SPDR S&P 500 ETF
Shares rank 10 of 11 index funds by recommenders
People recommend SPY as a broad S&P 500 fund with near-zero odds of losing everything; critics cite heavy tech weighting and a low dividend.
People recommend SPY as a broad S&P 500 fund with near-zero odds of losing everything; critics cite heavy tech weighting and a low dividend.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 56%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Outperformed BTC with less volatility
“SPY has outperformed BTC over the last 5 years, and with far less volatility.”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance” Near-zero odds of losing everything
“the odds of you losing all your money in SPDR or VFINX are nearly 0%”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter” Likely to build wealth over time
“It seems pretty likely to be wealthy by investing in these indices.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Can the stockmarket swallow Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy tech weighting, lacks diversity
“it pays a (very) low dividend compared to many other intl/ETF funds and is weighted very heavily towards tech stocks”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC” “The lack of diversity in SPY and the like is already bad enough”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Michael Burry says neither SpaceX nor Anthropic is worth $1T”
Other index funds people recommend
The four most recommended other index funds, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 index fund | 28 | 13 | 68% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Invesco QQQ Trust | 11 | 10 | 52% | 7 | — | — |
| Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF | 11 | 4 | 73% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 10 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| SPDR S&P 500 ETFThis page | 5 | 4 | 56% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“SPY has outperformed BTC over the last 5 years, and with far less volatility.”
“Or you could just not own spy and buy the shares individually.”
“It seems pretty likely to be wealthy by investing in these indices.”
“The lack of diversity in SPY and the like is already bad enough”
“no one is going to get wealthy buying SPY/VOO”
“Right now SPY not be such a great idea with SpaceX launch upcoming since it will be included into it immediately.”
“it pays a (very) low dividend compared to many other intl/ETF funds and is weighted very heavily towards tech stocks”
“the odds of you losing all your money in SPDR or VFINX are nearly 0%”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.