BetaShares S&P 500 Equal Weight Index ETF

BetaShares will shortly list a new exchange traded fund on the Australian Securities Exchange - the BetaShares S&P 500 Equal Weight Index ETF (QUS) - that will provide investors access to the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index.

That index equally weights each share in the S&P 500 Index, instead of the market cap weights that the original index provides. For example, although the five largest US tech companies now represent 20 per cent of the S&P 500, in the Equal Weight Index, they would only represent the same percentage as every other company in that index.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index has actually outperformed the market-cap weighted S&P 500 index since its inception in January 2003.

The launch of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index ETF will involve a change in index of the existing QUS, which is currently trading on the ASX as the BetaShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 ETF. On 18 December 2020, that ETF will change its name to S&P 500 Equal Weight Index ETF and the index that ETF tracks will change to the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index.