Forget the Tesla and the S&P 500. Peloton is now on the Nasdaq 100.

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While many investors were watching closely

Teslain

first days in

S&P 500

– stocks have fallen 7% so far this week – changes in another prominent stock index have largely passed under the radar.

Last Friday, six new members joined the

Nasdaq 100 index,

which tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Exchange, including some of the most innovative and fastest growing companies in the world, such as

Amazon.com

(ticker: AMZN),

Apple

(AAPL), and

Microsoft

(MSFT).

The index soared 45% in the year, more than triple the 14% gains from the S&P 500.

Utilities giant

American Electric Power

(AEP) is now part of the Nasdaq 100 after changing its stock exchange from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq. Another new member is

Match Group

(MTCH), which has some of the most popular online dating apps like Match, Tinder and Hinge. The company went public in July as a spin-off of its holding company Interactive Group, and the shares have already risen 47% last Friday.

Home fitness company

Peloton Interactive

(PTON) has also joined the Nasdaq 100. Shares jumped in 2020, rising 392% last Friday, when the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way people exercised and significantly increased demand for health solutions. home fitness. The shares jumped another 16% this week after joining the Nasdaq 100.

The other three newcomers to the Nasdaq 100 are chip makers

Marvell Technologies

(MRVL), cloud cybersecurity company

Okta

(OKTA) and software company

Atlassian

(TEAM). Last Friday, the three shares gained 79%, 136% and 106%, respectively, in the accumulated result for the year. Their growing size has elevated them to the position of the 100 largest non-financial shares on the Nasdaq Exchange.

Although these companies joined the Nasdaq 100, six were removed from the index. They are

BioMarin Pharmaceutical

(BMRN),

Citrix Systems

(CTXS),

Expedia

(EXPE),

Liberty Global

(LBTYA and LBTYK),

Take Two Interactive

(TTWO), and

Ulta Beauty

(ULTA).

These changes were reflected in US $ 149 billion

Invesco QQQ Trust

(QQQ) that tracks the Nasdaq 100 index. The exchange-traded fund has been a popular choice for many investors and traders. As the fifth largest ETF in the United States, its assets have increased sixfold in the past decade due to strong investor interest and the rapid appreciation of its holdings. In 2020 alone, the fund received more than $ 19 billion in net inflows.

In October,

Invesco

launched a cheaper version of QQQ with exactly the same stock exposure: Invesco

Nasdaq 100 ETF

(QQQM), where M represents mini. While the original QQQ Trust currently trades at around $ 310 per share and charges a 0.20% expense fee, the new Invesco Nasdaq 100 is priced at just $ 127 per share and costs 0.05 percentage points less.

Since QQQ is one of the most liquid ETFs in the United States, with a spread of just a penny between bids and offers, many short-term traders can continue to use it to reap gains at low trading costs. The newly launched QQQM, with lower share prices and rates, would be a better choice for long-term buying and maintenance investors who care less about liquidity and trading spread. The fund has already raised $ 344 million in assets just two months after its launch in October.

Write to Evie Liu at [email protected]