Index funds, for starters.
So whether the index funds do or don't buy a certain stock has direct implications for real, non-millionaire, people.
Complete non sequitur. Can you explain what you mean? Did you accidentally reply to the wrong comment?
The Nasdaq 100 is just a fund. Its existence doesn't force you or anyone else to do anything.
People can choose to buy stocks, and people can choose to buy the Nasdaq 100. Or not. Nobody is making you.
I assure you I am not.
>The Nasdaq 100 is just a fund. Its existence doesn't force you or anyone else to do anything. People can choose to buy stocks, and people can choose to buy the Nasdaq 100. Or not. Nobody is making you.
This is irrelevant. QQQ is the one that's forced to buy all the constituents of the index, including SpaceX. This has been pointed out to you several times, but you seem unwilling to accept that fact.
I have a tiny minute slice of SPCX from owning VTI total market ETF but my 401K holds no SpaceX.
And guess what, your VTI which does track NASDAQ as part of it's index is effected by this inclusion rule.
Not only is he wrong that it doesn't impact him, because VTI is impacted, but the whole premise is wrong. "I'm not harmed" does not mean things are fine. If I go murder your neighbor, will you come to my trial and demand I go free because you weren't harmed? Should the judge let me go because he wasn't harmed?
Just because you don't understand the basics of the financial system, or the different indices, or the amount of money flowing into the funds that track each, it doesn't mean others don't. The impact if it had been included in the S&P500 would have been at least an order of magnitude more than just the nasdaq 100.
If you look at Fidelity mutual funds, the difference is even greater. FXAIX has $827B in it, USNQX has $9.6B in it.
The absolute dollars do matter, as do the risk characteristics of both baskets of stocks. If and when SPCX meets the S&P 500 index criteria it will be included.
Also, NASDAQ both operates the NASDAQ exchange and also decides what is in the NASDAQ 100. S&P decides what is in the S&P 500 but they do not operate an exchange. Allowing SPCX into the NASDAQ 100 was good for NASDAQ the exchange and it was legal, so it happened. The S&P 500 committee was not facing the same incentive so SPCX will have to wait until it meets the criteria for inclusion.
If you understand the incentives, you can predict the outcome. I agree that it sucks that QQQ holders had to swallow SPCX.
One last thing, if you reread my post, I explicitly acknowledge I have exposure to SPCX through VTI which I own in my Roth IRA. As of right now, 0.14% of VTI is SPCX which means I have $91 of exposure. I think I’ll be OK if it goes to zero :) I said I have no SPCX in my 401K which is just FXAIX, an S&P 500 index fund.
QQQ tracks the Nasdaq 100. It's an index fund. If the index includes a new ticker, then QQQ has to buy it.
Buying QQQ doesn't seem like going out of one's way. I don't understand your comment. "ETFs and chill" is a very common investment strategy.
Asked and answered. Whatever cute point you're trying to make is rendered moot by real market dynamics and index inclusion rules.
QQQ is more volatile and higher risk than the S&P 500, the people buying it should understand that.
https://etfdb.com/index/nasdaq-100-index/ are the ETFs that track that index.
So, who is being forced to buy that index?
Nobody has any idea what point you're trying to make, and the fact that you're repeating yourself and not being clearer makes everyone suspect that you don't have any idea either.
Quite likely that the only sensible one for most people (~global equities) will track S&P 500 internally. So essentially employees are being forced to hold whatever the index includes.
Hopefully it's less of a problem with Nasdaq, but it was a real worry.