What is the fee difference between DIA and SPY?

DIA charges 0.16% a year and SPY charges 0.09%. On $10,000 that is about $16 for DIA and $9 for SPY, so SPY costs roughly $7 less per year. Both are issued by State Street under the SPDR brand and both are inexpensive by historical standards.

What index does each fund track?

DIA tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 large US companies weighted by share price. SPY tracks the S&P 500, which weights about 500 of the largest US companies by market value. SPY lists 505 holdings, reflecting multiple share classes for some companies such as Alphabet.

How much do DIA and SPY overlap?

Every Dow company is also in the S&P 500, so all of DIA's holdings are inside SPY. The weights differ sharply. DIA's top names are Goldman Sachs at 10.9%, Caterpillar at 9.15% and Microsoft at 5.7%. SPY's top names are NVIDIA at 8.07%, Apple at 7.51% and Microsoft at 5.61%. Only Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple are in both top 10 lists.

Which pays a higher dividend?

DIA, with a yield of 1.4% against 0.99% for SPY. The Dow's 30 members are largely mature companies in finance, industrials, health care and consumer goods that pay steady dividends. SPY's heavier weight in technology companies, which pay little or nothing, pulls its yield lower.

Which fund suits which goal?

DIA suits an investor who wants a small, recognisable set of blue-chip companies with a value tilt and a higher yield. SPY suits an investor who wants the full US large-cap market, including its technology leaders, in the most heavily traded ETF available. Both are broad US equity holdings.

Which is bigger and more liquid?

SPY is far larger, with $785.05 billion in net assets versus $45.46 billion for DIA, and has traded since January 1993 compared with January 1998 for DIA. Both are highly liquid, but SPY's enormous trading volume makes it the standard vehicle for traders and options users.

How are DIA and SPY taxed?

Both are US-listed ETFs, so non-US investors may pay US withholding tax on dividends at a treaty rate. DIA's higher yield means a somewhat larger portion of its return is taxed as income each year. Capital gains treatment depends on your country and the account type you use.

Can I hold both DIA and SPY?

You can, but all 30 DIA companies are already held in SPY, so combining them tilts the portfolio toward Dow members such as Goldman Sachs, Caterpillar and UnitedHealth and away from NVIDIA and other technology names. That can be a deliberate value tilt, but it is not diversification into new companies.

Why is SPY so much bigger than DIA?

SPY was the first US-listed ETF and the S&P 500 became the default benchmark for US stocks, so SPY attracted institutional and retail money for over three decades. The Dow is better known to the public as a headline number, but its 30-stock, price-weighted design is less used as an investment benchmark, which is reflected in DIA's smaller $45.46 billion size.

DIA vs SPY

Two funds, one decision: we compare cost, performance and what each ETF actually holds in September 2026.

DIA and SPY are both State Street SPDR trusts that follow very different indexes. DIA tracks the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, led by Goldman Sachs at 10.9% and Caterpillar at 9.15%, for 0.16% a year with a 1.4% yield. SPY tracks the S&P 500 with 505 holdings, led by NVIDIA and Apple, for 0.09% and yields 0.99%. DIA is compact; SPY covers the broad market. Educational content, not financial advice.

DIA and SPY are both State Street SPDR trusts that follow very different indexes. DIA tracks the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, led by Goldman Sachs at 10.9% and Caterpillar at 9.15%, for 0.16...

Fund Snapshot

Key Fund Metrics

DIA

Metric

SPY

0.16%

Expense Ratio

0.09%

1.40%

Dividend Yield

0.99%

$45.46B

Net Assets

$785.05B

31

Holdings

505

Jan 14, 1998

Inception Date

Jan 22, 1993

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Index Tracked

S&P 500

Large Value

Fund Category

Large Blend

SPY costs about $7.00 less per year for every $10,000 invested.

Shared Top Holdings

Holding	DIA	SPY
MSFTMicrosoft Corporation	5.70%	5.61%
GOOGLAlphabet Inc.	3.98%	3.09%
AAPLApple Inc.	3.86%	7.51%

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Investment Analysis

DIA

Pros

Dividend yield of 1.4% is well above SPY's 0.99%.
Holds 30 well-known blue-chip companies, which makes the portfolio easy to understand.
Less exposed to technology: NVIDIA is not in its top 10 and Apple is 3.86%.

Considerations

Expense ratio of 0.16% is higher than SPY's 0.09%.
Goldman Sachs and Caterpillar together are about 20% of the fund.
Much smaller fund at $45.46 billion in net assets versus $785.05 billion for SPY.

SPY

Pros

Lower fee at 0.09%, or $9 a year per $10,000 invested.
Holds 505 stocks across the S&P 500, giving much broader coverage than DIA.
One of the largest and most heavily traded ETFs in the world, dating from 1993.

Considerations

Dividend yield of 0.99% is the lower of the two.
Top 10 holdings are about 38% of assets and dominated by technology.
NVIDIA, Apple and Microsoft together are about 21% of the fund.

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About DIA and SPY

DIA (DIA)

DIA is the SPDR ETF that seeks to mirror the Dow Jones Industrial Average, offering direct exposure to the 30 large-cap US companies that make up that index. It is a passive, rules-based fund designed to track the index’s performance by holding the underlying constituents or using replication techniques. Investors use DIA to gain convenient, intraday tradable access to a blue‑chip slice of the US market, including dividend income from constituents. Important points: the index is concentrated (30 names), so sector or stock-specific moves can have an outsized impact compared with broader benchmarks such as the S&P 500. Trading liquidity and bid/ask spreads matter for execution, and the fund has ongoing charges and potential tracking error versus the index. Values can rise and fall; this information is general and educational only, not personalised investment advice. Consider diversification, time horizon and your own risk tolerance before investing.

SPY (SPY)

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is an exchange‑traded fund designed to track the S&P 500 index, offering investors broad exposure to large‑capitalisation US equities. It is widely used by retail and institutional investors for core portfolio allocation, tactical trading and hedging because of its deep liquidity and transparent holdings. SPY distributes dividends (typically quarterly) and reflects the performance of the underlying index, so returns move with the US large‑cap market. As with any equity product, value can fall as well as rise and past performance is not a guide to the future. Costs, tax considerations and suitability will depend on an individual’s circumstances; consult official documents and consider seeking independent advice where appropriate. This summary is general educational information and not personalised investment advice.

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