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If you want to be a successful investor, it’s important to know what exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track key stock market benchmarks and, as such, provide excellent ways to create diversified portfolios without having to buy individual stocks. Determine how they might fit into your portfolio and then add them to your watch list.

Here are 6 ETFs that track the S&P 500, the Dow 30, the Nasdaq 100, the Russell 2000, the MSCI/EAFE and the Emerging Markets.

1. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY):
   • seeks to track the performance all the stocks in the S&P 500 in equal proportion to their weighting in the index and, as such, the top holdings receive heavier allocation weights,
   • is passively managed with operational expenses to run the fund, expressed as an expense ratio, at just 0.09%, which is $9 for every $10,000 invested,
   • as with all ETFs investors can buy and sell SPY shares via their broker throughout the day, including selling them short,
   • its share price is intended to be one-tenth that of the S&P 500 Index so, if the S&P is at a level of 4,000, then one SPY share should trade at close to $400, and
   • the SPY ETF is an excellent way to create a diversified portfolio of 500 domestic stocks covering every industry sector - information technology (31%), financials (12%), health care (12%), consumer discretionary (10%), communication services (9%), industrials (8%), consumer defensive (6%), energy (4%), utilities (3%), real estate (2%), basic materials (2%) and other (1%) - without having to buy individual stocks.
   • The top 10 SPY holdings as of Jun 20, 2024, account for 39.86% of the total assets and are as follows:
     1. Microsoft: 7.19%
     2. Nvidia: 7.01%
     3. Apple: 6.61%
     4. Amazon.com: 3.69%
     5. Meta Platforms: 2.40%
     6. Alphabet (GOOGL): 2.25%
     7. Alphabet (GOOG): 1.90%
     8. Broadcom: 1.66%
     9. Berkshire Hathaway: 1.62%
     10. Eli Lilly: 1.53%
2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA):
   • seeks to track the performance of the 30 large, well established stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA) as compared to the SPY which seeks to track the 500 the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. and, as such, represents a broader range of industries and sectors than the DIA,
   • is price-weighted, meaning that the 30 stocks with the highest share prices have a larger influence on the ETF's movements while the S&P 500's  SPY is market-weighted, so companies with the largest market capitalizations have a greater impact on the index,
   • has an expense ratio of 0.16%, and
   • diversified sector holdings of: financial services (23%), technology (18%), healthcare (18%), consumer cyclical (15%), industrials (14%), consumer defensive (5%), energy (3%), communication services (3%) and basic materials (1%).
   • Top 10 holdings as of June 20th, 2024, account for 58.66% of the total assets and are as follows:
     1. United Health: 8.11%
     2. Goldman Sachs: 7.67%
     3. Microsoft: 7.46%
     4. Home Depot: 5.92%
     5. Caterpillar: 5.51%
     6. Amgen: 5.19%
     7. Visa Class A: 4.64%
     8. McDonald's: 4.25%
     9. Salesforce: 4.05%
     10. American Express: 3.86%
3. The Invesco QQQ Trust:
   • seeks to track the Nasdaq-100, an index of the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq and, as such, it’s a tech-heavy ETF, with half of its holdings in the information technology sector,
   • has a reasonable expense ratio of 0.20%, and
   • has diversified sector holdings of: technology (51%), communication services (16%), consumer cyclical (12%), healthcare (6%), consumer defensive (6%), industrials (5.5%), basic materials (1.5%) utilities (1.5%) and energy/financial services/real estate (0.5%).
   • The top 10 holdings as of June 20th, 2024, account for 48.64% of total assets and are as follows:
     1. Microsoft: 8.51%
     2. Apple: 8.19%
     3. NVIDIA: 7.56%
     4. Amazon.com:5.05%
     5. Meta Platforms: 4.51%
     6. Broadcom: 4.38%
     7. Alphabet: (GOOGL) 2.80%
     8. Alphabet: (GOOG) 2.72%
     9. Costco: 2.56%
     10. Tesla: 2.37%
4. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM):
   • seeks to track the Russell 2000 Index,
   • has an expense ratio of 0.19%, 
   • has diversified sector holdings of: technology (17%), industrials (16%), healthcare (15%), financial services (14%), consumer cyclical (10%), energy (7.5%), real estate (6.5%), basic materials (5%), consumer defensive (4%), utilities (3%), and communication services (2%).
   • has a total of 1,991 holdings, mostly small-cap stocks from the U. S., of which the top 10 holdings account for 8.01% of total assets as of June 20th, 2024, and are as follows:
     1. Super Micro Computer: 1.85%
     2. MicroStrategy Incorporated: 0.86%
     3. Comfort Systems USA: 0.45%
     4. Carvana: 0.45%
     5. e.l.f. Beauty: 0.45%
     6. Onto Innovation: 0.43%
     7. Chord Energy: 0.41%
     8. Ismed: 0.39%
     9. Fabrinet: 0.36%
     10. FTAI: 0.36%
5. The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA):
   • seeks to track the Europe, Australasia and Far East Index published by Morgan Stanley Capital International and, as such, is designed to represent Western Europe, Australia and Japan,
   • has an expense ratio of 0.33%, 
   • has diversified sector holdings of: financial services (19.5%), industrials (17%), healthcare (13%), consumer cyclical (11%), technology (10%), consumer defensive (8.5%), basic materials (7%), communication services (4.5%), energy (4.5%), utilities (3%), and real estate (2.5%).
   • The top 10 holdings account for 15.22% of total assets as of June 20th, 2024, and are as follows:
     1. Novo Nordisk: 2.56%
     2. ASML Holding: 2.26%
     3. Nestlé: 1.64%
     4. AstraZeneca: 1.40%
     5. Shell: 1.36%
     6. Toyota Motors: 1.33%
     7. LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton: 1.29%
     8. Novartis: 1.22%
     9. SAP SE: 1.12%
     10. Roche Holding: 1.04%
6. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM):
   • seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index composed of 800+ large- and mid-capitalization emerging market equities,
   • has an expense ratio of 0.70%, 
   • has diversified sector holdings of: technology (23.5%), financial services (22%), consumer cyclical (12.5%), communication services (9.5%), basic materials (7.5%), industrials (7%), consumer defensive (5%),  energy (5%), healthcare (3.5%), utilities (3%), and real estate (1.5%).
   • The top 10 holdings account for 25.15% of total assets as of June 20th, 2024, and are as follows:
     1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing: 8.69%
     2. Tencent Holdings: 4.26%
     3. Samsung Electronics: 3.48%
     4. Alibaba Group: 2.17%
     5. Reliance Industries: 1.42%
     6. PDD Holdings: 1.24%
     7. SK hynix: 1.06%
     8. Meituan: 0.97%
     9. China Construction Bank Corp.: 0.94%
     10. ICICI Bank: 0.93%

There you have them: six ETFs every investor ought to know.

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