QTOP fits best as a satellite position of 5 to 10 percent. Used as a primary holding, it is essentially four stocks in a trench coat, not a portfolio.
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If QQQ already feels like a tech-heavy bet, iShares Nasdaq Top 30 Stocks ETF (NASDAQ:QTOP) takes the same idea and strips it down further. QTOP holds only the 30 largest names on Nasdaq, weighted by market cap, resulting in a portfolio dominated by a handful of AI-era giants and almost nothing behind them. Over the past year, QTOP returned 30%, ahead of Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) at 27%, and it charges just 0.20% to own.
The Fund And What It Actually Does
QTOP launched in October 2024 and manages roughly $266 million, still tiny next to QQQ’s hundreds of billions. The mechanics are simple. Take the Nasdaq-100, keep only the 30 largest names, weight by market cap, and let the top handful do the heavy work. Because those top names are the same mega-cap technology franchises already dominating QQQ, QTOP is best understood as a leverage-free way to lean harder into the megacap AI trade without borrowing or using options.
The return engine is capital appreciation from a concentrated basket. Dividends are almost incidental, since NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) yields near 0.47% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) yields around 0.3%. You buy this for gains, or you are in the wrong fund.
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Does The Concentration Actually Pay
Over the trailing year, QTOP beat QQQ by roughly three points. Year to date, the spread is similar, 16% for QTOP versus 15% for QQQ. The gap looks modest, but it is consistent, and it comes almost entirely from cutting the smaller 70 names of the Nasdaq-100 whose average returns dragged the broader index down.
