S&P 500 Equal Weight Index Trails Benchmark by 2.1 Percentage Points in 2026

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index gained 10.67% through Oct. 14, trailing the S&P 500 by about 2.1 percentage points as its weighting system gave less influence to the market’s largest companies.

The figures are price returns through the Oct. 14 close. The equal-weight index fell 4.99% in September, but that decline did not erase its gain for the year. The gap reflects a tradeoff: an index that reduces reliance on the biggest stocks can miss some of their gains when they lead the market.

The two indexes weight their holdings differently. In the standard S&P 500, companies with larger market values have more influence on the index’s performance. The equal-weight version resets every constituent to a 0.2% target share at quarterly rebalancing. That gives smaller members more weight relative to the largest ones and reduces exposure to recent leaders.

This design can weigh on returns when the biggest companies keep outperforming. It may fare better when market leadership spreads to more companies or shifts away from the largest stocks. The difference between the indexes adds context to the debate over how widely stock-market gains are shared.

Daily moves offered little resolution. On Oct. 14, the S&P 500 fell 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.9%. On Oct. 15, the S&P 500 recovered 0.3% to close at 7,744.06, while the Nasdaq gained 0.1%. The swings show how quickly indexes can move, but two sessions do not determine which weighting approach will outperform over a longer period.

The two weighting approaches expose portfolios to different concentration and return tradeoffs.

Equal weighting addresses concentration within a stock portfolio; it does not remove stock-market risk. The index still holds equities and can fall during a broad market decline. Its recent lag illustrates the cost of reducing the biggest companies’ influence when those companies are driving gains.