This article is a part of InvestorPlace’s Best ETFs for 2018 contest. The readers’ choice for the contest is the Powershares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ).
For years, InvestorPlace has been running its annual Best Stocks contest, where we ask investing experts to pick the stock they think will perform the best in the coming year. We track the entries through the year and see who chose best. But with the growing interest across the investing world in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, we’ve been getting more and more interest in doing the same thing, but for ETFs instead.
This is the year. Welcome to our Best ETFs for 2018 contest. And as is becoming tradition in the Best Stocks contest, we polled our readers to see if the opinions of the group can compete toe-to-toe with the opinions of the experts.
All in all, 2017 was a good year for tech stocks. And InvestorPlace readers clearly think that’s likely to continue in the new year, as they have chosen the PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) — also sometimes referred to as “the que’s.”
This fund is not just based on the Nasdaq, but more specifically on the Nasdaq-100, which represents the 100 largest non-financial securities traded on the Nasdaq. It is almost exclusively a U.S. fund, so if the current good times continue in the U.S. markets, it’ll be great for QQQ.
With an expense ratio of 0.2%, or $20 per $10,000 invested annually, it’s also a fairly low-cost option for any investor who wants to take them up on this suggestion.
So what is an investor getting when they buy the QQQ ETF? Well for starters, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) are the two biggest pieces of the pie, making up more than 20% of the ETF all on their own.
Going further down the list, it’s a big ole’ tech-stock who’s who — Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and more, all lined up. You can get access to all of them with one security. Isn’t that the beauty of an ETF in the first place?
All told, technology makes up nearly 60% of this fund, with the lion’s share of the remainder in consumer cyclical (including names like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)).
Now, will the strength of tech continue through 2018? That’s the big question. But so many segments are just full of potential — including AI, driverless cars, the Internet of Things and more — and the world still loves its gadgets. More and more of retail runs through the web. It sometimes feels like you cannot escape some of the biggest tech names. And that ubiquity has been translating into strength for some time.
And our readers have faith in that continuing to boost the QQQ ETF, making it one of the best ETFs for 2018.
Jessica Loder is an assistant editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, she did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
