Forget about the Tesla and S&P 500. The peloton is now in the Nasdaq 100.

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While many investors followed closely

Tesla‘s

first days in

S&P 500

—The stock has fallen 7% so far this week – changes in another prominent stock index largely went under the radar.

Last Friday, six new members took office

Nasdaq 100 Index,

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

Amazon.com

(ticker: AMZN),

Apple

(AAPL) and

Microsoft

(MSFT).

The index has risen 45% year to date, more than tripling the S&P 500’s 14% gains.

Utility 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 owns some of the most popular online dating applications like Match, Tinder and Hinge. The company was listed on the stock exchange in July as a spin-off of the holding company Interactive Group, and the stock has already increased 47% from last Friday.

Home fitness company

Peloton Interactive

(PTON) has also joined the Nasdaq 100. The stock took a wild turn in 2020, rising 392% from last Friday when the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way people worked and significantly increased the demand for home fitness solutions. The stock jumped another 16% this week after joining the Nasdaq 100.

The other three newcomers to the Nasdaq 100 are chip makers

Marvell Technologies

(MRVL), cybersecurity firm in the cloud

Okta

(OKTA) and software company

Atlassian

(TEAM). Last Friday, the three shares have risen 79%, 136% and 106% year to date, respectively. Their growing size has elevated them to the rank of the largest 100 non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq Exchange.

While these companies joined the Nasdaq 100, six have been pushed out of the index. They are

BioMarin Pharmaceutical

(BMRN),

Citrix Systems

(CTXS),

Expedia

(EXPE),

Liberty Global

(LBTYA and LBTYK),

Tag to interactive

(TTWO) and

Ulta Beauty

(ULTA).

These changes are reflected in $ 149 billion

Invesco QQQ Trust

(QQQ), which 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 grown six times over the last decade due to strong investor interest and rapid strengthening of its holdings. In 2020 alone, the fund received more than $ 19 billion of the net inflow.

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 around $ 310 per share. Stock and charges a cost ratio of 0.20%, the new Invesco Nasdaq 100 is priced at just $ 127 per share. Stock and costs 0.05 percentage points less.

As QQQ is one of the most liquid ETFs in the United States with a spread of only a penny between bids and offers, many short-term traders may continue to use it to reap gains with low trading costs. The newly launched QQQM with lower stock prices and fees would be a better choice for the long-term buy-and-hold investors who are less interested in liquidity and trading spreads. The fund has already amassed $ 344 million in assets just two months after its launch in October.

Write to Evie Liu at [email protected]