Nasdaq 100 vs Nasdaq 100 TR (QQQ)
The same question as for the S&P 500 — what do dividends add? — put to the market that distributes least. Facing the price index here is not a second index but an actual fund, QQQ, which holds the hundred companies and passes on what they pay.
Over the period both series share, Invesco QQQ Trust comes out ahead at +10.7% a year.
| Asset | Total return | Annualised | Volatility | Largest drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq 100 | ×13.5 | +9.9% a year | 24.8% | −79.8% (October 2002) |
| Invesco QQQ Trust | ×16.4 | +10.7% a year | 24.8% | −79.6% (October 2002) |
Figures calculated on 26/10/2026 from monthly closing prices. Past performance is no guide to future performance.
An index on one side, a fund on the other
The Nasdaq 100 is a calculation: a hundred non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq, weighted by market capitalisation. Nobody owns it, and it costs nobody anything.
QQQ is a listed fund, launched in March 1999, that actually buys those hundred holdings. It collects their dividends and pays them out quarterly; the series used here is adjusted for those payments, so it behaves like a total-return index. What it also carries, and the index does not, is an annual management fee charged against the fund’s assets.
Why the gap is narrower here
Nasdaq 100 companies distribute little. Many paid nothing at all for years, preferring to reinvest or buy back shares, and those that do pay show modest yields against their size. The share of the return that travels through dividends is therefore small — unlike a European index, or the Dow.
Two opposing forces then meet: reinvested dividends push the fund’s curve up, its fees pull it down. On an index that distributes little, the second eats an appreciable part of the first, and that is what this comparison makes visible.
Frequently asked questions
Is QQQ the Nasdaq 100?
No: it is a fund that replicates it. It follows the index very closely, but it has fees, a tax position of its own and a tracking difference — three things an index does not have.
Why compare an index with a fund?
Because it is the closest observable thing to a Nasdaq 100 with dividends reinvested over a long period — and because it has the merit of including what an investor actually pays, which no index does.
Why does the series only start in 1999?
The fund was created in March 1999. The index is older, but it is the younger of the two that sets where the comparison can begin.