Wealthy PotMGK vs QQQ: Same Giants on Top, Different Funds Underneath, and a 0.13% Fee Gap
MGK and QQQ both put most of their money in the same handful of giant technology companies, but they choose the rest of their holdings by different rules. MGK holds the largest US growth stocks on any exchange. QQQ holds the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq, growth or not. In the two funds' 30 June 2026 SEC filings, the overlap was 59.2%. MGK costs 0.05% a year and QQQ 0.18%. Over the ten years to 30 September 2026, QQQ returned 20.91% a year and MGK 19.00%. If you want one of them, the choice is between QQQ's record and MGK's lower fee and broader definition of growth.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Overlap: 59.2%. 34 companies were in both funds, worth 82.4% of MGK and 65.9% of QQQ. Our calculation from both funds' 30 June 2026 SEC filings.
- Fees: MGK 0.05%, QQQ 0.18%. On $10,000 that is $5 against $18 a year, or $64 against $230 over ten years in the prospectus examples.
- Holdings: 56 vs 102. MGK at 31 August 2026, QQQ at 2 October 2026.
- Top ten: 66.8% vs 47.7% of the fund at 30 June 2026. MGK is the more concentrated of the two.
- Ten-year return to 30 September 2026: QQQ 20.91%, MGK 19.00% a year at NAV. QQQ also led over one, three and five years.
- What only MGK owns: Eli Lilly, Visa, Mastercard, Oracle and other growth companies listed outside Nasdaq. What only QQQ owns: Micron, Walmart, Cisco, Costco, PepsiCo and other Nasdaq-listed companies that are not classed as growth.
- Do not hold both unless you mean to double up on NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft.
How Much MGK and QQQ Share
Both funds file their complete portfolios with the SEC. The filings used here are both dated 30 June 2026, and we matched them with the same data behind our Portfolio Overlap Checker.
| Portfolios at 30 June 2026 | MGK | QQQ |
|---|---|---|
| Holdings in the filing | 55 | 103 |
| Held by both funds | 34 | 34 |
| Share of the fund in those shared holdings | 82.4% | 65.9% |
| Holdings the other fund did not own | 21 (17.4% of MGK) | 69 (34.1% of QQQ) |
| Overlap, sum of the smaller weight in each shared holding | 59.2% | |
The shared giants carry very different weights. MGK holds them much more heavily, because it has fewer companies to spread money across:
| Weight at 30 June 2026 | MGK | QQQ |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | 13.27% | 7.58% |
| Apple | 12.17% | 6.65% |
| Alphabet | 10.58% | 6.27% |
| Microsoft | 7.50% | 4.34% |
| Amazon | 4.46% | 4.01% |
| Broadcom | 4.27% | 2.80% |
| Meta Platforms | 4.08% | 2.61% |
| Tesla | 3.93% | 3.29% |
| AMD | 3.19% | 4.09% |
| Lam Research | 1.92% | 2.34% |
Only in MGK (21 holdings, 17.4% of the fund): Eli Lilly 3.40%, Visa 1.82%, Mastercard 1.47%, GE Vernova 1.20%, Oracle 0.94%, Corning 0.89%, Amphenol 0.89%, Arista Networks 0.76%, Boeing 0.72%, Welltower 0.71%, TJX 0.70% and ServiceNow 0.52%.
Only in QQQ (69 holdings, 34.1% of the fund): Micron 5.62%, Walmart 2.39%, Cisco 2.00%, Costco 1.79%, Texas Instruments 1.17%, Linde 1.04%, Amgen, Qualcomm and Analog Devices 0.84% each, PepsiCo 0.80%, ASML 0.79% and T-Mobile 0.78%.
MGK vs QQQ Side by Side
| MGK | QQQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vanguard Morningstar Mega Cap Growth ETF | Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 |
| Index | Morningstar US Mega Cap Growth Index (CRSP US Mega Cap Growth until 29 July 2026) | Nasdaq-100 |
| Expense ratio | 0.05% (0.07% before 2 Feb 2026) | 0.18% |
| Prospectus cost on $10,000 over 10 years | $64 | $230 |
| Holdings | 56 stocks (31 Aug 2026) | 102 (2 Oct 2026) |
| Top-10 weight (30 Jun 2026 filings) | 66.8% | 47.7% |
| Top-25 weight (30 Jun 2026 filings) | 85.2% | 72.4% |
| 30-day SEC yield | 0.30% (30 Sep 2026) | 0.39% (1 Oct 2026) |
| Fund size | $33.5 billion ETF class (31 Aug 2026) | $505.19 billion (2 Oct 2026) |
| Structure | Share class of an open-end index fund | Open-end fund since 19 Dec 2025 (a unit investment trust before) |
| Inception | 17 Dec 2007 | 10 Mar 1999 |
The fee gap is 0.13 points. On $100,000 that is $130 a year, every year. Invesco also runs QQQM on the same index at 0.15%, which narrows the gap but does not close it.
Two Different Filters
QQQ filters by exchange and industry. Its prospectus describes the Nasdaq-100 as "100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market." There is no growth test. That is why it holds Walmart, Costco, PepsiCo and Cisco, and why it holds foreign companies such as ASML. It is also why it holds no banks and no Visa or Mastercard, and none of the large growth companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, such as Eli Lilly and Oracle.
MGK filters by size and style. Its prospectus describes growth companies "in the top 70% of investable U.S. equity market capitalization." It does not care where a stock is listed, so it picks up Eli Lilly, Visa and Mastercard. It drops companies its index provider does not class as growth, which in the 30 June filings included Micron, QQQ's fourth-largest holding at 5.62%.
The result is a different shape. MGK is narrower and more top-heavy: 98.4% of it was in its top 50 holdings, against 87.6% for QQQ. Nasdaq also changed its index rules from 1 May 2026, according to Invesco's supplement, including a faster route in for very large new listings.
Returns to September 2026
| Annualized NAV return, to 30 Sep 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MGK | 15.51% | 27.41% | 15.11% | 19.00% |
| QQQ | 23.74% | 28.05% | 16.33% | 20.91% |
| MGK minus QQQ | -8.23 | -0.64 | -1.22 | -1.91 |
| Nasdaq-100 index | 24.00 | 28.31 | 16.56 | 21.16 |
| MGK's spliced benchmark | 15.54 | 27.48 | 15.18 | 19.07 |
QQQ led on every horizon, by the widest margin over the latest year, 8.23 points. Over three years the two were within a point of each other. Each fund stayed close to its own index over ten years: QQQ trailed the Nasdaq-100 by 0.25 points a year and MGK trailed its benchmark by 0.07, gaps of about the size you would expect from fees of 0.18% and 0.05%.
Taxes. Invesco's after-tax figure for QQQ, assuming shares held, was 20.70% a year over ten years to 30 September 2026, a drag of 0.21 points. MGK's prospectus shows a drag of 0.23 points over the ten years to 31 December 2025. The dates differ, but both are small: neither fund pays much in dividends.
Downside. Both prospectuses put the worst quarter in mid-2022: a 22.54% loss for MGK and 22.33% for QQQ (MGK's chart covers 2016 to 2025, QQQ's 2015 to 2024). Expect similar drops from either fund.
| Hypothetical $10,000 held for 10 years | Ending value |
|---|---|
| At MGK's 10-year NAV return to 30 Sep 2026 (19.00%) | $56,947 |
| At QQQ's 10-year NAV return to 30 Sep 2026 (20.91%) | $66,776 |
This is educational information, not personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and all investing carries the risk of loss.
Which One Fits You
You want the cheapest way to own the mega-cap growth names. MGK. It costs 0.05% against 0.18%, and it includes growth leaders listed outside Nasdaq, such as Eli Lilly, Visa and Mastercard.
You want the Nasdaq-100 specifically. QQQ, or QQQM if you buy and hold and do not need QQQ's trading volume and options market. The Nasdaq-100 has the longer, stronger record over the last decade, but part of what it owns, such as Walmart, Costco and PepsiCo, is not growth at all.
Already own one? Do not add the other. 82.4% of MGK is in companies QQQ already holds. In a taxable account, also do not sell one to buy the other over a fee gap: $130 a year on $100,000 takes years to cover a capital gains bill. Check your 2026 tax bracket before any switch. In an IRA or 401(k) a switch costs only the trading spread.
Do you need either? Both funds hold a narrow set of giant technology companies. Next to a total-market or S&P 500 core they are a tilt, not a core. See MGK vs VOO and QQQ vs VOO for that comparison, and MGK vs VUG or VUG vs QQQ for a broader growth fund.
Sources & Methodology
- Vanguard World Fund, Form 485BPOS filed 28 January 2026: MGK's index description, best and worst quarters, returns to 31 December 2025.
- MGK supplement effective 2 February 2026: the fee restated to 0.05% and the $64 ten-year cost example.
- Invesco QQQ Trust, Form 485BPOS filed 19 December 2025: the 0.18% fee table, $230 ten-year cost, the open-end reclassification, index description and best and worst quarters.
- Invesco supplement dated 30 April 2026: the Nasdaq-100 methodology changes effective 1 May 2026.
- Vanguard MGK page and Invesco QQQ page: holdings counts, assets, SEC yields and returns to 30 September 2026, read 5 October 2026.
- MGK Form N-PORT, 30 June 2026 and QQQ Form N-PORT, 30 June 2026: the holdings behind the overlap and concentration figures.
How the overlap was computed. For each company both funds hold we took the smaller of its two weights and added them up, the method the Portfolio Overlap Checker uses on the same N-PORT data. Both filings are dated 30 June 2026.
What we did not compare. Sector weights: Invesco and Vanguard publish them on different dates and, in QQQ's shareholder report, on a different classification system, so a side-by-side would mislead. We also did not attribute the return gap to individual stocks; neither issuer publishes that attribution.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, index returns cannot be invested in directly, and all investing carries the risk of loss. Figures were checked against the sources above on 5 October 2026; confirm current data with Vanguard and Invesco before acting.
FAQ: MGK vs QQQ
Is MGK or QQQ better?
QQQ returned more over the ten years to 30 September 2026, 20.91% against 19.00% a year. MGK costs much less, 0.05% against 0.18%, and holds growth leaders outside Nasdaq. Neither record guarantees the next decade.
How much do MGK and QQQ overlap?
59.2% by weight in both funds' 30 June 2026 filings. 82.4% of MGK's money was in companies QQQ also held.
Should I own both MGK and QQQ?
Usually not. Together they mostly double your weight in NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Why is Eli Lilly in MGK but not QQQ?
QQQ holds only companies listed on Nasdaq. Eli Lilly, Visa, Mastercard and Oracle are listed elsewhere, so they are outside the Nasdaq-100 but inside MGK's growth index.
Why is Walmart in QQQ but not MGK?
The Nasdaq-100 has no growth screen; it takes the largest non-financial Nasdaq companies. MGK only holds companies its index classes as growth.
What are the expense ratios?
MGK 0.05% (since 2 February 2026) and QQQ 0.18%. QQQM, which tracks the same index as QQQ, charges 0.15%.
Which is more concentrated?
MGK. Its top ten holdings were 66.8% of the fund on 30 June 2026, against 47.7% for QQQ.
Cite This Page
Journalists, educators and bloggers are welcome to cite this comparison. Please link back so readers can reach the underlying filings.
"MGK vs QQQ: Same Giants on Top, Different Funds Underneath, and a 0.13% Fee Gap." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/mgk-vs-qqq/
Related comparisons: MGK vs VUG · MGK vs VOO · QQQ vs QQQM · VUG vs QQQ · SCHG vs QQQ · QQQ vs VOO · All ETF comparisons
