Best US Stock Market ETFs: Top Funds for American Indexes

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), launched in January 1993, was the very first exchange-traded fund listed in the United States — the result of a three-year collaboration between State Street and AMEX. Since then, US stock market ETFs have grown into the most widely held equity funds in the world, with BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street together accounting for roughly three-quarters of the entire equity ETF market.

These funds track several distinct American indexes, each covering a different slice of the market:

• S&P 500: Tracks 500 leading US-listed companies, selected by committee and weighted by free-float market cap. Key ETFs include iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), and SPY.
• Nasdaq-100: Covers 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies on the Nasdaq, with a heavy technology weighting. Created in 1985, it is tracked by funds like Invesco QQQ (QQQ). See the full Nasdaq-100 component list.
• Russell 2000: A small-cap benchmark of about 2,000 of the smallest publicly traded US companies, created in 1984. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) is the best-known tracker.
• Total US Stock Market: Funds like the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) aim to capture every publicly traded US company — large, mid, and small — by tracking the CRSP U.S. Total Stock Market Index.
• S&P MidCap 400 & SmallCap 600: Together with the S&P 500, these indexes form the S&P Composite 1500, covering all three market-size segments.

The S&P 500 — in its current form since 1957 — weights constituents by free-float market capitalization. Its components are selected by a committee rather than by strict rules, and inclusion requires profitability over the prior four quarters, a minimum market cap threshold, and at least a 50% public float. The index represents roughly 80% of the US equity market by value.

Unlike the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 excludes financial companies entirely, which gives it a pronounced tilt toward technology shares. The Russell 2000, by contrast, was specifically designed as a benchmark for active small-cap mutual funds.

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The table below lists US stock market ETFs with live data, covering funds that track the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Russell 2000, total market, and other American indexes — along with their distribution types, fees, and trading details.