── Why an Equal-Weight S&P 500 ETF? ──
I own a lot of VUAG — the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (market-cap weighted, accumulating). It's my largest single holding. I love it. I buy it all the time. But there's something about cap-weighted indices that's worth understanding: the bigger a company gets, the more of the index it becomes. Right now, the top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 make up roughly 35% of the entire index. The Magnificent Seven alone — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Tesla — dominate the weighting. That means when you buy a cap-weighted S&P 500 ETF, you're mostly buying those seven companies, plus a bit of everything else.
Now, I own most of those seven companies directly. I'm happy with that. I'm still buying VUAG. But I also want some US equity exposure that doesn't concentrate quite so heavily at the top. That's where MYSE comes in.
MYSE — the iShares S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF — takes the exact same 500 companies as the standard S&P 500 and gives each one an equal slice. Roughly 0.2% per company, rebalanced quarterly. Apple at $3 trillion gets the same weighting as Ralph Lauren at $12 billion. Microsoft gets the same as Mohawk Industries (they make flooring — I had to look it up). The result is an index that's less tech-heavy, less mega-cap-concentrated, and gives more weight to sectors like industrials, financials, healthcare, and consumer staples — the kind of boring, dependable businesses that keep the economy running.
── A Complement, Not a Replacement ──
I'm not replacing VUAG with MYSE. I'm adding MYSE alongside VUAG. The cap-weighted fund gives me concentrated exposure to America's biggest and most successful companies — which, historically, has been an excellent strategy. The equal-weight fund gives me broader exposure across all 500 names, reducing the risk that the portfolio gets too dependent on a handful of stocks continuing to outperform.
There's also an interesting historical pattern with equal-weight indices. Over very long periods, equal-weight S&P 500 strategies have actually outperformed cap-weighted ones — partly because they're systematically buying the dips and selling the rips during quarterly rebalancing, and partly because the smaller companies in the index have more room to grow. That outperformance isn't guaranteed, and there have been long stretches where cap-weight wins (like the last decade). But as a diversifier — a way to own US equities without putting all the eggs in the mega-cap basket — it makes a lot of sense.
── Why I Keep Adding ──
This isn't my first MYSE buy and it won't be the last. It sits in the SIPP alongside VUAG, VWRP, and the newly-added FGEQ as part of the boring-but-beautiful core. The ETFs I own are not exciting. They don't have narrative. Nobody's making YouTube videos about equal-weight S&P 500 strategies. That's exactly why I like them. ETFs work best when they're boring, broadly diversified, low-cost, and left alone for a long time. MYSE ticks all four boxes.
The SIPP is built in layers. The broad market trackers form the foundation. The equal-weight and quality-income ETFs add diversification on top. The individual stock picks — AAPL, AMZN, META, MSFT, BLK, PYPL, MCD, RDDT, INTC — are the seasoning sprinkled on top of the meal. But the meal is the ETFs. Always has been, always will be. MYSE is another portion of that meal. Not flashy. Not clever. Just sensible.
As always, nothing on this site is financial advice. I'm a 66-year-old UK investor sharing what I do with my own SIPP. All investments carry risk. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Do your own research. Make your own decisions. And if you're going to buy an ETF, buy one you understand and plan to hold for a long time. That's what I do.