index
FTSE All-World
Global developed and emerging-market equities
Index Battle · Evidence-first comparison
FTSE All-World vs S&P 500 Equal Weight: Which Exposure Fits Your Portfolio?
A single global fund that follows market value, set against a US index that deliberately ignores it.
Last reviewed: 26 August 2026IndependentNo paid placementsInformational only
vs
index
S&P 500 Equal Weight
Equal-weighted US large-cap equities
Overall verdict
FTSE All-World's index rules are about coverage — which markets and which size segments are eligible. S&P 500 Equal Weight's defining rule is the rebalance that resets every constituent back to the same weight. Choosing between them is choosing which of those two rules should drive the portfolio's outcome.
Quick Decision
Choose FTSE All-World if…
you want one broadly held global building block, and you are comfortable that the US will be the dominant weight because it is the largest market.
Choose S&P 500 Equal Weight if…
US large caps are already the intended exposure and the mega-cap concentration inside them is the specific risk you want reduced.
Either can make sense if…
the position is sized against a written portfolio role, since the two carry very different currency, country and sector profiles.
At a glance
Entity characteristics—not reference-product fees.
| Characteristic | FTSE All-World | S&P 500 Equal Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Exposure | Global developed and emerging-market equities | Equal-weighted US large-cap equities |
| Geography | Global | United States |
| Market coverage | Large and mid cap | Large cap |
| Emerging markets | Included | Not included |
| Small caps | Not included | Not included |
| Weighting | Market-cap weighted | Equal weighted |
| Index provider | FTSE Russell | S&P Dow Jones Indices |
Five key differences
- 1.Exposure: Global developed and emerging-market equities compared with Equal-weighted US large-cap equities.
- 2.Geography: Global compared with United States.
- 3.Market coverage: Large and mid cap compared with Large cap.
- 4.Emerging markets: Included compared with Not included.
- 5.Weighting: Market-cap weighted compared with Equal weighted.
Decision scorecard
ExposureDepends
GeographyDepends
Market coverageDepends
Emerging marketsDepends
WeightingDepends
“Depends” means the category reflects an investor objective, not universal superiority.
Coverage, countries and sectors
Verified holdings, concentration, country and sector datasets are not currently connected. When available, each dataset will be labelled as official index data or Reference ETF holdings; listing domicile will not be presented as economic revenue exposure.
What this means in a portfolio
FTSE All-World already holds the same US companies. Pairing the two therefore concentrates the portfolio in the US while flattening that slice, and the regular equal-weight rebalance introduces a systematic tilt toward the smaller members of the index.
Common mistake
Reading a period of equal-weight outperformance as evidence of better construction, when it usually reflects a period when the largest US companies lagged.
Historical comparison basis
Historical performance is represented using Grovcap-selected reference exchange-traded products. It is not the official index or spot return series. Fund or ETP returns can differ because of fees, taxes, tracking, cash positions, product structure and other implementation effects. Differences can reflect TER, tracking difference, withholding taxes, sampling, securities lending, cash drag, operating expenses, currency conversion and inception date.
No period is currently comparable across both reference products on a like-for-like currency, basis and reporting-date footing, so no return figures are shown. Grovcap never renders a missing return as 0.00%.
Grovcap does not currently hold a daily net-asset-value time series for these products. Indexed performance charts, annualised volatility, maximum drawdown and return-per-risk therefore remain unavailable rather than being estimated from period returns.
Reference instruments used
One canonical European exchange-traded product per exposure, chosen by published rules: exact benchmark family, active and published, plain long-only, then accumulating, unhedged, longest usable history and largest established product.
FTSE All-World reference product
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (USD) Accumulating
- ISIN
- IE00BK5BQT80
- Product type
- UCITS ETF
- Provider
- Vanguard
- Tracked benchmark
- Not currently available
- Distribution
- Accumulating
- Currency hedging
- Unhedged
- Replication
- Index
- Domicile
- Ireland
- Base currency
- USD
- Ongoing charge (TER)
- 0.19%
- Fund size
- Not currently available
- Inception
- 23 Jul 2019
Selected deterministically from 9 eligible products in the Grovcap database — never by commercial arrangement.
S&P 500 Equal Weight reference product
Xtrackers S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF 1C
- ISIN
- IE00BLNMYC90
- Product type
- UCITS ETF
- Provider
- Xtrackers
- Tracked benchmark
- S&P 500 Equal Weight Index
- Distribution
- Accumulating
- Currency hedging
- Unhedged
- Replication
- Physical
- Domicile
- IE
- Base currency
- USD
- Ongoing charge (TER)
- 0.15%
- Fund size
- €12.94bn
- Inception
- 10 Jun 2014
Selected deterministically from 17 eligible products in the Grovcap database — never by commercial arrangement.
Continue researching
Related Grovcap guides, rankings and tools to take the next step.
Best ETFsBest FTSE All-World UCITS ETFsEvery core FTSE All-World UCITS share class compared on cost, size and structure.Best ETFsBest S&P 500 UCITS ETFsEvery S&P 500 UCITS share class compared on cost, size and structure.ETF comparisonVWCE vs WEBNFTSE and Solactive all-country implementations compared.BenchmarkS&P 500 benchmark guideUnderstand the coverage and limits behind S&P 500 ETFs.ETF comparisonIWDA vs VWCEDeveloped-world versus all-world coverage, cost and portfolio fit.
Disclaimer
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