Equal-weight S&P 500 ETF tops cap-weighted index by 6 points in October

The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) returned about 5% in October, nearly 6 percentage points ahead of the cap-weighted S&P 500, one of its widest monthly gaps, according to ETF Trends.

The gap came in a month when ETF investors put more than $204 billion of net new assets to work, the largest monthly haul since $228.9 billion last December. Equity ETFs took more than $120 billion of that, with U.S. equity funds leading, ETF Trends reported.

A client review now has to account for a 4-point year-to-date gap between RSP and cap-weighted S&P 500 ETFs by asking which core the plan owns and why. RSP is up 15% this year, about 4 points ahead of VOO and SPYM, the Vanguard and State Street cap-weighted S&P 500 ETFs. VOO and SPYM are each up about 11%. The gap comes from weights, not stock selection: the funds own the same 500 companies in different proportions.

VOO gathered $23.7 billion in October and SPYM $9.9 billion, and both lost nearly 1% on the month. Year to date the two have taken in more than $180 billion combined. October also reversed September, when VOO shed $13.3 billion, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.

RSP took in $780 million in October, bringing its 2026 total to $14.2 billion, or roughly 5% of the year's total.

Technology fell about 12% over the past month while consumer staples and healthcare each gained more than 11%, according to State Street Investment Management data cited by ETF Trends. ETF Trends put the resulting gap down to a rotation away from large technology names into defensive and value-leaning sectors including energy, healthcare and utilities.

The mechanics are in the weighting. A market-cap index sizes every holding by market value, letting single-stock concentration build. An equal-weight index gives each of the 500 constituents the same weight, so smaller members carry more of the fund than they do in a cap-weighted approach. Sector exposures shift with them.